October 1, 2025 • 50 mins
As many at 60 million people in the U.S. have some type of allergy which can impact the quality of your health and well- being. Allergies can be environmental (e.g. seasonal pollen, dust mites, mold, pets). Others can be life-threatening (e.g. food, medications, latex, insect venom). Dr. Payal Gupta, a specialist in allergy, asthma, ENT and immunology at Mt. Sinai Medica Center in NY and a
medical advisor for the nonprofit Allergy & Asthma Network, discusses common allergies and treatments.
Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
medical advisor for the nonprofit Allergy & Asthma Network, discusses common allergies and treatments.
Fearless Fabulous You is broadcast live Wednesdays at 12 Noon ET on W4WN Radio - Women 4 Women Network (www.w4wn.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Fearless Fabulous You Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:20):
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young, And oh my god, it's October one. Gosh,
where did September go? And why am I still in
summer clothes? I live in New Orleans. It's still hot.
It's probably hot where you are, because it's hot everywhere.
The season's change, and so do our allergies. That's we're
(01:02):
going to talk about today. My voice is a little scratchy,
why because I have seasonal allergies. So I'll be sipping
my favorite multi smug and so that's what inspired me
to do the show, because I never had allergies as
a child. Okay, I never had allergies as a child,
my mother was riddled with them, and as I have
(01:27):
grown older, I seem to develop more. But what's really
really weird is they are definitely changing and evolving throughout
the seasons. The New Orleans seems to only have two seasons,
hot and hotter. But when I lived in New York,
I was plagued with allergies up there and went to
an allogist who said, you're basically allergic to outdoors, which
(01:48):
I thought was funny because growing up in Tennessee, I
had no issues with allergies, which made me wonder our
allergies not only seasonal, will be geographically specific. I have
a world and do you get more when you age?
Because I think I'm in my third phase of metopause
officially now. So I have all these great questions and
(02:08):
a wonderful guest, an expert on this topic to discuss
it with me and hopefully help you if you were
having the itchies and the twitchies and the make you
feeling bitchies, which I have. All that's time I'm married.
Now we're going to be talking with doctor Payel Gupta,
who has extensive work in the field of allergies, asthma, immunology,
(02:30):
and ear nose and throat. I think I go to
all those right now. She is affiliated with the Great
Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, where I
used to live, and Sunni Medical Center in Downstate New York,
which I think I also used to live there too,
because I lived in the Hudson Valley. So I miss
New York with anything right now because Autumna New York
(02:51):
is beautiful, so I'm happy to talk to someone from
New York and most importantly talk to doctor Grouped about allergies.
She is also part of the medical team or advisorship
of the Allergy and Asthma Network, which is a nonprofit
(03:11):
organization and advocacy group that unites about sixteen helps about
sixty million Americans who suffer and the word is suffer
with allergies because some sixty million people the United States
have some kind of allergy. So you're not alone. So
that is a great site. I'll throw out the website
now so you have it. It's Allergyasthmanetwork dot org. I've
actually had guests on my show from this organization in
(03:34):
the past, but it's time for a refresh. So, doctor
Payl Gupta, welcome to Fearless, Fabulous you. I hope you
can help sort these things out.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about
this topic. It's definitely near and dear to me. I
have a lot of allergies. I have allergies in my
eyes and nose, I have asthma, and I have egzemas.
So all of these things kind of come hand in hand,
and I'm happy to talk about it in the context
of women and aging and all of these things that
we're all going through.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Well, you know, let's get to the first of all,
there's like two big categories of allergies, so let's explain.
Let's explain what an allergy is versus something else like asthma, irritation.
That's important.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yes, So you know when people talk about allergies, there
are two different types of broad categories. There's environmental allergies,
and that's what gives us that runny nose. It gis
can lead to allergic asthma, so the coffee wheezing, those
kind of things and even ezema, and that is separate
from food allergies. So food allergies of course, you know
(04:42):
everyone's heard of people who have peanut allergies, shellfish allergies,
other tree nut allergies. Really you can be allergic to
any food and so those are two totally distinct, separate entities.
And then there's also insect allergies, so you can be
allergic to bees, wasps, anything like that. And there's medication allergies,
(05:02):
so there's a whole host of things that we can
be allergic to.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
It's I'm just wondering our allergies diagnoses on the rise
or more people getting allergies because the world is changing
and the climate is.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Changing absolutely so in the context of seasonal environmental allergies,
people are getting sensitized. And what that means is that
you know, when you move from one location to another,
that environment is new to you and so every season
you're getting exposed to that environment. Your body is trying
to figure out do I like this or do I
not like this? And in that sensitization process, we're also
(05:37):
getting exposed to more and more pollen because as the
CO two levels rise because of global warming, we're seeing
higher levels of pollen and longer pollen seasons. So all
of that contributes to more people with that runny nose
itchis and difficulty breathing.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I think this is so interesting because, as I reference,
I've several times I lived in a New Manhattan. I've
lived in upstate New York in the Hudson Valley, which
is very rural. I've lived in Tennessee, and now I'm
in New Orleans, and I've traveled extensively and gotten serious
allergic reactions when I've traveled. It definitely feels environmental as well.
(06:18):
So we've talked about climactic and the fallen changes, but
how does it also change maybe environmentally, and how do
you know what to do about that? And we've a
lot of mosquitoes down here, and every time, I mean,
I have to like predically, we're a thing over my
head to go out.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah, so mosquitoes are interesting. Everyone is sensitive to the
to that toxin that they release in our body, and
so it's a substance that they release in our body
that we're all sensitive to. Some people are more sensitive
than others. Technically, there aren't too many people that have
had like an anaphylactic allergy response to mosquitoes, but people
(07:00):
you get really large local reactions. So that's mosquitoes as
far as environmental, when I mentioned environmental allergies, I didn't
talk about what we're talking about. So we're talking about
pollen allergies. In the springtime, that's tree pollen that's released.
In the summertime that's grass pollen that's released. And then
fall we're talking about weed pollen. So and those are
(07:23):
the seasons when all of those pollens are released. And
then indoors, we can also have allergens. So there's dust mites,
cockroaches in New York City or other urban environments.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
There's also.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Cat dog allergen, so cat allergies. Yes, pet allergies are
very common for people. So you can have allergies to
a whole host of things in your environment. And as
I mentioned, definitely the outdoor allergens are getting worse and worse,
and depending on the environment that you're living in, the
pollution also contributes to our symptoms.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
It's interesting. I had my dermatologists on a couple of
weeks ago, I'm talking about roseationia and she went into
hold the whole dust my thing, And I now think
what keeps me up in under dust mites in my
head because I started the itch thinking about them in
my pull list. You know, I'm going to talk about
that because I have said I have a lot of
allergies I'm wanting also as hereditary. My mother had a
(08:22):
lot of allergies, which I learned about as she grew older,
but she always seemed to have a nasal spray of
her nose. I think she was addicted to I think
it brought it at her mouth. She had so much
nasal spray it scared me. I think she just had
so many allergies. And then I've developed them and I
want to use it hereditary. What are are they hereditary?
Speaker 4 (08:41):
They are so if you're an atopic person, which means
if you have any of those allergic conditions that I
had started with asthma, exema, seasonal allergies, food allergies, you
are what we consider an atopic person, an allergic person,
and then if you have kids, you're more likely to
pass those all urgens, to pass those atopic conditions to
(09:03):
your children. Now that doesn't mean that you know, if
you specifically have a shellfish allergy, that your child will
have a shellfish allergy, but just that general that you
are an allergic person and your child can be an
allergic person.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It's interesting because kids, kids are just so susceptible to
other kids who have allergies and things. You know, it's
like Germy, it's cool. And you know, we're gonna say
on the seasonal before we get to the ones like
anaphylactic and whatnot, which is a whole other category, a
(09:40):
couple of things. A lot of moms and a lot
of people these say sink that by changing their diet
or doing certain potions or whatever the latest is can
help alleviate allergies and the utter swelling and itching that
comes with it. What's myth and what's reality with what
(10:02):
you can do naturally?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
So something that I hear often is the local honey myth.
So a lot of people will start eating local honey
to try to get rid of their seasonal allergies. And
the way that local honey, the reason that people think
it might think it may work is they think that
the pollen in the local honey may help.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Well.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
The pollen that's on worker bees is actually from flowering plants,
and it's not from the type of plants that actually
cause seasonal allergies. So the type of plants, as I mentioned, trees,
rag weed, and grass, those are not the type of
pollen that bees naturally go to, and so on their
(10:45):
legs you're going to find flowering trees. And flowering trees
don't cause allergies, so local honey will not help, and
ingesting pollen does not help you. There is something called
allergy immuno therapy, and that is when we give allergy
shots or there's a subbling well, I mean therapy tablet
that's also approved by the FDA that can help with allergies.
(11:09):
And those are different ways to help your immune system
see these allergens in a different way.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
It's interesting because I was I had a big boubt
of something, uh something in the spring, and this is interesting,
doctor Goobis. So we're talking to geography. I travel a lot.
So I went to Italy and I was in Tuscany
and there's a lot of these tall, beautiful cypress trees.
And every time I go there, I start coughing and wheezing,
(11:36):
wheezing and coughing, and somebody said, you're allergic to cypress trees.
I don't know, but it's it's it's became chronic to
the point where everybody just thought I was ill all
the time. When I was traveling for work. I was
given all I've been given all sorts of allergy medications,
but the problem is with them for me, as they
(11:57):
make you drowsy and make foggy and then you can't function.
And I also wonder, you know, I mean, obviously there's
non drowsy, but can you overdo that as well, because
like my husband and I are like popping non drowsy
generic every day because there's the itching, But can you
overdo that?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I mean?
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So one thing that I want to mention is that
there are first generation antihistamines and then there's second generation antihistamines.
And what we mean by that the first generation, the
older antihistamines are things like benadryl or diphenhydramine is the
other alternative name for benadryl. That one we're really shying
away from because we realize that the antihistamine properties, which
(12:38):
is really what we're looking to target, is the histamine
that works the same in first and secondary generation antihistamines.
You're not getting more bang for your buck with benadryl
than you are with things like allegras, zerotech, clariton, zizol,
all of these other medications but what you are getting
(12:58):
more of are side effect so that drowsiness from benadryl
is very profound. There's also something that's called anti colonergic
side effects, which is like the drying of your mouth
and other symptoms related to that, and so those can
be very dangerous, especially in younger populations like babies and children.
(13:19):
They can get overdosed on those medications. And older individuals
also have to be careful because of those sedative side effects.
They can be at higher risk of falls and dizziness
that can be very detrimental.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah, that was a concern with my mother because she
was on all this stuff and she did fall. So
you know, so what as a parent or caregiver, because
in my hand, you're either a parent or a caregiver
or you're dealing with sensitive people, whether they're babies or elderly,
what should you consider or talk to the pediatrician or
(13:55):
the senior care medical the pacia I'm your care physician
about because inevitably there is going to be sensitivity, I know.
I mean the older you get, you become more sensitive
to everything, and the younger you are sensitive to everything.
What should what should be the discussion in questions to
ask your doctor.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Regarding medications, what I would say is that you know,
the antaste means are great, the second generation antase means
are are all great. None of them are completely non drowsy.
There are certain that are not as drowsy as others,
but all of them are sedating to a certain degree,
and it really depends on the person how sedated they
feel on whatever medication. There are so many other medications
(14:35):
that are available. So the nasal sprays for that runny nose,
stuffy knows, those are actually the best. So I would
look for a safe nasal spray. So a lot of
the nasal sprays, most of the nasal sprays are over
the counter now, and that's a little bit dangerous because
there are a couple of nasal sprays that are dangerous.
(14:55):
So there's something called oxymetallizone or the main ingredient in
an afron, for example, and that should not be used regularly.
That is a dangerous medication. It can actually cause rebound congestion,
which means that it can make your nose even more congested.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I think that's what happened to my mother because she
lost herselves a smell.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Okay, yeah, so you know.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I don't know why they still have that medication as
an overcounter medication because it can actually be very detrimental
and people can not really get addicted. It's not doing
anything to your brain to get you addicted, but it
just gives you that sensation of you can breathe and
your nose is open. So people just keep using it
over and over again for long periods of time and
(15:36):
then they get into trouble.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
So, but there are.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Safe nasal sprays that you can use, and so I
would definitely make sure that whatever medications you're using, you
take them to your doctor's office. Don't just say I'm
using a nasal spray, because we don't know what that means,
and we really need to check the ingredients to make
sure it's a safe nasal spray that you're using. So
make sure to take your medications in when you're using them.
(16:01):
Make sure to look at the ingredients because a lot
of times the nasal sprays will all be labeled with
different things like this one's for runny nose, this one's
for congestion, and people get confused and they're literally buying
the same medication wrapped up in a different package twice
and using it multiple times when they shouldn't be, so
it's really important to make sure that we're using the
(16:24):
right ingredient. There's also like a Xertech or Allegra, an
antihistamine just for your nose. So there's nasal sprays that
contain antihistamines in them that are also very good and
it's safe and effective. So that's another alternative that you
can use. And then for your eyes there's eye drops
with antihistamines in them. And again for the eyes, there
(16:46):
can also be unsafe medications that are over the counter,
especially the ones that say that they relieve the red eye.
Those should not be used for long term use either.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I did that when I was younger, and it was
not good. I'm so well now with all of this,
and you know a couple of things. One with I
make sure you don't share it because my husband went
to borrow mine. I'm like, now get your own. Make
sure you don't touch. You can get an infection by
not taking care of your eye drops. That's one. Two.
(17:17):
When I was going through this situation, which was serious
upper respiratory in the spring, we had to take a
long look at the ingredients and I underscore an echo
with you get really a deep dive into the ingredients
to go over with your doctor and understand what the
orror because some of the ingredients in my cough and
(17:38):
cold also we're not good for my blood pressure. It
was something with a g the guava, guava whatever it is.
It starts with g ua and it's a common ingredient
in cough and cold and you know medications at liquid
and I couldn't do it because I have high blood pressure.
(17:59):
So you have to also think of those interactions.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yes, absolutely, Glueffedysin, I actually I know that pseudophedrin is
the main ingredient that is in these medications that can
cause the blood pressure to be elevated. Gluffhenysin I thought
was actually safer, but I would have to look that up.
Not something else. Even doctors, we need to make sure
(18:22):
that we're double triple checking the side effects of every
medication because there's so many medications out there, but the
one that we definitely tell patients with high blood pressure
to avoid are things like pseudo fed or pseudophedron because
that can definitely elevate your heart rate and your blood pressure.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Oh interesting, I mean you'd really have to know these things. Again.
As you progress in the years, your allergies can change.
I've become much more sensitive to everything. So we've been
talking about drugs and seasonal allergies. I want to dive
a little deeper. I have I get reactions to bug bites.
(19:01):
I can't. I really, it's almost horrible, and I've actually
had to go to pharmacies and doctors because it's got
really bad. It was probably the worst in buts One.
In fact, it got so bad that we named them
after the places we went. There was the buttswan a rash,
the Grecia rash, is the New Orleans rash. I broke
out in a rash in an event. We don't know why.
(19:24):
When you have rashes, you go to your dermatologists. You're
an allergist. If you get rashes from bug bites or
redness or scratching or all that good stuff, who do
you see?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Well, really, either we are both subspecialties are well versed
in reactions to the environment, reactions to bug bites, and
so we can all counsel both dermatologists and allergies.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
We can counsele you on the.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Best kind of treatment protocol for whatever you're suffering from.
Maybe you have underlying eczema, which is a d skin condition,
and people with eczema can have more of these kind
of sensitivities to different environments, different bugs, things like that,
and so that might be what's going on.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Especially when you're traveling.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
You're staying in an alternative environment, right, and so like
you mentioned the dust mites, like maybe you are sensitive
to dust mites, and you know, when you're staying in
a hotel, you don't know how good they're how well
they're taking care of those sheets. So it can be
an issue for some people. And some people travel with
their own pillowcases. Some people travel with their own pillows.
(20:33):
So it really just depends on the severity of your
symptoms and what you're willing to do or need to
do in order to stay comfortable.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
It's interesting a couple of things. If you do have
itchiness itchy, obviously, don't scratch. Scratching makes it worse. And
I scratch. I scratched yesterday and startedly you know it's
because I've got the old lady's skin. What can you
do when you're having a topical allergic reaction, I mean
(21:03):
the old days they used to pepper me with calamine
lotions so it looked like a pink platypus. And then
I can also like somebody set me magnesia, but it's
like this will get rid of the dust, smite. What's
real and what isn't in terms of the reactions.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Yeah, So topical treatments for any kind of what we
call dermatitis. So dermatitis is inflammation of the skin, and
it can be related to so many different things. Really,
it depends on what Sometimes it depends on what's causing
it and how frequently it's happening. But we have steroidal
which means steroid topical medications, and we also have non
(21:40):
steroid all topical medications. Now we have a whole host
of those. So I would really for you talk to
your doctor about what options you have so that the
earlier you treat these things the better. So, as you
mentioned that itch rash cycle is very very important to
keep in mind. The more you rub, the more you
you scratch, the worse your skin is going to get.
(22:03):
Because your nails are weapons right to your skin, so
they're dirty.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
They're I mean, everyone's nails are dirty, not yours.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
But and we're talking to everybody out there. Your nails
could be dirty.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Everyone's nails are dirty, and so the more you know,
you scratch at it, and you if you do rip
the skin apart, then you're really putting yourself at risk
to get an infection of your skin because our nails
are so dirty. So you really have to be kind
to your skin, so you know, using one of those
medications that's prescribed by your doctor. And then on top
(22:35):
of that, I love vasoline, like straight up petroleum jelly vasoline.
It's the least no one is allergic to that. It
is sticky, but it's also great to protect your skin
and to help in the healing process.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, I went to have something removed and addressed and
eaching from that to the bandage, and it wasn't Latex,
but they said AQUA four And I'm not. I don't
promote brant, but they were like, do that. But I
get so much stuff sent to me about how to
deal with your bug bite. It's a bug thing, the
thing that pokes you. You know, less is more, but
just don't scratch. And you're right, your nails are weapons
(23:14):
and you got to be really really careful because that's
how you get infections and that you isn't just me,
it's me with all of you out there, because I
know you're itching to learn more about this. So I
you see me scratched because I have I have some
issues right now because I tend to it'ch okay. Why
do you itch at night? More?
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Is that a thing? Because I seem to break down
each is a night more, which means I usually take
a drug to put myself to sleep, and then I'm
drowsy in the morning. Why do you itch at night?
Other things that maybe dustmights in your pillow?
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Yeah, No, I don't think it's related to the death nights.
It's really just related to us being so busy during
the day that you're not really paying attention to how
your body feels. When we're laying down at night, that's
really when you're feeling all the feels and when we
really notice that itch more.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
And there may also be a circadian.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Rhythm to the itch where like we're seeing that with
asthma that in the late hours and early morning, your
asthma symptoms can be worse. And so you know, there's
always those kind of things also. But I think for
the itch at night It is mostly related to us
just being all of a sudden present in our bodies
(24:25):
and being able to sense everything that we're going through.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Interesting, So you mentioned al you mentioned asthma again, So
how does asthma different from allergies? Because I was prescribed
also one of those things to breathe that made me dizzy,
but I carry it just in case chest closes up,
which just happened. You'll get into with food. What was
the difference between allergies and asthma.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Yeah, so asthma is a chronic lung condition and it
also involves inflammation of the airways. And there's actually two
things that happen. There's the inflammation of the airways, but
there's also what we call broncho constriction, so the muscles
around the airways will tighten up when they're exposed to
different triggers. And those triggers can be things like allergies
like the pollen, DustMite, cockroaches, cats, dogs, all those things.
(25:14):
It can also be related to cold weather, hot weather, humidity, stress.
There's so many things depending on your asthma that can
trigger your asthma. Exercise, and so when you got asthma,
you do need to carry around your rescue medication is
what we call it, and that's the medication that's going
(25:35):
to help open up your airways. And now we're also
using a mild anti inflammatory in our rescue medication too.
That's the new recommendation. So yes, that is the inhaler.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
So then hailers are the primary treatment for asthma. We
also have for more severe asthma, we have biologic medications.
And if you do have that more moderate severe form
of asthma where you're having daily, weekly symptoms, then we
may put you on a daily inhaler that you're using
twice a day, and then also we might put you
(26:09):
on these biologic or injectable medications. But now, really, you know,
we have so many treatments sorry available for asthma that
I do want to just do a PSA that if
you're suffering with your asthma, if you're in a cycle
of going to the emergency room frequently or going to
an urgent care frequently and getting oral steroids or cortical steroids,
(26:33):
we want you to see a specialist. We want you
to see long doctor, a pomonologist, or an allergist right away.
Because we have so many new medications that can help
you get out of that vicious cycle, because unfortunately, eleven
people a day in this country still die from asthma,
and we really can change that statistic if we help
(26:56):
with this kind of vicious cycle that people are in.
Because in the urgent care emergency room, those doctors are
trained on how to help you breathe right now, they're
not treated. They're not trained, sorry, in how to prevent
those asthma attacks from happening.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
So that's just something that I want business. So, you know,
I an elderly family friend died of asthma and it
was because you know, cold weather triggered it. Cold weather
triggered it and she was having trouble breathing. Was she
had the attack in New York. The one that killed
her was in Florida, So I'm not sure what happened,
but she didn't get to the hospital in time. Can
(27:34):
you grow out of asthma or grow into asthma?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yes, So you know people, babies, children can have asthma
and then they would have it really lifelong. But it
can have ebbs and flows, so it can get better
and sometimes it can get worse, and sometimes it can
feel like oh my God, I don't have asthma anymore,
but you're underlying airways are just predisposed to that bronco
(28:02):
constriction or that inflammation. And then older individuals or you know,
at any point in your life, because of our environment,
because of the sensitization that I was talking about, and
more and more people becoming allergic and because of the pollution,
we are seeing higher rates of later in life asthma also.
So and then another trigger that I didn't mention is
(28:23):
cold colds. You know, so flu season right now is
upon us, and so colds can also trigger people's asthma.
So it's really important to get your flu vaccine and
COVID vaccine and make sure that you're fully protected for
the season.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I got mine two days ago. Great, I'm a big
I support because I've been filled by the flu. And
speaking of COVID, which I get, I've still have had
four different COVID is because I go to a festival
in Louisiana and it's like you're going to get COVID,
and I travel a lot, so I always get my vaccines. However,
I'm wondering and then it may be too soon too
(29:00):
do the analysis. I'm wondering because of a COVID nineteen pandemic,
if more people have become more who experienced COVID, which
because clearly a pulmonary issue, if they are now more
susceptible to things like asthma, do you have any has
any studies been done yet on.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
That not necessarily more susceptible, but you know, depending on
the severity of the disease that they had of COVID,
people can have residual symptoms and can have residual kind
of long inflammation and irritation. And so whether or not
(29:40):
it's truly asthma or not, or if it's a post
COVID kind of lung illness is you know, is one
of those things that is in the semantics. But at
the end of the day, you can have a long
term chronic long illness related to COVID depending on the severity.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Thing is many years ago and I'm wearing paint because
this is breast cancer awareness months darting. I was diagnosed
with breast cancer, underwent amseectomy. Literally I just hit my
fifteen year mark. After I underwent chemotherapy, I developed many
more sensitivities in respiratory to the point where I've had
(30:22):
many and I've had upper and oska, I've had a
role So are there other than chemotherapy which clearly changed
my biosphere? Are there other kinds of medical conditions unrelated
to allergy and asthma? Are treatments that could trigger or
make you more susceptible.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Make you more susceptible to allergies or our asthma or Yeah,
I would say that, you know, in general, our immune
system is important to take care of, and I wouldn't
say that there are any particular illnesses that I can
say that once you have that illness, now you may
(31:05):
have allergies in the future or asthma in the future.
But at the end of the day, you know, just
making sure that if you're sick, you don't go into
work and expose other people. If you're sick, you're wearing
a mask. If you're in large group environments and your
immuno compromise, meaning you are on chemotherapy or you are
(31:28):
getting treatment for a cancer, then you have to be
extra careful, right so that you don't get exposed to
any kind of infections and get and respiratory illness. So yeah,
I mean, I'm sorry that you went through all of that.
That is a lot for your body, and those are
you know, very heavy duty medications, and they do kind
of do a number on people's bodies for sure.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Well is the lead me too, And you know, I
think I've had all the symptoms, runny nos less so
except when I go to Italy, sneezing all time, in
spurts usually of the time, coughing, red word. You're seeing
me like this because I'm itching right now because when
I was caring for my mother, I developed an itch
which I think was stress related my nosedgch. But she
also had mold in her house, and so mold is
(32:13):
another environmental allergy. I think you touched on it. But
if you should, if you're having itching in your house
and it's old or in a humid area, you may
want to get a mold check right to see if
there's mold.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Well that's complicated, yeah, I mean, so you know there's
indoor and outdoor molds, and you know how to check
for mold obviously, if you've got I have I you know,
I practice in New York City, so I've seen it all.
People bring in pictures of really really poor housing situations,
especially in the New York City housing system is terrible
(32:50):
at I'm keeping people's homes and it's so it's really sad.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
You know.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
There's obviously black.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Mold all over, literally all over someone's home that they're
living in. And mold is interesting because it can cause
a lot of different symptoms and illnesses, but it really
is sometimes difficult to assess for especially if you don't
blatantly see it.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
With that black mold.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
The testing for it and the companies out there that
test for it, it's questionable on how accurate they are.
So I always I don't ever want to put anyone
in that path of like feeling like their environment is
now mold ridden and they have to move, because that's
that's a huge ask, you know, And it's also really
hard to remediate mold, and so we have to figure
(33:38):
out exactly what could be causing the symptoms, especially if
there's a lot of humidity. Dust mightes actually thrive on humidity,
so the dust might counts will also be really high
in those environments, So it could be a combination of
a lot of things. And itch in general, as you mentioned,
can be caused by multiple factors, so it's not always environmental.
(33:58):
It can be internal. So you know, there's a condition
called chronic spontaneous urticaria. People will get itch and hives
and sometimes even swelling on their eyes and face, and
that's an internal process. It's not an external process. So
they're getting those hives and itching related to kind of
their immune system reacting and releasing these chemicals that are
(34:22):
causing the hives to appear. And so there's so many
different things that are going on in our bodies, and
so if you're suffering with any of these things, you
really just want to touch base with a doctor. And
if you're able to a specialist, if you're really suffering
and have been dealing with symptoms for a while.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You know, I could agree more. My husband, who is
mister I know how to fix this. He's not a doctor,
he didn't graduate college, okay, but his mother who was
apparently not a doctor but was brilliant. I never went
to a doctor. I was itching from this. Whatever happened
to my back the other night. It was probably a
reaction to one bug by And he gave me some
square so that his mother gave him for probably when
(35:05):
he was a kid, that he still had with him
for poison ivy called Phelps. It was with an f
He's like, this will cure it. You know, go to
a doctor, don't don't have wellness people and your husband
or your mom who never went to the doctor, or
you're my mom who would just say take one of
my drugs, don't do it, go to a doctor.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Yeah, and I see that because you know, allergies and
even asthma sometimes is minimized because you know, like literally
almost everyone has them, but there's different degrees as to
how much you're suffering. And as we mentioned asthma, you
can die from asthma. Environmental allergies, though, can cause a
(35:47):
lot of quality of life issues, So poor sleep disturbance
is a big one. We know how important sleep is
to our general well being. And as you mentioned the
next day, being groggy means that your irritable, you're not
functioning well. You you know, you can't be a good wife, partner, driver, mom, yes, driver,
(36:13):
just overall your functioning is compromised. So it's really important
to remember that allergic disease can really hurt people, and
for some people it's year round symptoms. So to get
that properly managed is actually very very important.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Yes, you don't want your quality of life, because it
could affect what you want to do in life. I
have I have a friend it won't go to anywhere
in your humidity because your hair will blow up. I mean,
you know, I don't want to travel now to destinations
with high mosquitos. I mean that's sad. I live in
a place with high mosquitos. Why would I want to
go travel the ones? So may maney going to one
to get bitten, But you shouldn't live like that. I
(36:49):
want to touch on the other category while we have
the time of allergies, which could be life threatening. Okay,
food insect venom, latex and medication. Okay, let's start with
what you need to have ready to give to your
doctor at all times into in case of an emergency,
your list of allergies and understand fully what they are.
(37:11):
Let's talk about that because this could be life threatening.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
So, food allergies, you know, are a big problem in
western countries and we're realizing, you know, it could be
a host of different things. We really don't know why
food allergies are on the rise, but we do know
that early exposure for infants, so as soon as your
infant is able to eat is taking oral foods, and
(37:36):
you're starting those early foods. That's when we start introduction
with these allergenic foods like eggs, trenuts, peanuts, and so
it's important to start doing that early on, and we
call it early exposure and sustained exposure.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
That means that.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Once your baby tolerates peanuts, for example, you want to
continue to give peanuts regularly in the diet. And of
course peanuts themselves are choking hazard, so I just want
to put that out there.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
You're not giving your child an actual peanut.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
You are giving them a peanut powder and mixing it
in with bananas, for example, or you can use peanut
butter and mix it in with something like bananas. Also,
peanut butter can be a choking hazard, so making sure
that it's not too sticky, making sure that it's not
a choking hazard is also important when you're introducing these foods.
But once you have introduced it your child has tolerated it,
(38:29):
then you want to keep that in the diet as
much as possible. And so you know, but if you
do end up having a child, or if you're an
adult that has a nuancet food allergy, then it is
important to number one, get evaluated, figure out what food
may have caused the reaction.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
And I want to also talk about.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Food sensitivities versus true food allergy.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
This is a very important topic because a true food
all is a life threatening emergency.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Right.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Food sensitivities are in a whole different category. If you
miss label and you are telling people that you're allergic
when you're just sensitive, that gives a mixed picture to,
for example, restaurants staff. So if someone goes in and
they're like, I'm allergic to, you know, tomatoes, and the
restaurant's staff is really vigilant make sure that there's no
(39:24):
tomatoes on that person's plate. But then they see that
person eating off of somebody else's plate and that plate
has tomatoes and nothing happens to them. They're like, see,
these allergies don't really mean anything, and we're taking all
this time out to make sure this person's saved. And
then they're eating off of someone's plate with a tomato.
And that's because maybe that person's sensitive doesn't like the
(39:46):
way that tomatoes make their body feel, but they're not anaphylactic.
So what we mean by anaphylaxis is that within minutes,
no more than thirty minutes, you start having symptoms of
high itching all over your body, swelling of the face, lips,
eyes or throat, difficulty breathing, coughing, wheezing, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.
(40:13):
So all of these symptoms can happen all at once
and that's called anaphylaxis, or you can get you know,
milder symptoms. But if you do have milder symptoms and
in any of those categories, you do need to get
evaluated to see if you have a true food allergy
so that you can get an epineffrine device, which is
the only life saving treatment for food allergies. Right. So
(40:36):
there's EpiPen there's a lot of different versions of the
epineffrine device. There's a nasal spray, there is an epinefferin
device that talks to you, so there's a lot of
different types. There's another one that may be coming out
that's just a film that you put underneath your tongue.
So there's a lot of different versions of epinephrin that
(40:56):
are either available or soon to be available.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
It's an important conversation to have. And also and the
aging thing, I had an episode where I inhaled too
many pepper and chinis from the deli.
Speaker 5 (41:12):
That doesn't sound good.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
I couldn't reathe and it was scary, you know, really scary,
and I thought maybe the pirosines too many at one
time did it for me because there's the pizines and
the peppers or no no capusins sorry pizans in the
green pepper, the capiscum, whatever it's called. So I pulled
back on those kind of pepper and chinie because it
(41:36):
was scary. I was wheezing. I had to do the bentyl.
I'm going to live, you know, but it's scary. But
it things like that happened again. Talk to your doctor
and if you travel a lot, maybe it's good to
have an epiphenephn pen with you because you don't know
when something can happen and you don't want to be
away on a trip where you were a loved one
is suddenly in an anaphylaxic. I've been through anaphylaxic. I
(41:59):
had it with medication, which we're going to talk about
when I had a round of path a tax hal
and a friend of mine just went through this.
Speaker 5 (42:08):
I was but you need to know.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
When you talk to your doctor, they will say what
what medications are you taking and what allergies you have,
and you need to keep that updated. And another one
is latex late tex. I didn't know that could be
like life threatening.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Latex allergy.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
I mean, if you're getting a procedure and they use
some sort of a late text device, then you could
potentially have a severe reaction. But just using like a
latex band aid, you shouldn't have an anaphylactic reaction of
any sort, but if it's introduced to your body in
a different way, it could have the potential, I'm sure
of causing a more severe reaction, and I do want
(42:53):
to just like roll back a little bit. You know, epinephrine,
carrying an up and effrine device can actually cause a
lot of anxiety for people, so I just want to
make sure. That's why it's so important to figure out
if you have a true food allergy or if it's
just a sensitivity, because when you have a true food allergy,
of course it's life threatening. People are scared for their
(43:14):
lives right when they go out to eat. They're worried
that someone's going to make a mistake and put their
food allergen into their food and that they could have
a reaction. And so in those situations, that's very anxiety provoking.
And we know that the mental health outcomes for people
with food allergies is not that great. People are worried,
they're constantly worried, and we really have to help them
(43:37):
through that and to relieve their anxiety and to help
them understand that they have the treatment that they need
in case they were to be accidentally exposed to their allergen.
But I'm saying all of that just to say that
having an up and effort device can cause anxiety for people.
So if you all of a sudden think, you know,
I had this reaction to the capsicum and now I'm
(43:59):
worried that I could have an another life threatening reaction inadvertently,
that can cause a lot of anxiety. So that's why
it's really important to get a full evaluation, really talk
to a specialist. Understand are you truly allergic or was
this something else that happened? You know, did it go
down the wrong tube? Was it just you know, the
smell that was causing your airways to react and get sensitized.
(44:23):
So what was it that you know may have happened
during that reaction. And you know, if we have testing
available to that particular food, then your then your allergist
would be able to test you, either via blood testing
or something called a skin prick.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Test points will taken. But if you are traveling and
many people are traveling, or your kids going to school
or going to call it, and they do have anaphylactic potential,
what would you recommend? What are the key things you
need to consider? Oh?
Speaker 4 (44:53):
Yes, I mean then one hundred and ten percent, you
need to always have your epineffort device no matter where
you are are. And actually that population of adolescents, the
high school age and the college age are the two
groups that we worry about the most because it's that
period where you're finally getting that independence that you know
(45:14):
you've always longed for.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
And a lot of.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Us wish that we could just go back to being children,
you know, but you're you're you want that independence. But
with food allergies, it's a it's a big task to
make sure that that child, that adolescent, that young adult
understands the importance of carrying around that ep and effrine
device at all times because you never know, no one
(45:38):
is trying to eat the allergen that they're truly anaphylectic
to that's not anyone's goal, right, But those accidental exposures
can happen, and that's the reason that we have to
carry around that appin affrine device.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
You read about that all the time, and it's usually
a young calling young people, and it's it's it's usually
it's accidental, uh, not intentional, And then you want to
be able to prevent that. We were running a little
bit at a time. But I would think that this
also goes to insect venom. I've read about that guy
who was playing polo in London and he was really famous,
(46:11):
and it bug went into his mouth and he died
of anophylaxic. I walk around out like this. I will
not open my mouth. I'm taking my boxes. I'm so
afraid a bog's gonna go in. So talk about anxiety.
Just reading about this stuff, and so I'm going to
just say, you know, how do you handle the anxiety?
What is your final word to say? How to handle
(46:31):
anxiety around alergies?
Speaker 4 (46:34):
Yeah, I mean anaphylaxis is very uncommon. I feel really
bad for that person's family. It's not that common to
get anaphylaxis from venom or from foods. I mean, obviously
the raids are increasing, but it's not still not that common.
So I don't want people to be worried that that
would happen to them. And you know, we have enough
(46:55):
things to be anxious about right now in our world,
and so that's the last thing that I want for
people to be anxious about. I think that again, if
you're having symptoms, if you've had a reaction and you
haven't been evaluated, that's really the important thing. And even
talking to a professional can help you feel better. And
(47:16):
if you had like kind of a confusing reaction and
it's kind of causing you anxiety in the back of
your mind, that is truly the reason to go and
see somebody, because we want to be able to help
relieve your relieve your stress and anxiety surrounding that reaction
and help confirm whether it is a true allergen and
we can give you an up enofferent device or whether
(47:37):
it really isn't something you need to worry about.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
And stress can also the anxiety and stress can make
you itch and swell as well. So I think these
are such important points and just to wrap this up.
We've been speaking with doctor Payl Gupta, who is a
specialist in allergies and asthma and you know as a
one of the advisory team the Allergy and Asthma Network.
(48:01):
She's affiliate with Mount Sinai, which is such a great
hospital and sunny in New York.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
My message to everyone out there and the you is
always the you out there, not just me. I suffer,
You suffer. We all suffer from allergies and anxiety. And
how are we going to live the rest of our lives?
One assemble the best medical team you can, consider them
your board of advisors for your physical and mental well being,
and put your self care as a priority. I underscore
(48:28):
that in my book Getting Things Off My Chest, which
is a survivor's guide to staying fearless and fabulous in
the face of cancer. That's my plug because I learned
it the hard way. I didn't do that. I put
my business first, put your self care first, and then
live your life. Live your life and enjoy it because
that's the gift. But always know what you need to
(48:49):
have to be prepared if you do have underlying conditions
and could be at risk.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Right, yes, absolutelybsolutely. Having that team in place is very
very important. Yes, and you know, getting that care and
making sure all your questions are answered is very very
important to relieve stress and anxiety, especially surrounding our health.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
Well, I think you have been such a wonderful resource today.
I want to thank you for your time. I love
talking to people like you because I always have questions
and if I figure if I have questions, everybody else
out there is going through it too, So I'd just
like to keep things open. And You've been wonderful. You've
been listening to Fearless, Fabulous you. This focus has been
on are you itching to learn more about managing your allergies?
(49:37):
I am. My final message is always this, you have
the choice to live your life on your terms, not
on the terms that people set for you. Put yourself
care first, put your health first, because you only have
one body and one life, so give it the best treatment.
You can live freely and always choose to live fearlessly
(49:57):
and fabulously. I'm Melanie Young. Thank you for you joining me,
follow me and Melanie Fabulous. Check out my book. It's
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but it's breast cancer Awareness forever,
so please take care of yourself and be well, and
thank you
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(00:20):
be directed to those show hosts.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello, and welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host,
Melanie Young, And oh my god, it's October one. Gosh,
where did September go? And why am I still in
summer clothes? I live in New Orleans. It's still hot.
It's probably hot where you are, because it's hot everywhere.
The season's change, and so do our allergies. That's we're
(01:02):
going to talk about today. My voice is a little scratchy,
why because I have seasonal allergies. So I'll be sipping
my favorite multi smug and so that's what inspired me
to do the show, because I never had allergies as
a child. Okay, I never had allergies as a child,
my mother was riddled with them, and as I have
(01:27):
grown older, I seem to develop more. But what's really
really weird is they are definitely changing and evolving throughout
the seasons. The New Orleans seems to only have two seasons,
hot and hotter. But when I lived in New York,
I was plagued with allergies up there and went to
an allogist who said, you're basically allergic to outdoors, which
(01:48):
I thought was funny because growing up in Tennessee, I
had no issues with allergies, which made me wonder our
allergies not only seasonal, will be geographically specific. I have
a world and do you get more when you age?
Because I think I'm in my third phase of metopause
officially now. So I have all these great questions and
(02:08):
a wonderful guest, an expert on this topic to discuss
it with me and hopefully help you if you were
having the itchies and the twitchies and the make you
feeling bitchies, which I have. All that's time I'm married.
Now we're going to be talking with doctor Payel Gupta,
who has extensive work in the field of allergies, asthma, immunology,
(02:30):
and ear nose and throat. I think I go to
all those right now. She is affiliated with the Great
Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, where I
used to live, and Sunni Medical Center in Downstate New York,
which I think I also used to live there too,
because I lived in the Hudson Valley. So I miss
New York with anything right now because Autumna New York
(02:51):
is beautiful, so I'm happy to talk to someone from
New York and most importantly talk to doctor Grouped about allergies.
She is also part of the medical team or advisorship
of the Allergy and Asthma Network, which is a nonprofit
(03:11):
organization and advocacy group that unites about sixteen helps about
sixty million Americans who suffer and the word is suffer
with allergies because some sixty million people the United States
have some kind of allergy. So you're not alone. So
that is a great site. I'll throw out the website
now so you have it. It's Allergyasthmanetwork dot org. I've
actually had guests on my show from this organization in
(03:34):
the past, but it's time for a refresh. So, doctor
Payl Gupta, welcome to Fearless, Fabulous you. I hope you
can help sort these things out.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about
this topic. It's definitely near and dear to me. I
have a lot of allergies. I have allergies in my
eyes and nose, I have asthma, and I have egzemas.
So all of these things kind of come hand in hand,
and I'm happy to talk about it in the context
of women and aging and all of these things that
we're all going through.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Well, you know, let's get to the first of all,
there's like two big categories of allergies, so let's explain.
Let's explain what an allergy is versus something else like asthma, irritation.
That's important.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yes, So you know when people talk about allergies, there
are two different types of broad categories. There's environmental allergies,
and that's what gives us that runny nose. It gis
can lead to allergic asthma, so the coffee wheezing, those
kind of things and even ezema, and that is separate
from food allergies. So food allergies of course, you know
(04:42):
everyone's heard of people who have peanut allergies, shellfish allergies,
other tree nut allergies. Really you can be allergic to
any food and so those are two totally distinct, separate entities.
And then there's also insect allergies, so you can be
allergic to bees, wasps, anything like that. And there's medication allergies,
(05:02):
so there's a whole host of things that we can
be allergic to.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
It's I'm just wondering our allergies diagnoses on the rise
or more people getting allergies because the world is changing
and the climate is.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Changing absolutely so in the context of seasonal environmental allergies,
people are getting sensitized. And what that means is that
you know, when you move from one location to another,
that environment is new to you and so every season
you're getting exposed to that environment. Your body is trying
to figure out do I like this or do I
not like this? And in that sensitization process, we're also
(05:37):
getting exposed to more and more pollen because as the
CO two levels rise because of global warming, we're seeing
higher levels of pollen and longer pollen seasons. So all
of that contributes to more people with that runny nose
itchis and difficulty breathing.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I think this is so interesting because, as I reference,
I've several times I lived in a New Manhattan. I've
lived in upstate New York in the Hudson Valley, which
is very rural. I've lived in Tennessee, and now I'm
in New Orleans, and I've traveled extensively and gotten serious
allergic reactions when I've traveled. It definitely feels environmental as well.
(06:18):
So we've talked about climactic and the fallen changes, but
how does it also change maybe environmentally, and how do
you know what to do about that? And we've a
lot of mosquitoes down here, and every time, I mean,
I have to like predically, we're a thing over my
head to go out.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah, so mosquitoes are interesting. Everyone is sensitive to the
to that toxin that they release in our body, and
so it's a substance that they release in our body
that we're all sensitive to. Some people are more sensitive
than others. Technically, there aren't too many people that have
had like an anaphylactic allergy response to mosquitoes, but people
(07:00):
you get really large local reactions. So that's mosquitoes as
far as environmental, when I mentioned environmental allergies, I didn't
talk about what we're talking about. So we're talking about
pollen allergies. In the springtime, that's tree pollen that's released.
In the summertime that's grass pollen that's released. And then
fall we're talking about weed pollen. So and those are
(07:23):
the seasons when all of those pollens are released. And
then indoors, we can also have allergens. So there's dust mites,
cockroaches in New York City or other urban environments.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
There's also.
Speaker 4 (07:38):
Cat dog allergen, so cat allergies. Yes, pet allergies are
very common for people. So you can have allergies to
a whole host of things in your environment. And as
I mentioned, definitely the outdoor allergens are getting worse and worse,
and depending on the environment that you're living in, the
pollution also contributes to our symptoms.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
It's interesting. I had my dermatologists on a couple of
weeks ago, I'm talking about roseationia and she went into
hold the whole dust my thing, And I now think
what keeps me up in under dust mites in my
head because I started the itch thinking about them in
my pull list. You know, I'm going to talk about
that because I have said I have a lot of
allergies I'm wanting also as hereditary. My mother had a
(08:22):
lot of allergies, which I learned about as she grew older,
but she always seemed to have a nasal spray of
her nose. I think she was addicted to I think
it brought it at her mouth. She had so much
nasal spray it scared me. I think she just had
so many allergies. And then I've developed them and I
want to use it hereditary. What are are they hereditary?
Speaker 4 (08:41):
They are so if you're an atopic person, which means
if you have any of those allergic conditions that I
had started with asthma, exema, seasonal allergies, food allergies, you
are what we consider an atopic person, an allergic person,
and then if you have kids, you're more likely to
pass those all urgens, to pass those atopic conditions to
(09:03):
your children. Now that doesn't mean that you know, if
you specifically have a shellfish allergy, that your child will
have a shellfish allergy, but just that general that you
are an allergic person and your child can be an
allergic person.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
It's interesting because kids, kids are just so susceptible to
other kids who have allergies and things. You know, it's
like Germy, it's cool. And you know, we're gonna say
on the seasonal before we get to the ones like
anaphylactic and whatnot, which is a whole other category, a
(09:40):
couple of things. A lot of moms and a lot
of people these say sink that by changing their diet
or doing certain potions or whatever the latest is can
help alleviate allergies and the utter swelling and itching that
comes with it. What's myth and what's reality with what
(10:02):
you can do naturally?
Speaker 4 (10:04):
So something that I hear often is the local honey myth.
So a lot of people will start eating local honey
to try to get rid of their seasonal allergies. And
the way that local honey, the reason that people think
it might think it may work is they think that
the pollen in the local honey may help.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Well.
Speaker 4 (10:24):
The pollen that's on worker bees is actually from flowering plants,
and it's not from the type of plants that actually
cause seasonal allergies. So the type of plants, as I mentioned, trees,
rag weed, and grass, those are not the type of
pollen that bees naturally go to, and so on their
(10:45):
legs you're going to find flowering trees. And flowering trees
don't cause allergies, so local honey will not help, and
ingesting pollen does not help you. There is something called
allergy immuno therapy, and that is when we give allergy
shots or there's a subbling well, I mean therapy tablet
that's also approved by the FDA that can help with allergies.
(11:09):
And those are different ways to help your immune system
see these allergens in a different way.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
It's interesting because I was I had a big boubt
of something, uh something in the spring, and this is interesting,
doctor Goobis. So we're talking to geography. I travel a lot.
So I went to Italy and I was in Tuscany
and there's a lot of these tall, beautiful cypress trees.
And every time I go there, I start coughing and wheezing,
(11:36):
wheezing and coughing, and somebody said, you're allergic to cypress trees.
I don't know, but it's it's it's became chronic to
the point where everybody just thought I was ill all
the time. When I was traveling for work. I was
given all I've been given all sorts of allergy medications,
but the problem is with them for me, as they
(11:57):
make you drowsy and make foggy and then you can't function.
And I also wonder, you know, I mean, obviously there's
non drowsy, but can you overdo that as well, because
like my husband and I are like popping non drowsy
generic every day because there's the itching, But can you
overdo that?
Speaker 2 (12:15):
I mean?
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
So one thing that I want to mention is that
there are first generation antihistamines and then there's second generation antihistamines.
And what we mean by that the first generation, the
older antihistamines are things like benadryl or diphenhydramine is the
other alternative name for benadryl. That one we're really shying
away from because we realize that the antihistamine properties, which
(12:38):
is really what we're looking to target, is the histamine
that works the same in first and secondary generation antihistamines.
You're not getting more bang for your buck with benadryl
than you are with things like allegras, zerotech, clariton, zizol,
all of these other medications but what you are getting
(12:58):
more of are side effect so that drowsiness from benadryl
is very profound. There's also something that's called anti colonergic
side effects, which is like the drying of your mouth
and other symptoms related to that, and so those can
be very dangerous, especially in younger populations like babies and children.
(13:19):
They can get overdosed on those medications. And older individuals
also have to be careful because of those sedative side effects.
They can be at higher risk of falls and dizziness
that can be very detrimental.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah, that was a concern with my mother because she
was on all this stuff and she did fall. So
you know, so what as a parent or caregiver, because
in my hand, you're either a parent or a caregiver
or you're dealing with sensitive people, whether they're babies or elderly,
what should you consider or talk to the pediatrician or
(13:55):
the senior care medical the pacia I'm your care physician
about because inevitably there is going to be sensitivity, I know.
I mean the older you get, you become more sensitive
to everything, and the younger you are sensitive to everything.
What should what should be the discussion in questions to
ask your doctor.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
Regarding medications, what I would say is that you know,
the antaste means are great, the second generation antase means
are are all great. None of them are completely non drowsy.
There are certain that are not as drowsy as others,
but all of them are sedating to a certain degree,
and it really depends on the person how sedated they
feel on whatever medication. There are so many other medications
(14:35):
that are available. So the nasal sprays for that runny nose,
stuffy knows, those are actually the best. So I would
look for a safe nasal spray. So a lot of
the nasal sprays, most of the nasal sprays are over
the counter now, and that's a little bit dangerous because
there are a couple of nasal sprays that are dangerous.
(14:55):
So there's something called oxymetallizone or the main ingredient in
an afron, for example, and that should not be used regularly.
That is a dangerous medication. It can actually cause rebound congestion,
which means that it can make your nose even more congested.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
I think that's what happened to my mother because she
lost herselves a smell.
Speaker 5 (15:14):
Okay, yeah, so you know.
Speaker 4 (15:16):
I don't know why they still have that medication as
an overcounter medication because it can actually be very detrimental
and people can not really get addicted. It's not doing
anything to your brain to get you addicted, but it
just gives you that sensation of you can breathe and
your nose is open. So people just keep using it
over and over again for long periods of time and
(15:36):
then they get into trouble.
Speaker 5 (15:37):
So, but there are.
Speaker 4 (15:39):
Safe nasal sprays that you can use, and so I
would definitely make sure that whatever medications you're using, you
take them to your doctor's office. Don't just say I'm
using a nasal spray, because we don't know what that means,
and we really need to check the ingredients to make
sure it's a safe nasal spray that you're using. So
make sure to take your medications in when you're using them.
(16:01):
Make sure to look at the ingredients because a lot
of times the nasal sprays will all be labeled with
different things like this one's for runny nose, this one's
for congestion, and people get confused and they're literally buying
the same medication wrapped up in a different package twice
and using it multiple times when they shouldn't be, so
it's really important to make sure that we're using the
(16:24):
right ingredient. There's also like a Xertech or Allegra, an
antihistamine just for your nose. So there's nasal sprays that
contain antihistamines in them that are also very good and
it's safe and effective. So that's another alternative that you
can use. And then for your eyes there's eye drops
with antihistamines in them. And again for the eyes, there
(16:46):
can also be unsafe medications that are over the counter,
especially the ones that say that they relieve the red eye.
Those should not be used for long term use either.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
I did that when I was younger, and it was
not good. I'm so well now with all of this,
and you know a couple of things. One with I
make sure you don't share it because my husband went
to borrow mine. I'm like, now get your own. Make
sure you don't touch. You can get an infection by
not taking care of your eye drops. That's one. Two.
(17:17):
When I was going through this situation, which was serious
upper respiratory in the spring, we had to take a
long look at the ingredients and I underscore an echo
with you get really a deep dive into the ingredients
to go over with your doctor and understand what the
orror because some of the ingredients in my cough and
(17:38):
cold also we're not good for my blood pressure. It
was something with a g the guava, guava whatever it is.
It starts with g ua and it's a common ingredient
in cough and cold and you know medications at liquid
and I couldn't do it because I have high blood pressure.
(17:59):
So you have to also think of those interactions.
Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yes, absolutely, Glueffedysin, I actually I know that pseudophedrin is
the main ingredient that is in these medications that can
cause the blood pressure to be elevated. Gluffhenysin I thought
was actually safer, but I would have to look that up.
Not something else. Even doctors, we need to make sure
(18:22):
that we're double triple checking the side effects of every
medication because there's so many medications out there, but the
one that we definitely tell patients with high blood pressure
to avoid are things like pseudo fed or pseudophedron because
that can definitely elevate your heart rate and your blood pressure.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
Oh interesting, I mean you'd really have to know these things. Again.
As you progress in the years, your allergies can change.
I've become much more sensitive to everything. So we've been
talking about drugs and seasonal allergies. I want to dive
a little deeper. I have I get reactions to bug bites.
(19:01):
I can't. I really, it's almost horrible, and I've actually
had to go to pharmacies and doctors because it's got
really bad. It was probably the worst in buts One.
In fact, it got so bad that we named them
after the places we went. There was the buttswan a rash,
the Grecia rash, is the New Orleans rash. I broke
out in a rash in an event. We don't know why.
(19:24):
When you have rashes, you go to your dermatologists. You're
an allergist. If you get rashes from bug bites or
redness or scratching or all that good stuff, who do
you see?
Speaker 4 (19:35):
Well, really, either we are both subspecialties are well versed
in reactions to the environment, reactions to bug bites, and
so we can all counsel both dermatologists and allergies.
Speaker 5 (19:49):
We can counsele you on the.
Speaker 4 (19:51):
Best kind of treatment protocol for whatever you're suffering from.
Maybe you have underlying eczema, which is a d skin condition,
and people with eczema can have more of these kind
of sensitivities to different environments, different bugs, things like that,
and so that might be what's going on.
Speaker 5 (20:11):
Especially when you're traveling.
Speaker 4 (20:12):
You're staying in an alternative environment, right, and so like
you mentioned the dust mites, like maybe you are sensitive
to dust mites, and you know, when you're staying in
a hotel, you don't know how good they're how well
they're taking care of those sheets. So it can be
an issue for some people. And some people travel with
their own pillowcases. Some people travel with their own pillows.
(20:33):
So it really just depends on the severity of your
symptoms and what you're willing to do or need to
do in order to stay comfortable.
Speaker 3 (20:42):
It's interesting a couple of things. If you do have
itchiness itchy, obviously, don't scratch. Scratching makes it worse. And
I scratch. I scratched yesterday and startedly you know it's
because I've got the old lady's skin. What can you
do when you're having a topical allergic reaction, I mean
(21:03):
the old days they used to pepper me with calamine
lotions so it looked like a pink platypus. And then
I can also like somebody set me magnesia, but it's
like this will get rid of the dust, smite. What's
real and what isn't in terms of the reactions.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
Yeah, So topical treatments for any kind of what we
call dermatitis. So dermatitis is inflammation of the skin, and
it can be related to so many different things. Really,
it depends on what Sometimes it depends on what's causing
it and how frequently it's happening. But we have steroidal
which means steroid topical medications, and we also have non
(21:40):
steroid all topical medications. Now we have a whole host
of those. So I would really for you talk to
your doctor about what options you have so that the
earlier you treat these things the better. So, as you
mentioned that itch rash cycle is very very important to
keep in mind. The more you rub, the more you
you scratch, the worse your skin is going to get.
(22:03):
Because your nails are weapons right to your skin, so
they're dirty.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
They're I mean, everyone's nails are dirty, not yours.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
But and we're talking to everybody out there. Your nails
could be dirty.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Everyone's nails are dirty, and so the more you know,
you scratch at it, and you if you do rip
the skin apart, then you're really putting yourself at risk
to get an infection of your skin because our nails
are so dirty. So you really have to be kind
to your skin, so you know, using one of those
medications that's prescribed by your doctor. And then on top
(22:35):
of that, I love vasoline, like straight up petroleum jelly vasoline.
It's the least no one is allergic to that. It
is sticky, but it's also great to protect your skin
and to help in the healing process.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, I went to have something removed and addressed and
eaching from that to the bandage, and it wasn't Latex,
but they said AQUA four And I'm not. I don't
promote brant, but they were like, do that. But I
get so much stuff sent to me about how to
deal with your bug bite. It's a bug thing, the
thing that pokes you. You know, less is more, but
just don't scratch. And you're right, your nails are weapons
(23:14):
and you got to be really really careful because that's
how you get infections and that you isn't just me,
it's me with all of you out there, because I
know you're itching to learn more about this. So I
you see me scratched because I have I have some
issues right now because I tend to it'ch okay. Why
do you itch at night? More?
Speaker 5 (23:34):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Is that a thing? Because I seem to break down
each is a night more, which means I usually take
a drug to put myself to sleep, and then I'm
drowsy in the morning. Why do you itch at night?
Other things that maybe dustmights in your pillow?
Speaker 4 (23:46):
Yeah, No, I don't think it's related to the death nights.
It's really just related to us being so busy during
the day that you're not really paying attention to how
your body feels. When we're laying down at night, that's
really when you're feeling all the feels and when we
really notice that itch more.
Speaker 5 (24:02):
And there may also be a circadian.
Speaker 4 (24:04):
Rhythm to the itch where like we're seeing that with
asthma that in the late hours and early morning, your
asthma symptoms can be worse. And so you know, there's
always those kind of things also. But I think for
the itch at night It is mostly related to us
just being all of a sudden present in our bodies
(24:25):
and being able to sense everything that we're going through.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
Interesting, So you mentioned al you mentioned asthma again, So
how does asthma different from allergies? Because I was prescribed
also one of those things to breathe that made me dizzy,
but I carry it just in case chest closes up,
which just happened. You'll get into with food. What was
the difference between allergies and asthma.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
Yeah, so asthma is a chronic lung condition and it
also involves inflammation of the airways. And there's actually two
things that happen. There's the inflammation of the airways, but
there's also what we call broncho constriction, so the muscles
around the airways will tighten up when they're exposed to
different triggers. And those triggers can be things like allergies
like the pollen, DustMite, cockroaches, cats, dogs, all those things.
(25:14):
It can also be related to cold weather, hot weather, humidity, stress.
There's so many things depending on your asthma that can
trigger your asthma. Exercise, and so when you got asthma,
you do need to carry around your rescue medication is
what we call it, and that's the medication that's going
(25:35):
to help open up your airways. And now we're also
using a mild anti inflammatory in our rescue medication too.
That's the new recommendation. So yes, that is the inhaler.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (25:47):
So then hailers are the primary treatment for asthma. We
also have for more severe asthma, we have biologic medications.
And if you do have that more moderate severe form
of asthma where you're having daily, weekly symptoms, then we
may put you on a daily inhaler that you're using
twice a day, and then also we might put you
(26:09):
on these biologic or injectable medications. But now, really, you know,
we have so many treatments sorry available for asthma that
I do want to just do a PSA that if
you're suffering with your asthma, if you're in a cycle
of going to the emergency room frequently or going to
an urgent care frequently and getting oral steroids or cortical steroids,
(26:33):
we want you to see a specialist. We want you
to see long doctor, a pomonologist, or an allergist right away.
Because we have so many new medications that can help
you get out of that vicious cycle, because unfortunately, eleven
people a day in this country still die from asthma,
and we really can change that statistic if we help
(26:56):
with this kind of vicious cycle that people are in.
Because in the urgent care emergency room, those doctors are
trained on how to help you breathe right now, they're
not treated. They're not trained, sorry, in how to prevent
those asthma attacks from happening.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
So that's just something that I want business. So, you know,
I an elderly family friend died of asthma and it
was because you know, cold weather triggered it. Cold weather
triggered it and she was having trouble breathing. Was she
had the attack in New York. The one that killed
her was in Florida, So I'm not sure what happened,
but she didn't get to the hospital in time. Can
(27:34):
you grow out of asthma or grow into asthma?
Speaker 4 (27:39):
Yes, So you know people, babies, children can have asthma
and then they would have it really lifelong. But it
can have ebbs and flows, so it can get better
and sometimes it can get worse, and sometimes it can
feel like oh my God, I don't have asthma anymore,
but you're underlying airways are just predisposed to that bronco
(28:02):
constriction or that inflammation. And then older individuals or you know,
at any point in your life, because of our environment,
because of the sensitization that I was talking about, and
more and more people becoming allergic and because of the pollution,
we are seeing higher rates of later in life asthma also.
So and then another trigger that I didn't mention is
(28:23):
cold colds. You know, so flu season right now is
upon us, and so colds can also trigger people's asthma.
So it's really important to get your flu vaccine and
COVID vaccine and make sure that you're fully protected for
the season.
Speaker 3 (28:38):
I got mine two days ago. Great, I'm a big
I support because I've been filled by the flu. And
speaking of COVID, which I get, I've still have had
four different COVID is because I go to a festival
in Louisiana and it's like you're going to get COVID,
and I travel a lot, so I always get my vaccines. However,
I'm wondering and then it may be too soon too
(29:00):
do the analysis. I'm wondering because of a COVID nineteen pandemic,
if more people have become more who experienced COVID, which
because clearly a pulmonary issue, if they are now more
susceptible to things like asthma, do you have any has
any studies been done yet on.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
That not necessarily more susceptible, but you know, depending on
the severity of the disease that they had of COVID,
people can have residual symptoms and can have residual kind
of long inflammation and irritation. And so whether or not
(29:40):
it's truly asthma or not, or if it's a post
COVID kind of lung illness is you know, is one
of those things that is in the semantics. But at
the end of the day, you can have a long
term chronic long illness related to COVID depending on the severity.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Thing is many years ago and I'm wearing paint because
this is breast cancer awareness months darting. I was diagnosed
with breast cancer, underwent amseectomy. Literally I just hit my
fifteen year mark. After I underwent chemotherapy, I developed many
more sensitivities in respiratory to the point where I've had
(30:22):
many and I've had upper and oska, I've had a
role So are there other than chemotherapy which clearly changed
my biosphere? Are there other kinds of medical conditions unrelated
to allergy and asthma? Are treatments that could trigger or
make you more susceptible.
Speaker 4 (30:43):
Make you more susceptible to allergies or our asthma or Yeah,
I would say that, you know, in general, our immune
system is important to take care of, and I wouldn't
say that there are any particular illnesses that I can
say that once you have that illness, now you may
(31:05):
have allergies in the future or asthma in the future.
But at the end of the day, you know, just
making sure that if you're sick, you don't go into
work and expose other people. If you're sick, you're wearing
a mask. If you're in large group environments and your
immuno compromise, meaning you are on chemotherapy or you are
(31:28):
getting treatment for a cancer, then you have to be
extra careful, right so that you don't get exposed to
any kind of infections and get and respiratory illness. So yeah,
I mean, I'm sorry that you went through all of that.
That is a lot for your body, and those are
you know, very heavy duty medications, and they do kind
of do a number on people's bodies for sure.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Well is the lead me too, And you know, I
think I've had all the symptoms, runny nos less so
except when I go to Italy, sneezing all time, in
spurts usually of the time, coughing, red word. You're seeing
me like this because I'm itching right now because when
I was caring for my mother, I developed an itch
which I think was stress related my nosedgch. But she
also had mold in her house, and so mold is
(32:13):
another environmental allergy. I think you touched on it. But
if you should, if you're having itching in your house
and it's old or in a humid area, you may
want to get a mold check right to see if
there's mold.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Well that's complicated, yeah, I mean, so you know there's
indoor and outdoor molds, and you know how to check
for mold obviously, if you've got I have I you know,
I practice in New York City, so I've seen it all.
People bring in pictures of really really poor housing situations,
especially in the New York City housing system is terrible
(32:50):
at I'm keeping people's homes and it's so it's really sad.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
You know.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
There's obviously black.
Speaker 4 (32:55):
Mold all over, literally all over someone's home that they're
living in. And mold is interesting because it can cause
a lot of different symptoms and illnesses, but it really
is sometimes difficult to assess for especially if you don't
blatantly see it.
Speaker 5 (33:12):
With that black mold.
Speaker 4 (33:14):
The testing for it and the companies out there that
test for it, it's questionable on how accurate they are.
So I always I don't ever want to put anyone
in that path of like feeling like their environment is
now mold ridden and they have to move, because that's
that's a huge ask, you know, And it's also really
hard to remediate mold, and so we have to figure
(33:38):
out exactly what could be causing the symptoms, especially if
there's a lot of humidity. Dust mightes actually thrive on humidity,
so the dust might counts will also be really high
in those environments, So it could be a combination of
a lot of things. And itch in general, as you mentioned,
can be caused by multiple factors, so it's not always environmental.
(33:58):
It can be internal. So you know, there's a condition
called chronic spontaneous urticaria. People will get itch and hives
and sometimes even swelling on their eyes and face, and
that's an internal process. It's not an external process. So
they're getting those hives and itching related to kind of
their immune system reacting and releasing these chemicals that are
(34:22):
causing the hives to appear. And so there's so many
different things that are going on in our bodies, and
so if you're suffering with any of these things, you
really just want to touch base with a doctor. And
if you're able to a specialist, if you're really suffering
and have been dealing with symptoms for a while.
Speaker 3 (34:42):
You know, I could agree more. My husband, who is
mister I know how to fix this. He's not a doctor,
he didn't graduate college, okay, but his mother who was
apparently not a doctor but was brilliant. I never went
to a doctor. I was itching from this. Whatever happened
to my back the other night. It was probably a
reaction to one bug by And he gave me some
square so that his mother gave him for probably when
(35:05):
he was a kid, that he still had with him
for poison ivy called Phelps. It was with an f
He's like, this will cure it. You know, go to
a doctor, don't don't have wellness people and your husband
or your mom who never went to the doctor, or
you're my mom who would just say take one of
my drugs, don't do it, go to a doctor.
Speaker 4 (35:27):
Yeah, and I see that because you know, allergies and
even asthma sometimes is minimized because you know, like literally
almost everyone has them, but there's different degrees as to
how much you're suffering. And as we mentioned asthma, you
can die from asthma. Environmental allergies, though, can cause a
(35:47):
lot of quality of life issues, So poor sleep disturbance
is a big one. We know how important sleep is
to our general well being. And as you mentioned the
next day, being groggy means that your irritable, you're not
functioning well. You you know, you can't be a good wife, partner, driver, mom, yes, driver,
(36:13):
just overall your functioning is compromised. So it's really important
to remember that allergic disease can really hurt people, and
for some people it's year round symptoms. So to get
that properly managed is actually very very important.
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Yes, you don't want your quality of life, because it
could affect what you want to do in life. I
have I have a friend it won't go to anywhere
in your humidity because your hair will blow up. I mean,
you know, I don't want to travel now to destinations
with high mosquitos. I mean that's sad. I live in
a place with high mosquitos. Why would I want to
go travel the ones? So may maney going to one
to get bitten, But you shouldn't live like that. I
(36:49):
want to touch on the other category while we have
the time of allergies, which could be life threatening. Okay,
food insect venom, latex and medication. Okay, let's start with
what you need to have ready to give to your
doctor at all times into in case of an emergency,
your list of allergies and understand fully what they are.
(37:11):
Let's talk about that because this could be life threatening.
Speaker 5 (37:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:15):
So, food allergies, you know, are a big problem in
western countries and we're realizing, you know, it could be
a host of different things. We really don't know why
food allergies are on the rise, but we do know
that early exposure for infants, so as soon as your
infant is able to eat is taking oral foods, and
(37:36):
you're starting those early foods. That's when we start introduction
with these allergenic foods like eggs, trenuts, peanuts, and so
it's important to start doing that early on, and we
call it early exposure and sustained exposure.
Speaker 5 (37:51):
That means that.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Once your baby tolerates peanuts, for example, you want to
continue to give peanuts regularly in the diet. And of
course peanuts themselves are choking hazard, so I just want
to put that out there.
Speaker 5 (38:03):
You're not giving your child an actual peanut.
Speaker 4 (38:06):
You are giving them a peanut powder and mixing it
in with bananas, for example, or you can use peanut
butter and mix it in with something like bananas. Also,
peanut butter can be a choking hazard, so making sure
that it's not too sticky, making sure that it's not
a choking hazard is also important when you're introducing these foods.
But once you have introduced it your child has tolerated it,
(38:29):
then you want to keep that in the diet as
much as possible. And so you know, but if you
do end up having a child, or if you're an
adult that has a nuancet food allergy, then it is
important to number one, get evaluated, figure out what food
may have caused the reaction.
Speaker 5 (38:49):
And I want to also talk about.
Speaker 4 (38:51):
Food sensitivities versus true food allergy.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (38:55):
This is a very important topic because a true food
all is a life threatening emergency.
Speaker 3 (39:02):
Right.
Speaker 4 (39:03):
Food sensitivities are in a whole different category. If you
miss label and you are telling people that you're allergic
when you're just sensitive, that gives a mixed picture to,
for example, restaurants staff. So if someone goes in and
they're like, I'm allergic to, you know, tomatoes, and the
restaurant's staff is really vigilant make sure that there's no
(39:24):
tomatoes on that person's plate. But then they see that
person eating off of somebody else's plate and that plate
has tomatoes and nothing happens to them. They're like, see,
these allergies don't really mean anything, and we're taking all
this time out to make sure this person's saved. And
then they're eating off of someone's plate with a tomato.
And that's because maybe that person's sensitive doesn't like the
(39:46):
way that tomatoes make their body feel, but they're not anaphylactic.
So what we mean by anaphylaxis is that within minutes,
no more than thirty minutes, you start having symptoms of
high itching all over your body, swelling of the face, lips,
eyes or throat, difficulty breathing, coughing, wheezing, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea.
(40:13):
So all of these symptoms can happen all at once
and that's called anaphylaxis, or you can get you know,
milder symptoms. But if you do have milder symptoms and
in any of those categories, you do need to get
evaluated to see if you have a true food allergy
so that you can get an epineffrine device, which is
the only life saving treatment for food allergies. Right. So
(40:36):
there's EpiPen there's a lot of different versions of the
epineffrine device. There's a nasal spray, there is an epinefferin
device that talks to you, so there's a lot of
different types. There's another one that may be coming out
that's just a film that you put underneath your tongue.
So there's a lot of different versions of epinephrin that
(40:56):
are either available or soon to be available.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
It's an important conversation to have. And also and the
aging thing, I had an episode where I inhaled too
many pepper and chinis from the deli.
Speaker 5 (41:12):
That doesn't sound good.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
I couldn't reathe and it was scary, you know, really scary,
and I thought maybe the pirosines too many at one
time did it for me because there's the pizines and
the peppers or no no capusins sorry pizans in the
green pepper, the capiscum, whatever it's called. So I pulled
back on those kind of pepper and chinie because it
(41:36):
was scary. I was wheezing. I had to do the bentyl.
I'm going to live, you know, but it's scary. But
it things like that happened again. Talk to your doctor
and if you travel a lot, maybe it's good to
have an epiphenephn pen with you because you don't know
when something can happen and you don't want to be
away on a trip where you were a loved one
is suddenly in an anaphylaxic. I've been through anaphylaxic. I
(41:59):
had it with medication, which we're going to talk about
when I had a round of path a tax hal
and a friend of mine just went through this.
Speaker 5 (42:08):
I was but you need to know.
Speaker 3 (42:13):
When you talk to your doctor, they will say what
what medications are you taking and what allergies you have,
and you need to keep that updated. And another one
is latex late tex. I didn't know that could be
like life threatening.
Speaker 5 (42:28):
Latex allergy.
Speaker 4 (42:29):
I mean, if you're getting a procedure and they use
some sort of a late text device, then you could
potentially have a severe reaction. But just using like a
latex band aid, you shouldn't have an anaphylactic reaction of
any sort, but if it's introduced to your body in
a different way, it could have the potential, I'm sure
of causing a more severe reaction, and I do want
(42:53):
to just like roll back a little bit. You know, epinephrine,
carrying an up and effrine device can actually cause a
lot of anxiety for people, so I just want to
make sure. That's why it's so important to figure out
if you have a true food allergy or if it's
just a sensitivity, because when you have a true food allergy,
of course it's life threatening. People are scared for their
(43:14):
lives right when they go out to eat. They're worried
that someone's going to make a mistake and put their
food allergen into their food and that they could have
a reaction. And so in those situations, that's very anxiety provoking.
And we know that the mental health outcomes for people
with food allergies is not that great. People are worried,
they're constantly worried, and we really have to help them
(43:37):
through that and to relieve their anxiety and to help
them understand that they have the treatment that they need
in case they were to be accidentally exposed to their allergen.
But I'm saying all of that just to say that
having an up and effort device can cause anxiety for people.
So if you all of a sudden think, you know,
I had this reaction to the capsicum and now I'm
(43:59):
worried that I could have an another life threatening reaction inadvertently,
that can cause a lot of anxiety. So that's why
it's really important to get a full evaluation, really talk
to a specialist. Understand are you truly allergic or was
this something else that happened? You know, did it go
down the wrong tube? Was it just you know, the
smell that was causing your airways to react and get sensitized.
(44:23):
So what was it that you know may have happened
during that reaction. And you know, if we have testing
available to that particular food, then your then your allergist
would be able to test you, either via blood testing
or something called a skin prick.
Speaker 3 (44:36):
Test points will taken. But if you are traveling and
many people are traveling, or your kids going to school
or going to call it, and they do have anaphylactic potential,
what would you recommend? What are the key things you
need to consider? Oh?
Speaker 4 (44:53):
Yes, I mean then one hundred and ten percent, you
need to always have your epineffort device no matter where
you are are. And actually that population of adolescents, the
high school age and the college age are the two
groups that we worry about the most because it's that
period where you're finally getting that independence that you know
(45:14):
you've always longed for.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
And a lot of.
Speaker 4 (45:16):
Us wish that we could just go back to being children,
you know, but you're you're you want that independence. But
with food allergies, it's a it's a big task to
make sure that that child, that adolescent, that young adult
understands the importance of carrying around that ep and effrine
device at all times because you never know, no one
(45:38):
is trying to eat the allergen that they're truly anaphylectic
to that's not anyone's goal, right, But those accidental exposures
can happen, and that's the reason that we have to
carry around that appin affrine device.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
You read about that all the time, and it's usually
a young calling young people, and it's it's it's usually
it's accidental, uh, not intentional, And then you want to
be able to prevent that. We were running a little
bit at a time. But I would think that this
also goes to insect venom. I've read about that guy
who was playing polo in London and he was really famous,
(46:11):
and it bug went into his mouth and he died
of anophylaxic. I walk around out like this. I will
not open my mouth. I'm taking my boxes. I'm so
afraid a bog's gonna go in. So talk about anxiety.
Just reading about this stuff, and so I'm going to
just say, you know, how do you handle the anxiety?
What is your final word to say? How to handle
(46:31):
anxiety around alergies?
Speaker 4 (46:34):
Yeah, I mean anaphylaxis is very uncommon. I feel really
bad for that person's family. It's not that common to
get anaphylaxis from venom or from foods. I mean, obviously
the raids are increasing, but it's not still not that common.
So I don't want people to be worried that that
would happen to them. And you know, we have enough
(46:55):
things to be anxious about right now in our world,
and so that's the last thing that I want for
people to be anxious about. I think that again, if
you're having symptoms, if you've had a reaction and you
haven't been evaluated, that's really the important thing. And even
talking to a professional can help you feel better. And
(47:16):
if you had like kind of a confusing reaction and
it's kind of causing you anxiety in the back of
your mind, that is truly the reason to go and
see somebody, because we want to be able to help
relieve your relieve your stress and anxiety surrounding that reaction
and help confirm whether it is a true allergen and
we can give you an up enofferent device or whether
(47:37):
it really isn't something you need to worry about.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
And stress can also the anxiety and stress can make
you itch and swell as well. So I think these
are such important points and just to wrap this up.
We've been speaking with doctor Payl Gupta, who is a
specialist in allergies and asthma and you know as a
one of the advisory team the Allergy and Asthma Network.
(48:01):
She's affiliate with Mount Sinai, which is such a great
hospital and sunny in New York.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
You know.
Speaker 3 (48:06):
My message to everyone out there and the you is
always the you out there, not just me. I suffer,
You suffer. We all suffer from allergies and anxiety. And
how are we going to live the rest of our lives?
One assemble the best medical team you can, consider them
your board of advisors for your physical and mental well being,
and put your self care as a priority. I underscore
(48:28):
that in my book Getting Things Off My Chest, which
is a survivor's guide to staying fearless and fabulous in
the face of cancer. That's my plug because I learned
it the hard way. I didn't do that. I put
my business first, put your self care first, and then
live your life. Live your life and enjoy it because
that's the gift. But always know what you need to
(48:49):
have to be prepared if you do have underlying conditions
and could be at risk.
Speaker 4 (48:56):
Right, yes, absolutelybsolutely. Having that team in place is very
very important. Yes, and you know, getting that care and
making sure all your questions are answered is very very
important to relieve stress and anxiety, especially surrounding our health.
Speaker 3 (49:14):
Well, I think you have been such a wonderful resource today.
I want to thank you for your time. I love
talking to people like you because I always have questions
and if I figure if I have questions, everybody else
out there is going through it too, So I'd just
like to keep things open. And You've been wonderful. You've
been listening to Fearless, Fabulous you. This focus has been
on are you itching to learn more about managing your allergies?
(49:37):
I am. My final message is always this, you have
the choice to live your life on your terms, not
on the terms that people set for you. Put yourself
care first, put your health first, because you only have
one body and one life, so give it the best treatment.
You can live freely and always choose to live fearlessly
(49:57):
and fabulously. I'm Melanie Young. Thank you for you joining me,
follow me and Melanie Fabulous. Check out my book. It's
Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but it's breast cancer Awareness forever,
so please take care of yourself and be well, and
thank you
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