Allergies

Click Date to read brief description	Click Short Title to read column
12/30/03	Keeping Your Nose Clean
12/14/98	For some, it's sneezing all the way
10/05/98	When a staple of diet can be lethal
03/30/98	Sneezing early? It's el Nino's fault
07/28/97	Latex allergies can cause misery
04/21/97	Don't wait for allergy to hit; strike first

Okay. So your daily attempt at perfection already includes brushing and flossing, exercising, meditating, eating fruits and veggies, and overall clean, healthy living. Here’s one more health habit you might consider. (Or not.) In lay terms, it’s called keeping your nose clean. In fancier language, it’s nasal lavage – also known as nasal irrigation or sinus rinsing.

You're running around getting ready for Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or Ramadan -- or just a generic holiday party. You shop. You cook. You get the candles from the bottom drawer, the decorations from the basement. If Christmas is your tradition, you probably get a tree, too, all fragrant and piney.

Max Collins, now 8 and a second grader in Burlington, was a baby when a tiny taste of peanut butter nearly killed him. No sooner had his mom, Lisa, now 32, spread a smidgeon on Max's lips than he began vomiting and screaming. Huge hives sprouted on his skin. ``It was almost simultaneous,'' Lisa says. ``I never knew foods could cause something life-threatening.''

Just when you thought there was nothing left to blame on El Nino comes this: We're in for an unusually early -- and perhaps long and nasty -- allergy season this year. Granted, everybody always thinks whatever allergy season they're suffering through is the worst ever, but this year, it really will be bad -- and in some places, already is -- because El Nino created perfect growing conditions for trees and molds -- a mild winter in the Northeast, rains in the South and North.

Lise C. Borel, now 42, had been happily practicing dentistry for 10 years when she began noticing welts on her neck whenever she touched herself after removing her latex gloves. Several weeks later, she suddenly found she couldn't breathe within three minutes of donning her gloves.

There may still be patches of snow smothering your crocuses, but believe it or not, springtime allergy season is only about 10 days away -- and for some poor souls it's already begun. But you may be able to head off trouble before it starts.