Living Allergy Free: How to Create and Maintain an Allergen- and Irritant-Free Environment PDF
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Living Allergy Free Living Allergy Free How to Create and Maintain an Allergen- and Irritant-Free Environment by M. Eric Gershwin, MD and Edwin L. Klingelhofer, PhD Springer Science+Business Medi~ LLC © 1992 The Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by The Humana Press Inc. in 1992 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992 All rights of any nature whatsoever reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or other- wise without written permission from the Publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Main entry under title: Gershwin, M. Eric, 1946- Living Allergy Free: how to create and maintain an allergen- and irritant-free environment/ by M. Eric Gershwin and Edwin L. Klingelhofer. 294 + xiv pp., 15.24 x 22.86 cm Includes index. ISBN 978-1-4612-6744-7 ISBN 978-1-4612-0399-5 (eBook) DOl 10.1007/978-1-4612-0399-5 1. Allergy-Popular works. 2. Allergy-Prevention. 3. Allergy- Environmental sapects. I. Klingelhofer, E. L. (Ed L.) II. Title. RC584.G453 1992 616.97'05-<1c20 91-45417 CIP 109876543 Preface The world is full of naturally occurring and human-made substances capable of causing trouble- some reactions in susceptible individuals. These reactions can be roughly classified according to: • the bodily systems they affect • how long they last • the ease with which they can be treated • whether they are allergic, hypersensitive, or toxic in origin • how rapidly they develop following exposure to the trigger. This book deals with the many thousands of these materials capable of provoking fast-appearing, rela- tively short-lived, and usually manageable allergic or hypersensitive reactions in the respiratory, gastro- intestinal, or cutaneous (skin) systems of the human body. It tells you: • what forms the symptoms take • the environments in which they tend to turn up • what their possible causes are and how you can go about identifying the one or ones responsible for your condition v vi Living Allergy Free • the steps you can take to avoid exposure entirely or significantly reduce its risk • what forms of treatment are most likely to eliminate or control your symptoms. The book does not cover reactions to substances- usually human-made ones--that cause severe, stub- born, debilitating damage. Here the culprits are likely to be chemicals linked to cancer, silicosis, asbestosis, and other forms of grave damage that are thought to develop after prolonged exposure to some causative agent, more often than not in the workplace. Like- wise, it only touches incidentally on the two major causes of chronic and crippling disease in our society -tobacco and alcohol-whose dangers, unhappily, are as well known as they are ignored. It also has nothing to say about "recreational" drugs whose risks and remedies are sufficiently familiar to anyone able to read the front page of a daily newspaper or follow a television news program. Nor does it dwell on vague, ill-defined, scientifically undocumented, modish symptoms or syndromes that are often, but unpersuasively, attributed to allergy or hypersensitivity to food, drink, exposure to chemicals, and the like. An example of this class of ailment is Tension-Fatigue Syndrome, said to be the result of allergic or hypersensitive reactions to food elements in the diet. There is no solid evidence to bear out this linkage. Even with these constraints, we believe that the allergic conditions we discuss here are nearly as ubiq- uitous as the common cold and cause as much dis- tress, adding up to as great an economic and human vii cost as any other group of illnesses that we might have chosen to write about. Asthma, for instance, one of the major allergic diseases-and certainly the most frightening of them-is the main reason for chronic school absences among children and contributes sig- nificantly and needlessly to poor school performance and stunted social, physical, and intellectual devel- opment in some of its sufferers. Hay fever triggered by pollens, molds, dust, and other airborne particles causes acute and largely avoid- able physical discomfort, absence from work or school, and impairs performance or severely restricts activ- ity in the millions of Americans who suffer from it. To these allergy sufferers add the other millions who are sensitive to certain foods or food additives- berries, eggs, legumes, shellfish, preservatives, dyes, walnuts-or who break out in a rash when they touch things as wildly disparate and commonplace as toilet soap, poison ivy, nickel-plated watchbands, fabric soft- ener, or "No Carbon Required" paper. Throw in the additional legions who develop unwanted and some- times dangerous side reactions to such common medi- cations as aspirin or antibiotics. And don't forget the hordes who are made acutely uncomfortable by tobacco smoke, pollutants, fumes, and even perfumes and scents. Then there are the unlucky ones who develop serious reactions to insect stings or bites, or even, in some cases, are made ill by breathing in particles of insect bodies or the compounds used to get rid of them. Joining them are the unfortunates who react to ani- mal dander from cats, dogs, horses, and even birds. These triggers of allergy or irritation can turn up any place, any time. viii Living Allergy Free The information we have systematically compiled in this book cannot be found in any other single source. It can help you and your family greatly. Its sugges- tions about health care reflect the best and most up- to-date medical information and opinion available. As with all medical advice, however, cases-and there- fore treatments-may vary. It is not intended to be an alternative to or sub- stitute for your own doctor's recommendations. In par- ticular, the treatment of severe, protracted, or stub- born symptoms or the use of any medication should be undertaken only after consultation with your own physician. The authors and publisher therefore dis- claim any responsibility for consequences resulting from following the advice or procedures set forth here. The book strives for completeness and clarity. We have tried to steer away from medical jargon and to assure that our contents are as accurate and compre- hensive as we are humanly able to make them. To render the text more readable, reports of actual indi- vidual case histories, drawn from our experience, appear throughout. The book is divided into six parts: • Part 1 tells you how substances that invade your body act to make you sick. • Part 2 describes the various allergic or irritant reac- tions in detail and says something about their preva- lence, persistence, severity, and manageability. • Part 3 offers detailed procedures you can follow to iden- tify the cause of your symptoms and sketches some general strategies you can follow to avoid them. • Part 4 deals with the various carriers of allergic or irritant reactions-food, drink, the air you breathe, ix the things you touch or are touched by-and catalogs the substances capable of producing symptoms in sus- ceptible individuals. • Part 5-the heart of the book-tells you how to go about creating allergen or irritant-safe environments at home, out-of-doors, at school or on the job, in health care settings, or while traveling. It also offers a chap- ter on the so-called Sick Building Syndrome, an inter- esting and tricky condition that seems to be an unan- ticipated outgrowth of the move to build energy effi- cient structures, complicated by the growing use of synthetic or chemically treated materials in their con- struction and decor, and exacerbated by human sug- gestibility. The seven chapters in Part 5 are pivotal because the first and, by all odds, the most effective tactic in the care of allergic or hypersensitive reactions is to avoid their cause. • Part 6, the last section of the book, identifies sources of help-and tells you how to go about lining up that help-from both public or private sources, should it be needed. The book ends with a set of appendixes that list allergens and irritants and provides other information that will be useful to you in developing strategies for coping with your problem. Like all other writers on medical subjects we are indebted, first of all, to the researchers and practition- ers who, over the millenia, have brought us to our present state of knowledge. Beyond them, and more particularly, we owe thanks to the Hornet Founda- tion of California State University, Sacramento, which generously provided funds to support the research that went into this endeavor. We also very much appre- ciate and acknowledge the help of Dr. Paul Davis in x Living Allergy Free preparing the figures and of Drs. Christopher Chang, Georges Halpern, Bruce Ryhal, and Ronald Ruhl for their careful proofreading and critique. We especially want to thank Nikki Rojo, whose incomparable secre- tarial and administrative skills brought the manu- script into being. Whatever flaws, errors, or shortcomings may yet be found here are ours alone. M. Eric Gershwin, MD Edwin L. Klingelhofer, PhD Contents PREFACE v PART 1 How WHAT You EAT, DRINK, TOUCH, OR BREATHE CAN MAKE You SICK CHAPTER 1 3 Allergens and Irritants What They Are, How They Can Make You Sick, and the Sicknesses They Trigger PART 2 ALLERGIC AND IRRITANT REACTIONS CHAPTER 2 19 What Allergens Are and Why People Have Allergies Their Prevalence, Persistence, Severity, and Manageability CHAPTER 3 29 Irritants and Acquired Defects in Immunity Their Effects, Prevalence, Severity, and Manageability PART 3 LOCATING CAUSES FOR AND AVOIDING ALLERGIC OR IRRITANT REACTIONS CHAPTER 4 45 Strategies for Locating the Causes of Allergic or Irritant Reactions CHAPTER 5 65 Strategies for Avoiding Causes of Allergic or Irritant Reactions Xl
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