Allergic to Your Pet? Unwilling to Say Goodbye?

Even with your asthma or allergy, you won’t give up your beloved pet. Few will. Some make their dogs unexpected stars on YouTube (“Doberman attacking Chihuahua”). Or create montages of their cat’s odd antics or sleepiness. One substitutes a ball machine for a nanny to keep their beloved pet entertained and, well, fit. Another besotted owner actually trains his Jack Russell to entertain, perhaps for a new sport category in an imaginary pet Olympics.

Yet if your pet makes you sneeze, tear up or worse you can take steps to dander-proof your home. That helps. Yet even in the cleanest home, action happens. Dirty particles get raised into the air. So it helps to make the air throughout your home cleaner than fresh air. Get a continuously high-performing unit that bolts right onto your home (HVAC) heating system. It is made by AspenAir Inside. It uses less than 2 watts to remove 99% of what’s called Respirable Suspended Particles in air.

BTW, here’s good news for those who don’t own a pet, are allergic to cats yet yearn for one. An ostensibly hypoallergenic cat is waiting for you – for just $35,000

The Danger of Asthma During Pregnancy

This may also startle you. "Asthma is the most common chronic condition in pregnancy. Despite the frequently held notion that it is harmless, asthma can cause tremendous morbidity to both the fetus and the mother. In fact, severe and/or poorly controlled asthma has been associated with numerous adverse perinatal outcomes," according to Markus Little, MD and Richard Sinert, DO. Some of those dire outcomes include including preeclampsia, pregnancy-induced hypertension, uterine hemorrhage, premature birth, congenital anomalies, fetal growth restriction, and low birth weight. If someone you know is pregnant, she may want to take preventive steps now to clean the air at home - the one place where she can reduce the chances of an asthma attack. Relatedly, there's a study that could increase a pregnant woman's stress. It found that women who are stressed during pregnancy bear children who are "at a greater risk for allergies or asthma."

What’s Your Infant Breathing in the Nursery?

Changing tables, cribs and dressers may be emitting formaldehyde at levels that induce childhood allergies and asthma. So found the Maryland PIRG Foundation. In their report, In Toxic Baby Furniture: The Latest Case for Making Products Safe from the Start, the non-profit announced that tests from an independent laboratory show “formaldehyde emissions from common baby nursery furnishings can significantly contribute to indoor air pollution.”

“The more we look, the more we find chemicals in our children’s products at levels known to contribute to significant health problems ranging from asthma to cancer.

Unfortunately, formaldehyde is just the latest example,” said Johanna Neumann, state director of Maryland PIRG. Lab tests of 21 products often found in a baby nursery found several with, “an increased risk of developing allergies and asthma…the Child Craft Oak Crib emitted the highest levels of formaldehyde.”

What if every parent asked their state legislators to back these recommendations from the Maryland PIRG Foundation, “to protect children from exposure to toxic chemicals?

• Require chemical manufacturers to prove their chemicals are safe before allowing them to be used in consumer products,

• Empower state regulators to restrict or ban the manufacture and use of chemicals that pose potential dangers to human health or the environment, and

• Ensure the public has access to information about chemicals used in consumer products and the potential health impacts they pose.”

Allergic to Your Pet? Unwilling to Say Goodbye?

Even with your asthma or allergy, you won’t give up your beloved pet. Right? Few will. Some make their dogs unexpected stars on YouTube (“Doberman attacking Chihuahua”). Or create montages of their cat’s odd antics or sleepiness. One substitutes a ball machine for a nanny to keep their beloved pet entertained and, well, fit. Another besotted owner actually trains his Jack Russell to entertain, perhaps for a new sport category in an imaginary pet Olympics.

Yet if your pet makes you sneeze, tear up or worse you can take steps to dander-proof your home. That helps. Yet even in the cleanest home, action happens. Dirty particles get raised into the air. So it helps to make the air throughout your home cleaner than fresh air. Get a relatively new air filler that bolts right onto your home (HVAC) heating system. It is made by AspenAir Inside. It uses less than 2 watts to remove 99% of what’s called Respirable Suspended Particles in air.

BTW, here’s good news for those who don’t own a pet, are allergic to cats yet yearn for one. An ostensibly hypoallergenic cat is waiting for you – for just $35,000.

New Help for Hay Fever Sufferers

Hay fever is the top cause of work absenteeism due to chronic illness and leads to more than 2 million missed school days for children. The medical name is as inelegant as the symptoms: allergic rhinitis. But it packs a whallop.

Hay fever affects 20 percent of adults and 40 percent of children in the U.S.

The good news, announced in August, 2008, is that your doctor can be better prepared to diagnosis and help you, using the new guidelines established by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Learn more and find an allergist/immunologist in your area, in the Patients and Consumers section here.

Allergy Induced Asthma is on the Rise

Isabelle Boulay has an excellent article on how allergies can cause asthma in your child and what you can do about it. Her briefing will help prepare you before you visit the doctor. If your child is asthmatic, then be prepared to inspire the people at school to be supportive of good treatment during the school day.

Inhalers May Increase the Chance of Heart Attack

You may have a greater chance of getting a heart attack or even die if you use an inhaler and you have the medical condition called COPD a new study shows. Chemicals in the inhaler may be the cause.

Those with COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) have – in plain language - emphysema and chronic bronchitis. That means they often struggle to breathe. An inhaler is often the one thing they can use that helps. Study results are not conclusive but the authors of it “urged doctors to closely monitor patients who use the inhalers.”

COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. It “affects as many as 24 million Americans and kills more than 100,000 each year. It involves thickened and narrowed lung airways and excess mucous. Symptoms include persistent coughing and severe shortness of breath; smoking is a leading cause.

Patients describe COPD breathing problems as feeling like they're ‘living the entire day under water, unable to come to the surface,’ said Dr. Aaron Milstone of Vanderbilt University medical school.”

One major source of relief for those who suffer from COPD - or asthma, allergies and other respiratory conditions - is cleaner indoor air, where RSPs have been removed.