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Mar 2, Fitness Band Recalled Due To Allergic Reaction

The makers of the popular Fitbit activity tracker, have recalled their Fitness Force band. There have been reports of it causing an allergic reaction in some users. This reaction is most likely to be Allergic Contact Dermatitis. It is not clear why the reaction is occuring. It is thought it could either be the nickel it contains, or adhesives or materials used. Users that have been affected are able to get a refund for the band. You can read more about this in this CNN article
Eczema Blog

Development of EoE Linked with Eczema, Asthma and Food Allergy – Allergic Living


Allergic Living
Development of EoE Linked with Eczema, Asthma and Food Allergy
Allergic Living
Children with eczema, food allergy and asthma have a greater risk of developing eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) than those without the conditions, according to a study presented at the AAAAI/WAO joint congress in early March. Dr. Jonathan Spergel and

eczema – Google News

Scientists identify a natural brake on the allergic attack – Science Daily


UPI.com
Scientists identify a natural brake on the allergic attack
Science Daily
The skin inflammation of eczema is known to be driven by "type 2" immune responses. These are led by activated T helper 2 (TH2) cells and type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), together known as effector cells. Another group of T cells, known as
A new tactic for eczema? | EurekAlert! Science NewsEurekAlert (press release)

all 2 news articles »

eczema – Google News

In response to Raymond Blanc on allergic diners

I’ve just read the recent article in the Daily Mail about Raymond’s Blanc’s issues with food allergic and intolerant diners.

Salted Beef salad with cabbage, gherkins and cournichons #freefreemTop14allergens
Salted Beef salad with cabbage, gherkins and cournichons from Brasserie Blanc

I have always loved Raymond, not least because his rather more affordable Braserie Blanc restaurant has an allergen menu which I can order from safely. You can read about Brasserie Blanc with allergies here.

So I was a little disappointed to read “We are a kitchen, not a hospital’: Raymond Blanc roasts customers who have ‘fashionable’ food allergies after 50 diners a night at his restaurant say they have an issue”

Here is my response to some of the statements…

  1. We are a kitchen, not a hospital – I am well aware of that. Thanks for pointing it out though
  2. From a gluten intolerance to a garlic or tomato allergy, more and more people are making a fuss about what they can and cannot eat – Well there’s sympathy for you. More and more people have food allergies and intolerances, the world is changing. Either you cater for us or you don’t. You are quite at liberty to tell us allergic diners that there is nothing suitable. We shall go elsewhere. Well I will anyway. And I NEVER make a fuss. I try to order the easiest, simplest dish possible to make as little fuss as possible. And what would you do if all those 50 diners a night started to go elsewhere because they didn’t feel welcome? I do get how frustrating it must be for a chef when you take extra care to make a dish dairy free only to have that guest order a dairy containing dessert. I get that. But surely not all guests are like that? It is a growing trend whether you like it or not but this doesn’t really help with educating people about the language we should be using to explain allergies and intolerances.
  3. The ‘fashionable’ obsession with having a food intolerance – I would give anything not to be like this. Anything in the world. I wouldn’t call it fashionable nor an obsession, more a curse. But thanks for the sympathy. I think you actually mean people who don’t have a food intolerance, because it can cause very real and painful symptoms for people who DO. Not everyone asking for freefrom meals is making it up or ‘choosing’ to avoid certain foods.
  4. 50 customers claim to have issues every night – I don’t ‘claim to have issues’ Raymond, I DO have issues. I take great issue with the confusing language in this article and the attitude that seems to lump allergies, intolerances and lifestyle choices into the same category of ‘diners with issues’ because we are NOT the same.
  5. We take each of them seriously – Thank you. I am glad to hear that. For a minute I was beginning to feel most unwelcome. What I can assure you is that most of us with very serious allergies don’t eat out often and when we do we choose something very simple like steak and chips. I would never expect any chef to go out of their way to create a culinary delight for me. I just want to be with my friends and order a safe meal. Sadly this is the only positive and encouraging statement in the whole article.
  6. If you don’t have an allergy, you’re nobody – I’m kind of speechless about this statement. Do you really think we’re enjoying this? Your comments may be aimed at people who choose to go vegan or eat gluten free as a lifestyle choice but some of us don’t have a choice. Some of us would LOVE to be nobody.
    I dream about being nobody.

But don’t worry Raymond, I can’t afford to eat at ‘Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons’ so I’ll leave you to cater for all those annoying fashionable somebodies with their obsessions with food intolerance and allergies. I wouldn’t want to tip the scales to 51 fussy diners!

Food intolerance, whilst less serious and not life threatening can be unpleasant and very painful to live with.

I am saddened to hear a very popular celebrity chef use their public privilege to contribute to an article like this.

I will finish by saying that I am well aware that the Daily FMail online is not known for being accurate and often goes for that sensational headline, taking any comments out of context. It would not come as a surprise to hear that some of the views expressed here were not Raymond’s own.

When Raymond uses the words allergy and intolerance in the same sentence I’m pretty sure he is very well aware of the differences but articles like this only serve to make life for those of us with real allergies; severe, life threatening conditions feel misunderstood, alienated and actually, pretty scared of eating out.

It’s no wonder people don’t understand the difference. It is heartening to see that they do actually explain the difference at the end of the article but reading this left me feeling very angry.

And I am aware that I’m jumping to conclusions about Raymond Blanc’s opinions so Raymond, if you’re reading this, do feel free to clarify any of the above.

You can read the article online here: “We are a kitchen, not a hospital’: Raymond Blanc roasts customers who have ‘fashionable’ food allergies after 50 diners a night at his restaurant say they have an issue”

talkhealth Blog

One Woman’s Incredible Story of a Chronic Allergic Reaction to Latex

Another great post from itchylittleworld.com – Natural remedies for eczema to soothe your itchy little world..

Last week, we received a truly incredible story from Renee, a long-time sufferer of eczema with a chronic allergic reaction to latex. She thought she had been avoiding latex for years, but discovered she’d unknowingly been exposing her body to latex in two hidden ways. Her story is quite shocking! See for yourself.

“I’m 60 years old.  When I worked in an OB/GYN lab in my 20s, there were no nitrile gloves, only rubber.  I became allergic to latex and so learned to stay away from rubber products, even supposedly latex-free elastics, and bromeliads (cross reactive with latex).  In my early 40s I began to have joint pain and skin rashes.  The joint pain was so bad. There were nights where I had to stop on the way to the restroom and just breathe, to try to let the pain ease a bit, before continuing on.  Eventually, my breathing became an issue as well and I was diagnosed with Reactive Airway Disease and exercise-induced asthma.  The joint pains were never definitively diagnosed and I went on the usual merry-go-round of diagnoses, e.g. lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, etc.  But then suddenly, in my early 50s, the problems disappeared.  The joint pain left, the breathing was no longer a problem, and my skin improved.  I didn’t understand why, but I was so grateful.

Latex Allergy4

In my late 50s, my husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 2016 was full of stress and sadness. My skin problems returned with a vengeance and I found I could not eat many foods that were rich in hevein and its cousins.  Hevein is the protein responsible for latex allergy.  If I ate coconut, palm oil, nuts, etc, the eczema patches flared and oozed.  The itching was non-stop, in spite of a daily regimen of antihistamines.  It was torture.  Everyone said “Stress!” and I thought it was as well, until the symptoms got even worse after my husband passed.  I was only able to eat 17 things and realized I had graduated to a full latex food allergy.  Any other food made my eczema and itching flare.  There were patches of infected skin all over my body.

A few weeks after the funeral, I had a molar pulled.  The oral surgeon showed it to me, saying yes, there had been a hairline fracture just like a previous molar he had pulled when I was in my 50s.  The tooth that he showed me had pink stuff in the root canals and I asked what it was.  He said, “Oh, it’s a resin from a tree called gutta percha.  It’s used to fill in the empty canals after the tooth’s roots are removed in a root canal job.”  I looked at that gummy resin and asked if it might be related to the rubber tree?  The oral surgeon suddenly looked really shaken and went to his computer.  Sure enough, gutta percha is related to the rubber tree.  I was being poisoned by my own tooth?  Incredible.

So looking back, my first autoimmunity started after my first root canal and resolved after the tooth was pulled, and now my second bout of autoimmunity started after the second root canal and would resolve just as quickly?  Sure enough, by that evening my inflamed skin and itching were about 1/2 of what they had been.  But even so, my eczema did not fully resolve and I was not able to add any foods back.  I thought okay there must be something else inside of me that is overstimulating my immune system.  The more I thought about it, the more I suspected a trans-urethral mesh, the “Sparc sling” that had been put in during my hysterectomy in 2004.  It’s the one you see on late-night TV, with lawyers asking if you’d like to join a class-action lawsuit against the manufacturers.  I had also suffered some of the symptoms they said on TV but it was the suspected autoimmunity that bothered me the most.

So on October 9th of this year, during abdominal surgery, the surgeon removed the mesh.  She was able to get it out totally, fortunately.  The rest of my skin began to clear on the operating table – seriously. The head OR nurse had been watching the eczema patches on my arm and chest because of the fear of my reactivity to their tapes, adhesives, etc.  Those things, especially the “inert ingredients” are all partially sourced from coconut and palm oils, and they were concerned of anaphylaxis.  Since I had told them that the patches would flare bright red if I were reacting to something, they were using those patches as their ‘canary in the mine shaft’.  After they wheeled me into PACU and I came out of anesthesia, the head nurse said, “Mrs. McMurray, look at your arm!”  It was totally clear.

Latex Allergy

The next day, a hospital official came to my room and asked to see the arm and my chest.  Both were totally clear.  Then the surgeon sent her Nurse Practitioner the day after that – it was still clear.  Everyone said the same thing – that in all of their years of working on patients, they had never seen an allergic reaction, especially something as tenacious as eczema, clear so quickly.

I am home now, three weeks later, and am a little bit red.  No eczema, but just a tinge of redness and a small amount of itching.  This is due to the corset I must wear.  Try as I might, I can’t stop the elastic bits from touching my skin.  But let’s put this in perspective – when that mesh and gutta percha were in my body, elastic sent me into absolute misery.  My skin would become red and weepy.  The sores itched like crazy, usually for 24 hours per day.  At night I’d wake up in respiratory distress because the swelling would reach my neck.  I slept with a rescue kit.  A little bit of redness and mild itching is nothing.  I am so, so happy.  I have to wear this corset for two more weeks and then I can take it off for good.  Then, after a few months, maybe I will start to experiment with slowly adding foods back.

Latex Allergy 3

I feel like I have a future now.  Frankly, when I was in the middle of the misery, I could not see me lasting 30 more years like that.  I did not want to live with that misery. Life is good. There is hope.”

Today, Renee’s skin is clear and healthy. She’s working every day to introduce foods back into her diet, but still experiences hives here and there from negative reactions. Although a nuisance, as she states, they are in no way as intolerable as her chronic eczema was. She also does not need to take as many antihistamines as she used to. By sharing her story, Renee hopes that she can help someone else suffering from a latex allergy.

 

For ideas to soothe your skin, start here for eczema relief!

 

Do you suffer from eczema as an allergic reaction to latex? We want to hear from you in the comments below!

One Woman’s Incredible Story of a Chronic Allergic Reaction to Latex appeared first on itchylittleworld.com. Come read more about natural remedies for eczema!

itchylittleworld.com

Is Your Dog Allergic?

Constant scratching, coughing or wheezing or eye discharge may be a sign that your family friend has an allergy.

Yup, believe it or not your dog can have allergies just like you can. It isn’t anywhere near as common as it is with humans but it happens to roughly 20% of dogs.

There are 4 major classifications of canine allergies – Atopic Dermatitis, flea allergy, inhalant allergy and food allergy.

Atopic Dermatitis is a hypersensitivity in a dog’s immune system to common allergens like molds and dust mites. This affliction is non contagious and is can happen in both domestic canines and humans alike.

If your dog scratches, chews or licks itself constantly especially the paws, legs and abdomen it may be a sign of Atopic Dermatitis.

Another sign of Atopic Dermatitis is when your dog’s saliva causes a red to brown stain. If left untreated the skin on your dogs stomach will change colors from pink to a bright red and then to black.

Flea allergy is the most common canine allergy. The dog’s aren’t allergic to the fleas themselves but to their saliva. A skin test can determine if this is the problem for your dog.

It can be easily treated with pills and shampoos. Your vet can tell what would work best for your dog.

Inhalant allergy is caused by the same things that bother humans as far as allergies go. Things like pollen from trees and flowers, grasses and dust can all cause your dog discomfort.

Unlike humans, dogs shows their inhalant allergy symptoms not through sneezing and coughing but through scratching, biting, chewing and licking constantly.

Lastly we have food allergy. Just like it sounds it is when your dog is allergic to certain types of foods.

Food allergy symptoms are hard to distinguish without a vet doing tests due to the fact they mimic the symptoms of the other types of allergies as well.

Some symptoms of food allergies that mimic illness are vomiting, diarrhea, wheezing and even changes in behavior. Always be safe and consult your vet.

As you can see dogs have many of the same issues we do and they need us to help them. Be sure you mention any symptoms or odd behavior to your vet and be sure to take your friend in for checkups when the vet says.

All the issues above can be addressed through medicine and diet once diagnosed and the earlier the better for your 4 legged friend.

Jaie Miller is the webmaster and contributing author for http://www.my-dog-training-blog.com. She is also an avid dog lover with a passion for researching and writing about animals.

Related Atopic Dermatitis Articles

Daughter is allergic to sesame, horses. Horses!?

Unfortunately medicine is still far from the Star Trek tricorder stage, at which you can just wave your iPhone over someone and tell what they’re allergic to, but the next best thing is specific IgE testing. We got my daughter V’s results back today. I found the process and fascinating and the outcome illuminating.

IgE are the antibodies responsible for allergy. The IgE results we got consisted of an antibody quantity in units/ml (whatever “units” are), plus a “class” (from 0 to VI) which indicates the degree of allergy. Class can range from “negative” to “extremely high positive.”

Now, I need to talk to an allergist to figure out what is meant by “class”. It seems to be a value that a clinician makes a guess at based on the IgE measurement and the patient’s medical history and, possibly, the allergen in question. From what I can tell the class reported can vary depending on the assay and the person doing the estimating.

The results:

V  is apparently moderately allergic to peanut (3.7 U/ml, class III) and almond (2.5 U/ml, class II) so tree nuts are still out.

She’s allergic to milk (8.3 U/ml, class III), which we know all too well, since only last week I gave her milk by accident and she spent the next half hour barfing on the kitchen floor.

Quite a surprise to find out was that her highest antibody level is to sesame (14.7 U/ml, class III). I once gave her sesame sticks once and she vomited. I gave her a sesame bagel and she said her stomach hurt. But she’s been happily eating pressed sheets of nori (seaweed) that apparently contain sesame oil. Anyway, from now on: no sesame!

And here’s the funny thing. Along with her brother, she gets horse-riding lessons every two weeks. She comes back from them all blotchy in the face. We thought it might be from grass pollen, but on a whim my wife had her tested for allergy to “horse dander.” And she tested positive (3.4 U/ml, class II)!

But no allergy to rye grass pollen.

Allergic to horses. Who knew. Well, that ought to be an easy one to avoid. And it’ll give me a great excuse when she starts demanding a pony for her birthday.
End Eczema

Dog Disease – Allergic Dermatitis

To some, having a pet that obeys every command you give to it isn’t enough – the physical appearance is just as important. They take pride in being the proud owner of a beautiful dog, in which they show off to friends and family. They do everything to keep their pet looking good on the outside, like give it baths, cut its nails, and style its fur. But what some of these owners fail to do is keep their pets healthy – a dog disease known as Allergic Dermatitis can have devastating effects on the poor pooch, making it look real ugly.

This is no ordinary infection, it’s said that it’s chronic, or in layman’s terms incurable. Yes, that’s right, incurable – want me to say it again? Treatment is only for the symptoms that’s caused by the dog disease, but as of now there is no available cure that can actually destroy the root of all evil. Whoever thought that a simple skin disease could be that tough? Allergic Dermatitis symptoms involves itching – they will scratch more than usual, over and over again. Apparently, it can easily be confused with a flea or tick infestation, so to rule that out as a possibility, I suggest you give it a bath with the best flea and tick killing soap on the market.

After giving it a rich lather and leaving it on for the duration as prescribed on the instructions written cleverly on the back of the box, rinse it off and then use a shampoo that’s specially formulated for the eradication of the little blood suckers. After drying the pooch, apply flea and tick killing powder thoroughly – basically you want to kill every last one of them. When you’ve verified that there are no survivors left, observe the frequency your pet scratching itself. If it eventually stops or decreases significantly, your in luck – it could be a flea and tick infestation.

But if the problem still persists, then there’s a possibility that it has contracted the dog disease Allergic Dermatitis. Even after using the “thorough bathing test”, it’ll still be difficult to determine the exact skin disease it may have. The “thorough bathing test” only serves as the go signal for you to pay a visit to your veterinarian. Why should you be worried about this dog disease in the first place? Well, consistent scratching and gnawing at coat will progressively lead to hair loss patches. That will leave areas of exposed reddish skin with rashes – which kinda makes your pet look like it was salvaged from a burning building.

That’s bad news for those obsessed with aesthetic aspect of their pooches. Allergic Dermatitis can be contracted directly through the skin, absorbed from food or the consumption allergens like grass and wood pollens, and even through the inhalation of certain things like cigarette smoke, indoor dust, and weed (marijuana). Play it safe and avoid having your pet come into contact with the above stated items. For a more complete list of allergens consult your vet. Observe proper and consistent pet grooming rituals, especially if its been in an area full of dust and pollutants. If you feel you pooch has been infected, go see the same guy – the earlier the better.

The author of this article, Alex De La Cruz, is a Dog Expert who has been successful for many years. Because most people think that Arthritis is a humans-only disease Alex now informs dog owners with his http://dog_arthritis.doggybooks.info Ebook on how to discover this disease and let their dogs live as pain-free as possible.