So Why Do We Have Pets
All that being said, there are many demonstrated benefits to pet ownership, not the least of which may be simple happiness. Studies have shown that people with pets are less likely to report feeling depressed than people without.
The American Heart Association has linked the ownership of pets to a reduced risk for heart disease.
And pet ownership is growing: An American Veterinary Medical Association survey shows that singlesboth those never married and those recently separated or divorcedare increasingly turning to pets for love and a sense of family.
Its interesting to see that more and more single people are discovering the comfort and satisfaction that owning a pet can offer. Pets are powerful, positive influences on our lives, offering unique emotional, psychological, and physical health benefits to their owners, said Dr. Douglas Aspros, immediate past president of AVMA, in a statement.
According to the CDC, most households in the United States have at least one pet. The CDC also reports that pets are not only good for your mood, but also help decrease blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and triglyceride levels.
Allergy Dos And Don’ts: Eat Chicken Soup
When you’re sick with a cold or flu, chicken soup may make you feel better. But Novey says the secret to chicken soup is really about breathing steam. “It could just as well be tea,” he notes. So is eating soup an allergy do or don’t? “Drinking hot drinks may not go well with allergically inflamed nasal tissues or sinus tissues,” Novey points out. “That’s because allergies are based upon histamine, not a viral infection. Imagine having hives and then taking a hot shower it would only make matters worse.”
Asthma From Pollen Allergies
Pollen can be breathed into the lungs and directly cause asthma in some people. This can be unrelated to hay fever symptoms. Symptoms of asthma include:
- chest tightness or pain
- blocked sinuses
- extreme tiredness.
One in five Australians experience hay fever symptoms and they can be debilitating. People with hay fever are more likely to develop sinus infections, and can have interrupted sleep that leads to extreme tiredness. Severe hay fever symptoms can affect learning in children and productivity in adults. Hay fever can also make it more difficult to control asthma in those who are more likely to get it.
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Allergy Dos And Don’ts: Get Shots
A flu shot can prevent influenza. Can you also get shots for allergy prevention? Yes! Officially called “immunotherapy,”allergy shots work like a vaccine. Your allergy specialist tests to see what substances are triggering your allergies. Then, in a series of shots, he injects you with tiny bits of those allergens. The aim is to build your tolerance to those triggers so your body no longer reacts to them. If allergy medication isn’t working, if you can’t or won’t take it, or if your allergies are triggering other health problems like asthma, allergy shots may be an option. This allergy treatment is a big-time commitment and is not right for everyone. Consult with your allergy specialist.
Can Seasonal Allergies Cause Stomach Upset
My wife often starts a few young seedlings of spinach, lettuce, and tomatoes in a sunny window before they go outside for the spring.
Recently, when we had a few baby plants in the house, I started having headaches and stomach upset and couldn’t find a cause until I spotted a few little sprouts of pollen that had shot up from the baby spinach.
Once the offending plant was moved outside, my symptoms went away.
As a functional medicine doctor, I am used to seeing new patients who have been misdiagnosed for years due to symptoms that don’t quite fit the mold of a standard diagnosis.
There are, no doubt, many people unnecessarily suffering because of a misunderstanding of how we think of certain conditions.
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Can Air Conditioning Make You Sick Yes
Yes, it is possible for an air conditioner to make you sick! But the culprit here is not your air conditioner, fortunately. The cold air coming from your AC or the unit itself is not inherently making you sick. The reasons for your trouble are the side effects of air conditioning! This means that your HVAC unit is interacting with the environment to produce a favorable environment for certain health issues.
To put it simply, an air conditioner circulates the air in your room, and if your space consists of pollutants, these also get easily dispersed. These pollutants then end up triggering your health problems.
For example, suppose you have dander floating around or mold and bacteria present in your room. In that case, air conditioning will cause these pollutants to circulate, which can cause sore throats, stuffy noses, or respiratory issues.
Also, if your air conditioner is not well maintained, it can end up being a source of mold growth and bacteria. As air passes through your AC, these pollutants can simply escape into your room.
If you enjoy blasting your cooling, very cold temperatures can also be a source of sickness. Extreme cold leads to dryness, the spread of cold-causing viruses, and , which means there are fewer white blood cells that protect us against illnesses and viruses!
Read on to discover the different ways in which air conditioning can make you sick and what you can do to avoid it.
Allergies Vs Cold Vs Flu Vs Covid
While symptoms for all of these conditions can overlap, there are some key differences.
Allergies can sometimes be confused with the common cold or the flu, but with a cold or the flu you will have a fever and be more fatigued, you can have body pain, not just sneezing and itchy eyes, says Dr. Lahari Rampur, an allergist who sees patients at UW Medical Center Montlake and Harborview Medical Center.
Sneezing, runny nose, post-nasal drip, and itchy, puffy, watery eyes are common seasonal allergy symptoms and can also happen if you get a cold.;
Flu typically involves a fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and possibly a headache or cough. With COVID-19, the most common symptoms are a fever, throat pain, or a new cough or new shortness of breath, though runny nose or nasal congestion can also occur. Some people lose their sense of smell or taste or have gastrointestinal symptoms.
If all you have are allergies or a cold, you probably wont get a fever or body aches and if you do, they will be mild. If you do get the flu or COVID-19, youre unlikely to have sinus or eye symptoms.
While seasonal allergies can make someone wheeze or cough, , it will usually be pretty mild.
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It’s Probably Allergies If:
Your mucus is clear or watery. And it will stay clear, instead of becoming thick or discolored like it can with a cold, says Michael Benninger, MD, an ear, nose, and throat specialist at the Cleveland Clinic.
Your eyes are itchy or watery. It’s rare to have itchy eyes when you have a cold.
Your symptoms stay the same. “Allergies may feel extra intense for the first day or 2, but you’ll have the same symptoms day after day,” Benninger says.
You’ve had the sniffles for more than a week. A cold usually clears up in 7 to 10 days, but allergies can last several weeks or longer.
Your symptoms show up only in certain situations. Find yourself sneezing every spring or fall? Those are common times for allergies. Another allergy tip-off: Being in a specific place makes you feel miserable — for example, in a house with a cat.
How Are Allergies Diagnosed
Some allergies are fairly easy to identify but others are less obvious because they can be similar to other conditions.
If your child has cold-like symptoms lasting longer than a week or two or develops a “cold” at the same time every year, talk with your doctor, who might diagnose an allergy and prescribe medicines, or may refer you to an allergist; for allergy tests.
To find the cause of an allergy, allergists usually do skin tests for the most common environmental and food allergens. A skin test can work in one of two ways:
After about 15 minutes, if a lump surrounded by a reddish area appears at the site, the test is positive.
Blood tests may be done instead for kids with skin conditions, those who are on certain medicines, or those who are very sensitive to a particular allergen.
Even if testing shows an allergy, a child also must have symptoms to be diagnosed with an allergy. For example, a toddler who has a positive test for dust mites and sneezes a lot while playing on the floor would be considered allergic to dust mites.
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Is Air Conditioning Bad For You No
After reading the above discussion, you might be forced to think if air conditioning is bad for you.
Well, the answer is no!
An air conditioner is not bad for your health. In fact, it is considered a good choice for people suffering from different allergies. Since your air conditioner not only conditions the indoor air but also filters harmful particles, it proves to be beneficial for seasonal allergies like pollen.
It only becomes a matter of concern when not maintained or cleaned regularly and properly. It can become a breeding ground for mold and other bacteria that can induce sickness. Keep your air conditioner clean as well as your house, maintain a comfortable temperature, and you should have no problems!
How Are Allergies Similar To Being Sick
When symptoms first creep into your day, it can be difficult to tell whether you have allergies or a cold. âAllergies and an illness both activate the immune system to respond to a foreign substance to protect the body,â says Dr. Sanjeev Jain, M.D., a doctor double-board certified in immunology and internal medicine at Columbia Asthma and Allergy Clinic. When your immune system is hyped up, allergies and an actual infection may give you the same puffiness, runny nose, and those uncomfortable sneeze-cough hybrids. Both allergies and having a cold will likely mess with your sleep and exhaust you, too.
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Certain Allergy Medications Can Worsen Fatigue
Even though they work to relieve some symptoms, certain allergy medicines can actually make you more tired. Antihistamines in particular have been known to cause drowsiness, however, most newer, second-generation pills are designed to be non-drowsy. Still, it is important to always read labels carefully, and consult with a doctor if unsure which allergy medications may cause increased fatigue.
Consider Immunotherapy Allergy Drops
While allergy medications provide short-term relief from symptoms, and often lose their effectiveness if overused, immunotherapy is a more long-term approach to allergy fatigue treatment. Immunotherapy slowly introduces the body to more and more of the allergen it is allergic to so that it builds up a tolerance and no longer reacts as strongly. Allergy shots are an older form of immunotherapy that are very effective, but this treatment has some associated risks and requires frequent office visits. Allergy drops are just as effective but can be done easily from home with daily drops under the tongue, making this one of the best ways to manage and eliminate allergies causing fatigue.
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Ways Your House Is Making You Sick
SPECIAL FROMGrandparents.com
It often starts when someone retires, says Jeff May. All of a sudden, the retiree is spending a lot more time in his homethe home he has lived in for yearsbut he finds he cant breathe. Hes wheezing and sneezing and uncomfortable all the time.
How can this be?
Because now the retiree is spending more time in a house where something is triggering an allergic or asthmatic reaction. And while it may sound surprising, your house can actually be making you sick, says Jeffrey May, author of “My House Is Killing Me.”
Where Indoor Pollution LurksThe whole concept of indoor pollution is pretty new, says May, an expert in the dangers of mold and other home pollutants. For a long time, our focus was on what was going on in the environment outside our homes. But in the last decade or so, weve realized that the indoor environment can be making you sick.
So what kinds of things happen to make you feel this way? May says dust mites, mold, and other microbial growth are usually the culprits. Where do they lurk? Read on to find out.
2. Indoor LeaksUnseen leaks may be causing mold growth in your home, which can be problematic for people prone to asthma and allergically-induced breathing problems.
Note: All people have dust mites in their home, but not all people have symptoms from them. Your need to deal with the issue will depend on whether or not you or someone in your household is suffering symptoms.
Things You Should Know Aboutallergy
- 09 Jul, 2020
Allergies can cause all kinds ofunpleasant, distracting symptoms, from digestive upsets and headachesto respiratory trouble and runny eyes. However, you may also haveexperienced another few hallmark symptoms of allergy problems:fatigue, drowsiness, and mental sluggishness.
If you have had noticeable troublegathering your thoughts, maintaining your alertness, or even stayingawake during the day, you need to understand how your allergies maycreate or aggravate your tiredness. Take heed of the following fourkey points about allergy-related fatigue.
1. Allergens Cause BiochemicallyBased Fatigue
An allergic reaction occurs when yourimmune system goes into battle by mistake, attacking a harmlesssubstance as if it were a virus or other germ. It does this byinstructing mast cells to produce antibodies for release into thebloodstream. These antibodies belong to a category known asimmunoglobulin E.
In addition to immunoglobulin E, theimmune system releases a substance called histamine. When both ofthese substances produce an inflammatory reaction in the body, youmay experience a sense of tiredness alongside other, more obviousallergic symptoms.
2. Allergic Sinusitis Can CauseBrain Fog
Individuals who feel dazed and unableto think well often describe their problem as brain fog. While brainfog may occur in association with many health problems, most notablyfibromyalgia, it can also occur as a side effect of a conditioncalled allergic sinusitis.
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Discover The Source Of Your Symptoms
You may already believe that allergies are the root cause of your fatigue and other symptoms, but there may be more to it than that. An ear, nose and throat specialist can fully examine to make sure other issues such as sinusitis or deviated septum arent causing or worsening your issues. They can also conduct an accurate allergy test to find out exactly which allergies you have, and how severe each one may be. Common triggers of allergies include dust mites, mold, pet dander, and pollen.
Allergies And Body Aches
If you are suffering from joint pain, or any other type of general discomfort or pain, it could be caused by allergies. Remember that allergic reactions can cause inflammation. Inflammation can then cause joint and muscle aches. As a result, you can see that one sign of an immune system reaction can be chronic body aches.
There is often another issue at play as well: Allergies can cause physical symptoms from its symptoms. For example, one symptom is chronic coughing and sneezing. Both of these can lead to soreness if your body is repeatedly put through the paces.
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You Popped A Pill On An Empty Stomach
Nausea is a common side effect of many different medications including antidepressants, blood pressure medications, oral contraceptives, pain medications, antibiotics, and many more, says Dr. Hoch. Your gut processes food by releasing stomach acidso when you take a pill before you eat, that acid will still be released, causing irritation or nausea, says Dr. Hoch.
Nix the nausea: First, try taking your meds with food to see if it helps settle your stomach. If the medication itself is actually making you nauseous, talk to your doc about testing out the lowest dose. You may also need to cut out other unnecessary medications or supplements, says Dr. Hoch.
Does Hand Sanitizer Mess Up Your Immune System
But there have been some suggestions using hand sanitiser and practising other hygiene measures too often could weaken our immune system, by reducing our bodys exposure to germs and with it the chance to train our immune defences. The good news is, theres no evidence to suggest this will be the case.
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A Wet Hacking Cough Screams Cold
While a cough is common for both allergy flares and colds, the type of cough for each is different. A cold cough is wet and hacking, and often produces mucus or phlegm that gets progressively thicker, often taking on a green or yellow tinge.
Allergy-related coughs usually feel like you have a tickle in your throat. Thats because allergens often irritate the lining of your nose, which triggers your nasal passages to create a watery mucus. This can drip out of your nose and down the back of your throat, creating that tickling sensation.
Do Germaphobes Get Sick More
Its possible, experts say, that being too clean can change the bacteria that live inside us, making us more susceptible to allergies, asthma and other immune-related conditions. Researchers believe that overusing hand sanitiser could cause children to lose their ability to build up resistance to bacteria.
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