Friday 4 November 2011

The serious full-body impact of allergies - News article


The true burden of hayfever is well known to those who fall victim to it each spring.

But it has long been trivialised as merely inconvenient by the 60 per cent or so of the population who escape this allergic reaction that is not just confined to the nose, but can also cause widespread irritation in airways and spread inflammatory products around the entire body via the bloodstream.

Too often it is not taken seriously, says WA paediatric allergist and immunologist Professor Susan Prescott.

Hayfever, medically known as allergic rhinitis, affects people in various ways, ranging from only mild with occasional symptoms to being a source of long-standing and major discomfort with the ability to significantly interfere with quality of life, productivity and performance at work or school.

Some sufferers may even be mislabelled with other conditions or end up with increased dental problems caused by constantly breathing through the mouth.

"When nasal blockage is significant, it can lead to obstructed breathing during sleep," Professor Prescott says.

"Periods of reduced oxygen supply can lead to chronic tiredness and problems concentrating during the day. In children, it can affect school performance, behaviour and attention span and can lead to mislabelling with 'attention deficit disorder'.

"Chronic allergic rhinitis can also be associated with other local problems such as ear infection, hearing problems, sinus infection, nasal polyps and even dental problems due to chronic mouth breathing."

Now there is emerging evidence that allergic rhinitis, often linked to lower airway inflammation and asthma, may be associated with other, more generalised effects of systemic inflammation, reports Professor Prescott in her new book The Allergy Epidemic - A Mystery of Modern Life.

"Although inflammation is most obvious in the nose or the chest, there is growing evidence that allergic rhinitis and asthma may have effects much further a field," she writes in the book.

"One of my Canadian collaborators has elegantly demonstrated that inflammatory products ,including cytokines and other mediators, released from the airways during an allergen challenge circulate through the blood to stimulate immature cells in the bone marrow. This leads to the release of showers of new inflammatory cells that enter the blood stream and come back to sites of inflammation, adding fuel to the fire.

"It is possible, but not confirmed, that this also contributes to inflammation in blood vessels and increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

"In support of this idea, higher rates of heart disease have been associated with allergy in both animal and human studies. Interestingly, treatment of airways inflammation, with inhaled steroids, has also been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease.

"This highlights the potential for events at a local site to fuel inflammation in other parts of the body, but more research is needed to determine the significance of this."
Already hayfever is considered to be a major contributor to Australia's estimated financial cost of allergies which was $7.8 billion in 2007.

Find Dr Susan Prescott's book "The Allergy Epidemic - A Mystery of Modern Life" on  your Healthy Shelf today. 

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