Doctors also can desensitize allergic reactions in patients. One method entails giving weekly injections of the offending protein in gradually increasing amounts until the reaction to it subsides. Then shots are given monthly to prevent further allergy attacks.
There is proof that desensitization works for patients allergic to bee stings. Bee-sting allergy can kill – by stopping your breathing. And desensitization does work in hay fever and other pollen allergies, but not for everybody and not every time. Before desensitizing you, an allergist will test you, putting tiny amounts of various substances under your skin. Those that create itchy red welts are the offending allergens. Doctors also can measure IgE directly in the blood.
No other allergy test works. Some doctors have used the “cytotoxic” test for food allergies, in which a patient’s white blood cells are isolated and tested for their reaction to food products in small amounts. If the cells die, the patient is pronounced allergic to those food products. The American Academy of Allergy and Immunology says the cytotoxic test has no scientific basis.
One way to control allergic reaction is to avoid the substances that trigger your allergies.
Mites are hard to avoid. The tiny pests are found everywhere. They grow in damp carpets and mattresses. And when their bodies fall to dust, their proteins get in your nose and lungs. They provoke allergic reactions, particularly in asthmatics. So do cockroaches.
Thorough housecleaning and frequent vacuuming to prevent dust accumulation can help dramatically to eliminate allergic reactions caused by these pests.
All the scientists with whom we spoke forecast a bright future for allergy and asthma sufferers. As biologists have uncovered the mysteries that cause allergy, chemists have gone to work to put those discoveries to quick use.
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A tiny speck of dust lands on the inside lining of your nose. Within minutes, the spot flushes red and swells up. You sneeze. Your nostril pours out fluid. More dust. More sneezes. More fluid. It’s hay fever. You have a full-blown allergy attack.
Something is out of kilter in your immune system. This system that fights viruses, bacteria, and fungi now overreacts to that plant particle. You suffer the misery of a runny nose, itching, red eyes, headache, and congestion. Worse, you could end up with asthma, a disease that throttles breathing.
Forty-one million Americans – one in six – suffer from allergy, a disordered immune response. They spend up to 5 billion dollars a year warding off the ill effects of plant pollen, mold, mites, spores, foods, animal hairs, even cockroach dust.
Help is on the way: Scientists have made two basic biological discoveries that could in a decade vanquish allergies – no more sneezes, wheezes, itches, running noses, bleary eyes; no more fearful reactions to a piece of fish.
Dr. Gillian Shepherd, head of the allergy clinic at the New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center in Manhattan, says that the new findings could one day put her out of business.
“One discovery could lead directly to drugs that interrupt the immune system’s overreaction,” Dr. Shepherd says. “The second finding has pinpointed natural substances that turn off that system.”
Leslie Naschek, 28, an accountant in New York City, can hardly wait. “I’m allergic to dust, weeds, and grass,” she says. “Two years ago, I suddenly started having a runny nose and sneezing. It’s difficult, walking around with a tissue in your hand all the time. I couldn’t sleep. I took antihistamines. They helped, but not a lot.”
Giant drug companies are searching for those chemicals that will cut short the allergic reaction. Three compounds currently are being tested in allergic patients.
And in medical laboratories worldwide, scientists have come close to unraveling the mystery of allergy attacks.
Leslie Naschek, researchers found, fell victim to chemical reactions in her blood tissues. To take a peek at the allergic reaction, let’s start with a grain of ragweed pollen. Under the microscope, it looks like a basketball with thorns.
On the ragweed pollen’s surface lies a protein molecule too tiny to see, even with a microscope. It consists of long chains of thousands of atoms of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. Living things produce hundreds of such proteins, each of a different size and shape.
When that ragweed pollen lands on the nostril’s lining, it finds its way to a living white blood cell, called a mast cell. The mast cell responds as if struck by an ax. It pours out a dozen chemicals, among them histamine. Histamine flows to nerve receptors, causing itching. Histamine makes blood vessels leak serum, resulting in a runny nose and teary eyes. The chemical also contracts the airways (bronchi) of your lungs, slowing airflow. A host of other proteins – such as pollens, dust particles, cat dander, insect dust – can trigger similar reactions.
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