While our focus since mid-March has been on COVID-19, a new FDA-approved treatment for peanut allergy has been available. On January 31st, the product Palforzia (the generic name being ‘Peanut [Arachis hypogaea] Allergen Powder—dnfp’) was approved to use if one is between the ages 4 through 17 for the first dose with a confirmed...
Ragweed season traditionally starts in the Chicago area around August 10th because the ragweed plant pollinates according to the light/dark cycle. The peak ragweed counts occur in the last week of August and first half of September. As I’m seeing patients over the past two weeks who have uncontrolled symptoms from ragweed allergy, I...
For the past three years, I have written about updates in peanut desensitization during the month of July. However, I have received questions about the risks of COVID-19 for those with asthma over the past month. So, this month’s blog will --for the 3rd month this year—be devoted to the medical condition affecting all of us in so many...
Tests that are considered proven for diagnosing food allergy have been skin tests, blood tests that look for IgE (the class of antibody associated with allergic diseases) and, if necessary, an office ingestion challenge. When the skin tests and blood tests are normal, the scientific conventional approach is to call a recurrent specific...
We are more conscious about protecting our health from infections since early March. Some of us may now be thinking of preventing other medical conditions. Is direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing something we should get to see if we will develop a chronic disease? Does direct-to-consumer genetic testing give results that can...
We all have become better-educated by the media and the government about immunology over the past two months. But, I think we are all also tired of hearing about and living with COVID-19 day in and day out. I’ve been wanting to write about gluten sensitivity for a while since I heard a 2018 medical study on the topic that was...