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      allergies
 


About Allergies

An allergy is an over-reaction of our immune system. Causes of such an overreaction are known as allergens. Allergens may be absorbed into our bodies through the following means:

Inhalation   dust mite droppings, mould spores, pollen and animal proteins
     
Contact with our skin   dust mites, dust mite droppings, cockroach droppings, cosmetics and insect bites
     
Ingestion of food   corn, wheat, malt, milk, soya and yeast

Inherited Allergies?

Super – sensitive immune systems tend to run in families. For example, if you have one parent with allergies, your has a 50% chance of developing some kind of allergy. If both parents have allergies, chances increase to 75%. But the child may not have the same allergies as the parent, eg. parent may be allergic to certain foods, while child is allergic to dust mites. Only one thing is true for all allergic people, the more often and more directly you come into contact with any potential allergen, the likely you are to develop an allergy to it.

Thus, it is always recommended to keep your home free of the common allergens. And for infants, which are more susceptible to food allergies, especially with two allergic parents, we recommend exclusive breast-feeding for at least six months. Solid can then be introduced from 6 months but avoid allergenic foods such as strawberries, peanuts, shellfish, mushroom until one year of age, then introduced this foods infrequently. Cow’s milk, which is a primary source of nutrients for most young children, is unfortunately also one of the most common food allergens. To reduced the risk of getting cow’s milk allergy, it is best to rotate your child’s cow milk intake rice milk and oats milk (found at many supermarkets and pharmacies).

Statistics

- Chronic sinusitis, most often caused by allergies, affects nearly 35 million people in the U.S.

- While there are no solid statistics, estimates from a skin test survey suggest that allergies affect as many as 40 to 50 million people in the U.S.

- There are 26.1 million cases of Hay Fever or Allergic Rhinitis (without Asthma) reported annually (1994)
Source: Vital and Health Statistics Series 10, No. 193

- 17.5 million of these cases affect Americans under age 45 (1994)
Source: Vital and Health Statistics Series 10, No. 193

- Slightly more women have these conditions than men (1994)
Source: Vital and Health Statistics Series 10, No. 193

 

 

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