A new survey suggests that the percentage of children with peanut allergies has more than tripled in just over a decade, although the actual number of kids thought to have the allergy is still small.
“These results show that there is an alarming increase in peanut allergies, consistent with a general, although less dramatic, rise in…

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A simple blood test can now predict whether newborn babies are at high risk of developing allergies as they grow older, thanks to research involving the University of Adelaide.
Professor Tony Ferrante, an immunologist from SA Pathology and the Children’s Research Centre at the University of Adelaide, says the new marker may be the most significant…

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Bacterial populations found in household dust may determine whether or not a child living in that home develops asthma, according to research published in the April 2010 issue of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Recent studies have shown household dust to be a source of highly diverse and abundant bacteria, yet it remains largely unexplored….

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Food allergies among children in the United States are on the rise, according to a study led by Amy M. Branum of the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It found that almost 4%, or 3 million, children aged below 18 in the United States suffered food…

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What’s the next step when a child’s regular steroid inhaler fails to prevent asthma attacks? Different kids do best with different step-up treatments, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) shows.
The drugs with the best chance of success — 45% — are long-acting beta-agonists (LABAs), the study suggests. But safety concerns limit the…

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Most doctors don’t test for or treat the H pylori bacteria except in cases of unrelenting heartburn or in active ulcers and consider it an ‘asymptomatic’ pathogen that lives with most of us without hurting us. However, research shows that simply having the H pylori bacteria could be a risk factor in the development of…

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Children who suffer from severe, persistent asthma are nearly 32 times more likely to develop chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD) in adulthood, according to a study spanning nearly half a century.
That conclusion is based on data from the Melbourne Asthma Study, which includes children born in 1957 who were recruited at age 7 and tracked…

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A review published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and reported in the New York Times underscores the need for additional research on the prevalence, diagnosis, and treatment of food allergy. One of the most important points suggested by the JAMA study as well as a New York Times article on the…

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In the spring, many suffer from seasonal allergies aggravated by the pollen in the air. Building a strong immune system and vital force is the best defense. There are many natural treatments including constitutional homeopathy that can help with that, along with good nutrition and exercise. Inheritance does play a link, as one in three…

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Air pollution from city traffic appears to increase asthma attacks in kids that require an emergency room visit, a new study reports.
The effect was found to be strongest during the warmer parts of the year.
The researchers who conducted the study, done in Atlanta, were trying to pinpoint which components of pollution play the biggest role…

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