Keeping a dog or cat in the home during a child’s first year of life does not appear to increase the risk of a child becoming allergic to the animals in the future, according to a new study.

In fact, the researchers say, the findings indicate exposure to a pet early in life may actually decrease the likelihood that a child may later suffer from allergies.

Researchers from Henry Ford Hospital followed over 500 children for the first 18 years of their lives.  The researchers periodically contacted the parents and children to collect information about exposure to cats and dogs.

At age 18, the study participants were asked for blood samples, which the researchers measured for antibodies to dog and cat allergens.

The results showed that being exposed to the specific animal in the first year of life was the most important exposure period, and not only did it not increase the risk of children’s allergies, it actually appeared to be protective in some groups.

Males whose family had kept an indoor dog during their first year of life were about half as likely to become allergic to dogs compared to males in families with no dogs.  Both men and women were about half as likely to become allergic to cats if they lived with one in the first year of life.

The study was published in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy.

Think your city is pollen-infested?  Try living in the South.

A new study ranks Knoxville and a number of other Southern cities as the worst places to live for spring allergy sufferers, WebMD reported.

This is the second year in the row Knoxville has been named “the most challenging place to live with spring allergies” by the Allergy and Asthma Foundation of America.

The rankings are based on an analysis of three factors – pollen scores, number of allergy medications used per patient and number of allergy specialists per patient.

According to researchers, Knoxville nabbed to top spot this year because of higher-than-average use of allergy medications per patient and higher than average pollen counts.  The city has ranked in the top 10 worst cities for six out of the past nine years.

The other cities rounding out the top five, in order were:

Louisville, KY

Charlotte, NC

Jackson, MS

Chattanooga, TN

Click here to read more from WebMD.

Forty percent of American children have seasonal allergies. When a parent has allergies, his or her child will probably have them too.

Most allergies tend to appear in childhood. So, if you have seasonal allergies as an adult, you probably started getting them as a kid.

As children, boys get more allergies than girls, but as they get older, women usually catch up to men.

Even though we say allergies are seasonal, they can occur year-round. In the spring, you can get allergies to grass and pollen, and in the fall you can get allergies to ragweed, molds and spores of different kinds.

Allergies occur when pollen, mold or dust kick your immune system into high gear, triggering a release of histamines, those chemicals that are mostly responsible for the sneezing, the runny nose, the itchy throat, and the watery eyes.

If teenagers weren’t properly exposed to their environment as children, their immune system won’t be able to recognize as harmless the pollen, dust and mold spores around them every day.

Loading the Virus Protection Program

Your immune system is essentially a system of specialized cells and organs that protects you from outside threats such as viruses, bacteria and other biological outsiders.

It is during the first decade of life that it learns which biological intrusions it needs to protect you against. What this means is, if you don’t get exposed to many of the harmless biological threats in your environment during your first decade of life, if you do not challenge the immune system early, you may pay the price with seasonal allergies and asthma throughout the rest of your life.

I’m talking about the dangers of over protecting our children. Some of this overprotection has been institutionalized in the form of widespread use of antibiotics, vaccinations against various diseases, cleaner food and water, and better living conditions.

But some parents may make this “problem” worse by keeping their kids at home in a “sterilized” environment – never taking them to the park, never letting them play in a sandbox, never letting them roll around in the grass, never letting them have a pet at home, and keeping them away from other kids who may be sick.

By underexposing our children to bacteria, certain viruses, and other minor threats in the environment, their immune systems will not develop the appropriate responses, and they may end up with seasonal allergies and other problems of an inexperienced immune system.

Studies show that if you have a pet when you’re a kid, you are less likely to get asthma. The same applies to running and rolling around in the grass at the park when you are three years old; those who do tend to have fewer seasonal allergies later on. A little exposure is a good thing.

Allergy Prevention

Prevention is the best treatment for seasonal allergies. Have you heard of spring cleaning? They don’t call it that for nothing.

If people in your household have allergies, it is important to do a thorough cleaning of the house, especially in the spring, by removing all the dust that has collected in your house over the winter.

It’s a good time to shampoo your rugs, vacuum all the nooks and crannies, and remove the mold from all kitchen, bathroom and garage surfaces.

If you have allergies in the spring and summer, take a few precautionary steps to avoid bringing allergens back into the house.

When you come in from the outdoors, don’t bring the clothes you’ve worn outdoors into the bedroom; change in another part of the house and take a shower, if you can.

Avoid being outdoors from the late morning to early afternoon, as those are the peak hours for pollen production. Keep your windows closed if you’re really allergic.

Theories already exist that birth order affects personality – but could it also affect health?

Results from a new study indicate that firstborn children may be more likely to suffer from certain types of allergies, Business Week reported.

Japanese researchers surveyed parents of more than 13,000 children aged 7 to 15 and found that overall, firstborn children were more likely to have hay fever, pink eye due to allergy, and food allergies.

The prevalence of food allergies in firstborn children was 4 percent, 3.5 percent in second-born children, and 2.6 percent in later-born children.

“It has been established that individuals with increased birth order have a smaller risk of allergy. However, the significance of the effect may differ by allergic diseases,” said first author of the study, Dr. Takashi Kusunoki, of the pediatrics department at Shiga Medical Center for Children and Kyoto University, both in Japan.

However, in the same study, the researchers found that a child’s birth order did not seem to affect the prevalence of asthma or eczema.

Further research is needed to learn more about how birth order affects allergy risk, researchers said.

Click here to read more from Business Week.

There are headaches, and then there are migraine headaches. Any headache can make you miserable, but a migraine can be excruciating. In fact, the most severe migraine headaches can just about bring you to your knees.

More than 28 million Americans suffer from migraine headaches. Their frequency and severity varies from person to person, but they strike women three times more often than men. And if there is a history of migraine in your family, there is an 80 percent chance you will have them as well.

Most people who suffer from migraines will have a first attack by the age of 30. Often they begin in childhood and then increase in frequency in adolescence. The condition usually continues through the thirties and forties, but attacks tend to decrease in frequency and severity with age, and they are rare after age 50.

Some people with these painful headaches will experience a variety of visual symptoms–such as flashing lights, blind spots, or zigzag patterns–either before or during the headaches themselves. Migraines make many people feel nauseous or light-headed. Vomiting and an extreme sensitivity to light and sound are other common symptoms. A migraine can incapacitate you for hours or even days.

While there is no cure for migraines and the exact cause of migraines is not known, they are now viewed as a vascular and inflammatory problem, so the new therapies being developed for migraine sufferers are focusing on these two pathways.

Not long ago, aspirin was the sole remedy for migraines, but today there are medications that can help reduce the frequency of migraine headaches and stop the pain once it has started. Severe cases are now treated with triptans, a class of drugs specifically developed to treat migraines. These drugs normally provide relief within 15 minutes to two hours in most people.

Preventive medication is available for serious migraine sufferers, though they do not eliminate the migraines completely. The beta-blockers used to treat high blood pressure and coronary artery disease can reduce the frequency and severity of migraines, and certain antidepressants can also help prevent migraines.

It’s important for migraine sufferers to avoid certain triggers, such as smoking, or certain foods or smells that may have triggered their headaches in the past. If you are a woman, birth control pills and other sources of estrogen may also trigger or make the headaches worse. Regular aerobic exercise is highly recommended to reduce tension and to help prevent migraines.