Buy ASTHMA ALLERGIES CHILDREN: a parent’s guide by clicking here. It is also now available as an iBook here and on Nook, and finally on Sony eReader. Allergic Living Magazine calls it “a must-have resource.” Our new eBook, Children’s Allergies and Asthma: One of Nature’s Dirty Tricks is now out as a Kindle edition for $2.99. You can buy it here. It is also out as a Nook edition, which you can buy here. And an iBook here. This easy-to-read, easy-to-browse edition is comprised of 89 pieces out of the more than 250 original blog posts published on this website. Makes a wonderful gift for your Kindle, Nook, and iPad-carrying friends.
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We Happily Welcome Back Anne F. Russell, BSN, RN, AE-C Who Has Done Some of Our Most Popular Posts Anne has specialized in food allergy/anaphylaxis for almost 20 years. A very innovative thinker, this time Anne interviews another innovator, pediatric allergist Dr. Michael Pistener, another contributor, about his broad program of education and outreach.
How Much Does It Annoy You When Your Allergist Doesn’t Explain Tests to You? It bothers Dr. Paul Ehrlich a lot when he hears about it. In a new post Allergies and Moneyball Paul discusses the pitfalls of relying too heavily on numbers.
Many Thanks to Top Food Allergy Blogger Caroline Moassessi for Her Enthusiastic Write-Up on Us Read what GratefulFoodie said here.
Online Epinephrine Training Course We recently reviewed the excellent online course designed by friend-of-aac.com Elizabeth Goldenberg. You can read our write-up by clicking here or go straight to their site here.
What Happens When Respectable Medical Authorities Give Out False or Misleading Information? Dr. Larry Chiaramonte takes on Dr. Oz on the causes of the food-allergy epidemic in a new post.
Why is American Health Care So Costly? Dr. Paul Ehrlich talks about how Xolair goes from being merely expensive to exorbitant in a new post.
Asthma, Obesity, and Sleep Apnea Are Part of a Mutually Reinforcing Feedback Loop, according to Dr. Larry Chiaramonte. In a new post, Dr. Larry discusses a new study linking uncontrolled asthma to poor sleep and poor school performance, and the costs to children, society, and sometimes to his own bank account.
Comic Actor Bill Hader Has Known About His Peanut Allergy His Whole Life So why was this Saturday Night Live veteran without an epinephrine auto-injector when he went into anaphylaxis on a movie set? Read about this incident in two posts on our Facebook page.
Why Are Some Peanut Components Worse for Patients Than Others? A new Editor’s Note puts 2 and 2 together and defines a new category of knowledge.
Four Contributors to This Website Make List of Top Pediatric Allergists in New York Castle Connolly Has published its annual list of Top Doctors in the United States. Drs. Hugh Sampson, Julie Wang, and Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn of Mount Sinai’s Jaffe Food Allergy Institute join our own Paul Ehrlich.
Can Retail Stores Help Improve Asthma Care? Dr. Paul Ehrlich discusses new plan to have nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants at pharmacy chain monitor and manage chronic diseases.
Auvi-Q–the Talking Auto-Injector is Making Waves but the pricing and availability vary under different insurance plans. Why? We asked an expert.
European Allergy Patients Slack Off on their Shots and Sublingual Treatments Too Early Medication fatigue is real, and it hurts their health and their wealth. See our Journals page.
How Do Pediatricians Learn About Food Allergies? Chances are, they don’t. However, one pediatric resident tried to change that. Maureen Egan, next year’s chief at NYU, lectured to her classmates, and then answered our questions. Read about it here.
British Authorities Reverse Themselves on Omalizumab (Xolair)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is now recommending the asthma drug Xolair as a cost effective treatment for young children and adults with a severe form of the condition in England. Xolair is now recommended as an option for treating severe, persistent confirmed allergic immunoglobulin E (IgE)-mediated asthma in people aged six years and older. The new recommendation reverses a position criticized on this site in this Xolair Roundtable.
Food Allergy Rite of Spring Author/blogger Susan Weissman attends FARE’s big NYC fundraiser and shares her thoughts with our readers.
Medical History is Made at Lunch We join top food allergy researchers Dr. Xiu-Min Li of Mount Sinai and Dr. Kari Nadeau of Stanford at a restaurant where they plot a new study on a paper napkin. More here.
What Are the Prospects for Today’s Food Allergic Children to Serve in Tomorrow’s Armed Forces? Dr. Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn of Mount Sinai discussed this issue in a new Guest Editorial here.
Dr. Kari Nadeau of Stanford interviewed by Terry Gross on Fresh Air.
Can Asthma Medication Affect Mood and Behavior in Young Patients? It’s nothing new, says Dr. Larry Chiaramonte, and mental health should be part of treatment. See also a complimentary response from neuroscientist Jessica Martin PhD below Larry’s post.
What’s in Store for Treating Asthma? Top pulmonologist Dr. Frank Adams looks into the crystal ball in a new Guest Editorial.
Two Cheers for Access to Epinephrine Dr. Paul Ehrlich salutes legislation to help kids with food allergies, but puts it in a larger public health context in the Great State of Tennessee. Click here to read Memphis Blues Again.
Spring Allergy Capitals Announced by AAFA Jackson, Mississippi is number one; followed by Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee; McAllen, Texas & Louisville, Kentucky.
When a Label Uses the Word “Hypoallergenic” Should Anyone Feel Reassured? A new Editor’s Note takes a cue from a food allergy Mom and dissects the meaning.
With the Approach of the Summer Flying Insect Season, Dr. Ehrlich takes the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions about insects and allergies in a new blog post and pays tribute to a late colleague, Dr. Robert Reisman, one of the great authorities on insect allergies, who honored this site with an original post a couple of years ago.
Dr. Martin and Ms. Food Allergy Mom part deux! The second installment of Jessica Martin’s post about the uneasy relationship between her roles as a PhD neuroscientist and as a food-allergy Mom appears in our Guest Editorial slot.
Traffic Pollution As Bad As Second-Hand Smoke for Asthma in Kids Read more on our Journals page.
Largest Study of International Food Allergy Epidemic Launched at Manchester University Read more on our news page.
Charles Dickens Visits Dr. Chiaramonte in his new post Ghosts of Asthma Past, Present, and Future
What Mystery Ingredient in Some Asthma Inhalers Can Get Users in Legal or Religious Trouble? Read about it here.
We All Know the Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in which a scientist explores the division between two sides of his own personality. In a new guest editorial, neuroscientist Jessica Martin, PhD, looks at the tug of war between her scientific side and her unexpected role as a food allergy Mom.
People Who Feed Food-Allergic Kids the Foods They’re Allergic To Our friends at Allergic Living report on this bewildering phenomenon, as presented at AAAAI by researchers from Johns Hopkins. Among the findings, “8 percent gave the food to ‘test’ the severity of their child’s reaction” and “2 percent tried the food at home while waiting for an oral food challenge with the allergist.”
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Is the “Customer” Always Right When it Comes to Allergy Treatment? Maybe not. Read about the “blind spots” in health care keep us from achieving better outcomes at lower cost here.
What’s the Next Best Thing to Oral Food Challenge for Diagnosing Food Allergy? Read about it here.
How Does the Behavior of an Older Generation Affect the Health of their Descendants? Dr. Larry Chiaramonte looks at multi-generational effects of smoking in The Sins of the Grandmothers.
Hate the Way Big Food Companies Guard their Ingredients? Us, too. One mother who tried to find out about an iconic brand and shared the company’s response with us here.
If You Aren’t Acquainted with a Blog Called Food Allergy Sleuth, you owe it to yourself to check it out. It is written by a PhD neuroscientist named Jessica Martin (from whom we are expecting a guest editorial soon) who woke up one day to find out her child had a food allergy. Her blog explores the plight of the food allergy Mom through the lens of her scientific training. A new post coinciding with the AAAAI meeting in San Antonio explains such meetings, how research is presented, peer review and so on.
Does God Help People Take Care of Themselves or Hinder Them? A new study shows that asthma patients who believe in God are less likely to comply with their medication regimens. Read more on our Journal page.
Do the Things That Cause Allergies Only Affect the Allergic? An Australian doctor sounds the alarm on a global pandemic of non-communicable inflammatory diseases. Read about it here.
Large-Scale Disasters Can Have Major Effects on Victims, but Not Always the Ones We Expect In a new post, Dr. Ehrlich talks about a physician’s response to 9/11 and to Hurricane Sandy here.
Are High Peanut-Specific IgE Levels an Indication of Peanut Allergy? Not necessarily. Then why do we pay so much attention to them? Dr. Ehrlich fights the latest skirmish in his battle against over-diagnosis of food allergies here.
What is Cough-Variant Asthma? A mother writes to us to ask about her daughter’s recent diagnosis, and Dr. Ehrlich answers in the Parent Mailbag.
How Can a Child Have an Allergic Reaction to a Food but Not Be Allergic to Any of the Ingredients? The new JACI publication In Practice has a case of a mysterious salami allergy in an Editor’s Note here.
Not All Asthma is Allergic Dr. Paul Ehrlich discusses talks on severe asthma by two eminent pulmonologists at the New York Allergy and Asthma Society here.
Frequent Fast-Food Meals Makes Asthma and Allergies Worse Dr. Larry Chiaramonte talks about the findings in a new study here.
Premier Allergy Journal Launches New Publication Emphasizing Clinical Practice For more information click here.
Dr. Susan Prescott Looks at Early Life Determinants of Allergic Disease and Calls for Broad Action in New Article For more click here.
Dr. Mark Ballow, former President of AAAAI, and Mentor to Dr. Paul Ehrlich has retired from the University of Buffalo and joined a private practice in Florida. He also wrote our inaugural guest editorial. He has also concentrated on intravenous immunoglobulin IVIG in his academic efforts. Good luck, Dr. Ballow.
Three Top Allergists Discuss Food-Allergies in Schools on Huffington Post To read the full article, click here.
A New Restaurant in Brooklyn, New York Takes an Original and Personal Approach to Food Allergies Read about this cutting-edge eatery by clicking here in a new Editor’s Note.
Dr. Chiaramonte’s Latest Post on Long-Acting Beta Agonists has been reposted by KevinMD, one of the top medical websites.
Why Are People Reluctant to Use Epinephrine and What Can Be Done About It? In her latest Guest Editorial, Anne Russell tackles these questions and more.
The Controversy Over Long-Acting Beta Agonists Continues, and It Shouldn’t Dr. Larry Chiaramonte dissects the latest bad reporting on the subject here in a new post, “Dont Take That Asthma Medication–It’s Bad for Your Asthma”.
Plan B for Allergy Attacks? Stanford researchers have found a molecule that might some day stop allergy attacks by keeping IgE from bonding with mast cells. Read about it here.
One of the World’s Foremost Allergists Died This Past Weekend Dr. Paul Ehrlich pays tribute to his mentor and friend here.
Even Good Science Raises Concerns Our last guest editorial by Michelle L. North, PhD and Anne K. Ellis, MD about the role of epigenetics in allergies prompted mothers to worry about their own pregnancies. The authors answer their questions in a new guest piece.
Does High Household Wealth Correlate with Food Allergies? Should anyone care? Dr. Ehrlich sounds off on latest headline-grabbing study here.
Annual Costs of Food Allergies to American Families Over $25-Billion Non-medical costs topped by work-related sacrifices for parents. More here.
Research Shows Primary Care and Emergency Physicians Still Dropping the Ball on Treating Anaphylaxis Still don’t know when to give epinephrine, prescribe it upon discharge, or recommend follow-up. Read about in on our news page, here.
Do Allergies Develop in the Womb? Two distinguished Canadian researchers, Michelle North PhD and Anne Ellis MD explore the origins of allergies through the lens of the new science of epigenetics here.
Food Allergies are Still Widely Misunderstood by Doctors in General Practice This Editor’s Note reports on a talk Dr. Scott Sicherer of Mount Sinai gave recently to an audience of internists.
Eczema Has Been Called “The Itch that Rashes” It is also stubbornly hard to treat. New science, however, is starting to reveal how it works, and may show us how to treat. Dr. Larry Chiaramonte talks about the latest findings here.
Nanotechnology Promises Cheaper, Faster Monitoring of Asthma Inflammation Read about cutting-edge research at Stony Brook University in a new editor’s note.
Doctors Flunk Inhaler Skills No wonder so much asthma is uncontrolled. Read Dr. Ehrlich’s comments here.
Study Shows Lasting Effects of Childhood Asthma on Mental Health Read Dr. Chiaramonte’s comments here
Louisville, Kentucky Tops AAFA List of Fall Allergy Capitals Full list here.
Peculiar Editorial Choice Leaves Name of Test Out of Story Patients who want component testing wouldn’t know where to find it or what to ask for after reading boston.com. More here.
Stanford Does Cutting-Edge Research on Food Allergy Treatment, Asthma In an original post about her team’s work, Dr. Kari Nadeau talks about oral immunotherapy and ground-breaking research into the effects of air pollution on asthma that could have implications for the root causes of the allergy epidemic.
Allergic Living Magazine calls Asthma Allergies Children: a parent’s guide a “Must-Have Resource”
“Asthma Allergies Children: a parent’s Guide is a comprehensive resource for parents, written in easy-to-undersand language and covering topics shuch as: testing, future treatments and taking control of your child’s allergies or asthma.”
Mom Credits Asthma Allergies Children: a parent’s guide with helping save her daughter’s life. Read about it here
Asthma Allergies Children: a parent’s guide—A hit in the Mommy blogosphere. Our book continues to pick up raves from Moms whose children are beset with allergies and asthma. They typically include articulate and brave accounts of their own experience, which gives them extra credibility when they go on to laud our book. The most recent one at www:mommyrantings.com speaks of spending 20 minutes in the shower with the baby every hour—a home remedy—hoping the steam would ease little Dylan’s breathing, and moving from South Carolina to Buffalo in part to benefit from a shorter pollen season.
Here’s what “Mommy” said about the book:
“If you have a child that suffers respiratory issues, Asthma Allergy Children: a parent’s guide is definitely a must-have! ….This book can replace all of your other asthma and allergy reference guides and books that are collecting dust on your bookshelves!”
Tell your friends! It makes a lovely Valentine gift. For the full review, go here and scroll down to January 11.
High praise from the blogosphere! “I cannot tell you how valuable this book was…I learned so much great information in Asthma Allergies Children: A Parent’s Guide. I honestly don’t even know where to start….takes allergies and asthma, and their treatment, and explains it all in a very easy to understand format for parents. It’s a very easy and fairly non clinical read….as the parent of two children who have allergies and asthma I cannot say enough about this book. If you also have children with allergies and asthma, this is definitely one you need for your bookshelf.” Read more here
Asthma Allergies Children: a parent’s guide is…
“A veritable bible for parents of allergic kids.
I enjoyed Asthma Allergies Children tremendously. It is full of the kind of great stories that teach both patients and doctors more than mere facts. The science is explained in language you don’t need an MD to follow. This book should be kept right next to the antihistamines and epinephrine, and used even more frequently.”
–Dr. Lisa Sanders, author of Every Patient Tells a Story. Her NY Times column “Diagnosis” inspired the TV drama, ”House MD.”
(Asthma Allergies Children is now available in a Kindle edition)
AsthmaAllergiesChildren.com is the web companion to Asthma Allergies Children: a Parent’s Guide. (Terms of Use)
Authors Dr. Paul Ehrlich and Dr. Larry Chiaramonte are both pediatric allergists. The joint publication-website strategy is based on the fact that modern medicine moves faster than print, and that readers—both parents of asthmatic and allergic children and the doctors who treat them—will have many questions about the particulars of individual cases that cannot be answered in a book.
As they say in the book, the ranks of allergy specialists are dwindling even as the numbers of asthmatic and allergic patients are rising. The cost is immense. Asthma is the single largest cause of school and work absence. Allergic and asthmatic children disproportionately lose out on all the things that childhood is supposed to be about. But patients, patients’ parents, and their family doctors can make great strides in treatment if they are armed with up-to-date information and have regular communication with specialists. The book and website provide both.
Asthma Allergies Children is written in entertaining, anecdotal, down-to-earth language, and virtually every page has stories and observations that reflect both the science and art of some 70 years of combined medical practice.
“We hope that age and experience have given us wisdom that will benefit you the reader. And age hasn’t stopped us from learning. As you will read, both of us have devoted a considerable amount of time to bringing the best of allergy and immunology to underserved, high-risk populations, which has given us new insight into how chronic disease can be managed. Still, we have learned over many years that a child doesn’t have to be poor to have his life drastically diminished by asthma and allergies. We want to reach them all.”
–Dr. Ehrlich and Dr. Chiaramonte, From the Foreword to Asthma Allergies Children: a Parent’s Guide
AsthmaAllergiesChildren.com Features:
Dr. Paul’s blog
Insights from the front lines of clinical allergy practice by one of the foremost pediatric allergists in the nation, Dr. Paul Ehrlich
Dr. Larry’s blog
Dr. Larry Chiaramonte has been a pioneer in research, clinical practice, and has trained dozens of allergists in hospital practice. He looks at the big picture of science and policy.
Food Allergy Corner
Kathy Franklin has been the leader of a New York City support group, Parents of Asthmatic & Allergic Children, for the last 18 years. Her knowledge of parenting a food allergic child is vast.
Guest Editorial
Contributions by distinguished contributors on subjects that have large implications for asthma and allergy patients.
In the News–Tidbits from the wide world of asthma and allergies
In the Journals–Survey of scientific publications
New Science–The cutting edge of allergy and asthma research
Parent Mailbag–Readers! Ask the doctors about your children!
Physician Mailbag–All you non-allergy practitioners: ever have a question about allergy or asthma that arises in your practice? Ask them now!
The Site Does Not Provide Medical Advice
The contents of AsthmaAllergiesChildren.com are for informational purposes only. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, but to educate our readers as the basis for further discussion with their own doctors. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health providers with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website.
If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately.
