Now is the time to be considering what to do about your hay fever symptoms next year. We read about Pollen “bombs”, global warming and El Nino weather system changes all making summer hay fever symptoms (Medical term Pollinosis) intolerable. Even taking mega-doses of antihistamines, soothing eye drops and anti-inflammatory nasal spray’s, hardly have any beneficial impact on debilitating symptoms associated with hay fever. Desensitisation to the tree or grass pollen allergy are the most practical route forwards. However Desensitisation Immunotherapy needs to be started at least a few months bef ..read more

Recent medical interest in the role of Low Dose Naltrexone (a drug previously used to treat Alcohol and Opiate dependence) has filtered down to the management of chronic immune-modulated diseases such as Mast Cell Activation and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Naltrexone has been used for many years to treat addiction to Alcohol,  Morphine and Opiate analgesics, but researchers have found that at low dose, Naltrexone seems to have a beneficial effect in chronic pain and fatigue in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and also used with benefit in some Auto-immune diseases.  So far, no convincing clini ..read more

A recent article by Lawrence Afrin (international expert on Mast Cell Activation), has suggested that Mast Cell Activation may be a mediator of Long COVID syndrome (multiple persistent and debilitating symptoms following a COVID-19 infection) and many Long COVID symptoms mimic those of Mast Cell Activation (including unexplained rashes and swelling, confusion with fatigue, palpitations, POTS syndrome, Fibromyalgia, nausea and headaches). Reference: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971221007517 The post Mast Cell Activation in Long COVID Syndrome appeared first on Dr ..read more

New Immunotherapy products are to be launched in UK this month. The great news is that ALK -Abello (UK) have been awarded license to sell two novel immunotherapy products in the UK and these will be available at Community Pharmacy’s on prescription from Allergists at the end of this month. They will be joining the already licensed oral immunotherapy for common Timothy Grass Pollen induced Hay Fever (marketed as Grazax) which has been a phenomenal success in curing severe Hay Fever for the last decade, we now have Itulazax and Acarizax available in Community Pharmacies across the UK. Itulazax i ..read more

There has been a lot of confusion and misinformation about risks of anaphylaxis to the COVID -19 coronavirus vaccines available. Many healthy individuals are being declined the vaccine and told to be allergy tested if they have a history of food or medication allergy or any form of anaphylaxis. The COVID-19 vaccines contain no food proteins or other medication so this should not be a contra-indication. Acute anaphylaxis and severe allergic reactions to the vaccine constituents have only been reported in 1 in one million recipients. The only individuals who should not have the COVID-19 vaccine ..read more

ALK Abello will be launching their new House Dust Mite (Acarizax) and Silver Birch tree pollen (Itulazax) sublingual desensitisation immunotherapy vaccines (SLIT) in the UK in late 2021. This follows the highly successful Grass pollen vaccine SLIT called Grazax which was launched about 10 years ago and has greatly improved quality of life for thousands of hay fever sufferers ever since. Hopefully Acarizax and Itulazax will be as highly effective as Grazax.  The new products will be similar wafer-like tablets that dissolve under the tongue and are particularly safe to use. The Silver Birch ..read more

COVID-19 infections manifest in a multitude of different ways and after the initial viral illness, there seem to be a number of debilitating long-term effects that may develop.   The skin manifestations are related to the COVID-19 virus damaging small skin blood vessels and very often mimic and be confused with skin allergies. 1) COVID Toes are chilblain-like lesions that develop on the hands and feet that are painful red-purple discoloration with small blisters. 2) Urticaria and hives are red blotches that are raised and itch. The may be small coin-sized lesions that coalesce and fo ..read more

A number of highly allergic individuals have had acute allergic reactions to the COVID-19 Vaccine available in the UK from Pfizer/BioNTech pharmaceuticals. It appears to be an excipient in the vaccine called Polyethylene Glycol that causes these reactions. It is therefore advised to avoid this Covid-19 vaccine if allergic to polyethylene glycol, or if you have a history of severe allergic reactions to medication, vaccines and foods. We don’t have a reliable test to identify those at risk and are following guidance from the UK Department Health and the British Society for Allergy and ..read more

Allergology has come a long way since Johansson and Ishizaka discovered IgE in 1967 to be the antibody that mediated acute serious allergic reactions. Phadia, and then Thermo Fisher developed multiple specific allergy tests using individual IgE antigens that revolutionised allergy diagnosis and treatment. More recent developments include testing sensitivity to the various component allergenic determinants in a food or environmental protein. This gives us a better indiction of anaphylaxis risk and how to manage the allergy.  For example a peanut contains 9 different potentially allergenic ..read more

The devastating Cytokine Storm that has such a catastrophic effect on the airways and vital organs during the COVID-19 illness behaves very much like a severe allergic reaction. Thankfully COVID deaths related to this cytokine storm are starting to fall. In an attempt to neutralise the Corona virus and kill it off, the immune system releases a “storm” of chemical mediators in excess of what is needed, including catecholamines and Interleukin-6, a pro-inflammatory mediator of allergic reactions. This causes damage to normal airways cells in addition to the the Corona virus affected cells. The a ..read more