Allergies & Asthma

A team of Mount Sinai surgeons in New York City earlier this year performed the world’s first human tracheal transplant surgery, the health system announced this week. News of the procedure’s success already has other patients taking note. To date, surgeons have been unable to transplant the trachea — an organ essential for speaking, breathing,

A graded dosing protocol allowed two patients with hypersensitivity reactions to the first dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine to receive their second doses safely, researchers said. The patients — one with an immediate hypersensitivity reaction managed on site and one needing emergency department transport — got divided second doses, reported S. Shahzad Mustafa, MD, of

Dr. Mary Morris not only dedicated her career to offering allergy treatment following the La Crosse Method™ Protocol, but her family has also owned and operated an apple orchard for more than 100 years. New research by Nothegger1 and other researchers about the level of allergic sensitivity to different apple varieties for those with birch

March is National Nutrition Month — which highlights important topics for everyone. Adequate nutrition is critical to all, but for those with limited diets due to food allergy, it can be more of a challenge to meet. There are also so many different layers to staying safe that need to be considered when it comes

Black and Hispanic children have a higher risk for developing food allergies compared with white children, and studies suggest they may also have a significantly higher risk for anaphylaxis and death due to allergic food reactions. African-American, Hispanic, and other minority children are also greatly underrepresented in food allergy clinical trials, and a new analysis

Patients who experienced an allergic reaction to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines could potentially be eligible to receive the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, CDC staff said on a Tuesday call with clinicians. Currently, patients can be eligible to receive the Johnson & Johnson adenovirus vaccine after receiving one dose of mRNA vaccine only in special circumstances,

Many people with food allergies go looking for treatment with their eyes on the prize — reducing reactions to a certain food or foods. After testing for allergies and finding out you have a multitude of underlying food and environmental allergies, your provider might recommend treating a broad spectrum beginning with environmental allergies (as authors

Asthma patients with confirmed COVID-19 were no more likely to require hospitalization or mechanical ventilation than patients without asthma, researchers found. Moreover, the asthma patients were less likely to die from COVID, reported Lacey Robinson, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, at the virtual annual meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma &

Wide adoption of infant feeding guidelines calling for peanut introduction during the first year of life in Australia prompted a significant decline in child peanut allergies in that country, researchers reported. In 2016, guidelines in Australia were changed to recommend the introduction of potentially allergic foods such as peanut butter, cooked eggs, dairy, and wheat

Managing your allergies is a big job – and can be a lifesaving practice. Like anything these days, there’s technology that can help make it simpler. In this blog, we’re talking about free apps that can help with adherence to your allergy treatment and medications, as well as food and environmental allergy management. Adherence apps

Inhaled budesonide (Pulmicort), a steroid generally used to treat asthma, dramatically reduced the need for hospitalization in COVID-19 patients within a week of symptom onset, a small randomized trial in the U.K. found. Among 139 patients with mild COVID-19 symptoms, 10 in the control group required either a COVID-19-related urgent care or emergency department (ED)

Most people look forward to spring, the warmer temperatures, and the increased sunshine it brings. What’s not to love? Millions of Americans may respond with “the allergies that come along with it.” The big offenders in the early spring are trees and mold, but grasses can start causing symptoms shortly after. To avoid the wrath

“The rooster isn’t causing the sun to come up.” — Paul Offit, MD, of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, commenting on how a physician who died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine does not imply a causal relationship between the two events. “He knows about EHR [electronic health record] adoption, he knows about interfaces — the

Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, both the CDC and the World Health Organization identified asthma patients as being at high risk for severe disease and hospitalization, but it soon became evident that this may not be the case when study after study showed little or no support for that conclusion. Now the largest research review

Ten cases of anaphylaxis and over 100 cases of severe allergic reactions were reported following administration of the first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, but nearly all were among those with a history of allergic reactions, researchers found. Of the 10 cases of anaphylaxis, nine were among those with a history of allergies or

We’re always looking for new research about sublingual immunotherapy and related topics. In fact, twice a year we find the most up-to-date published articles and put those applicable into our bibliography. It now houses nearly 1,300 articles that have been reviewed by our Medical Advisor and author of the La Crosse Method™ Protocol, Dr. Mary

While rare, the rate of anaphylaxis following COVID-19 mRNA vaccines appeared about 10 times that documented for flu shots, CDC officials said on Wednesday. Overall, 21 cases of anaphylaxis following COVID vaccination were reported out of about 1.9 million doses given as of Dec. 23, according to an early Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report release.

In January, MedPage Today covered the FDA’s approval of an oral peanut allergy immunotherapy, which was seen as heralding a new era in food allergy treatment. In this follow-up feature, we review some of the developments occurring since. The timing probably couldn’t have been worse for the product’s developer, California-based Aimmune Therapeutics. The day its

Every year, winter brings a variety of viruses, and 2020 brought a new one that is concerning to most – COVID-19. While people tend to disregard allergy as a cause of winter illness because most outdoor allergens are minimal, there’s an exception in the south. It’s called Cedar Fever, and it can cause some pretty

This story was originally published on Jan. 31, 2020. As part of MedPage Today‘s review of the past year’s top stories, we are republishing it, along with an update on peanut allergy therapies and related developments as the year went on. WASHINGTON — Aimmune Therapeutics’ oral immunotherapy for peanut allergy gained FDA approval late Friday,

Anyone with a history of immediate allergic reaction of any severity to any component of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines or to polysorbate should not be vaccinated, the CDC said in updated interim guidance. While previously the agency released guidelines for contraindication to vaccination, it’s now broadened to include those with a history of immediate allergic reaction

Those in the food allergy community know the top eight food allergens like the back of their hand: Milk Eggs Fish Shellfish Tree nuts Peanuts Wheat Soy The talk about adding sesame to the top eight food allergens — making it the new “top nine”— has been a big topic in recent years. With new