Hot Cross Buns

My friend, +Eric Roeseler 's son just learned to play the recorder.  Being the creative and funny kid that he is, he learned to play it in an original way.  Here is his version of "Hot Cross Buns".

Enjoy.

As an Allergist, I appreciate the lack of nasal congestion.

Hypoallergenic Dogs?

Very often, when I am asking my patients about their homes and I ask them if they have any pets, they reply that they have a dog, "but it's hypoallergenic."  The AKC lists Bichons, Poodles, Portuguese water dogs, and Xoloitzcuitli (I'd never heard of that one before but it seems like a nice dog) among others as hypoallergenic.   Labradoodles are a mix including the "hypoallergenic" poodle.

At the recent ACAAI meeting, an article this year in the American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy was highlighted which sought to determine if Can f 1, the major allergen protein from dogs, was found in higher levels in houses with regular dogs compared to homes with hypoallergenic dogs.  And the verdict is….

Allergen levels were just as high in homes with hypoallergenic dogs as in homes with other dogs.

I've always stressed to my patients that hypo means "less" not "none".  This supports that maybe those dogs aren't even less allergic.

Here's the study and a news article.

Of course, this may not be the whole picture for dogs.  While Can f 1 levels do not vary and Can f 1 is the major allergen, some people are allergic to other proteins besides Can f 1.  These other protein levels still might vary considerably.

My advice stays the same.  Don't get any dogs if you are allergic to them, keep your current dogs out of your bedroom, wash your hands after you play with dogs, and see your allergist for more help.

Fast Food Associated with Increased Risk of Allergies

The first study from the ACAAI meeting that I'll mention is the relation between fast food and allergies, asthma, and eczema.  A study in Thorax earlier this year showed a relationship between increased consumption of fast food and increased risk for allergies, asthma, and eczema.  While this makes sense from a perspective of the hygiene hypothesis (allergies come from being too clean) or the microbiome hypothesis (decreased diversity of skin and gut bacteria contributes to allergies), we always need to be careful making causation assumptions from relationship data.  Remember, at one time they suspected ice cream caused polio since ice cream consumption increased in the summer and so did rates of polio.  Fortunately, we found the virus responsible and were able to create vaccines to virtually eliminate the disease.

Anyway, avoiding fast food is probably a good idea either way.  And this gives us one more reason to try to eat more fruits and vegetables.  Here's the abstract for the article and here's a news story about it.  Let me know your thoughts.

My Lucky Life as an Allergist

Sitting in the ACAAI meeting over the weekend, I was reminded again why I went into medicine.  All the debate in the news is about website failures, insurance companies, and political ramifications.  All of this is important and difficult, but is missing the big picture.  Throughout this debate, doctors continue to solve medical problems.   Research continues.  We keep finding answers and asking questions we didn’t even know to ask 5 years ago.  I am blessed to be in this profession.

There were a lot of great articles presented at the ACAAI meeting so I'll try to go through some of the more interesting ones on this blog.  When possible, I'll add a link to a relevant article or news story on the topic.