Asthma treatment

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A Dozen Tips for Producing Low Allergy Gardens

 


 

  Thomas Ogren

A Dozen Tips for Producing Low-Allergy Gardens

Ó Thomas Leo Ogren

What we plant often has a direct effect on our own health and the health
of those near us. A pollen-producing male tree in our own yard will
easily expose us to ten times more pollen than would a similar tree
growing just down the block. This can be compared to second-hand smoke.
It is possible to inhale some smoke from a person smoking a block or two
away from you, but it is hardly the same as someone smoking right next to
you. It is the same with plants. If your own yard is full of allergenic
plants, then you will be exposed most.
Elementary school landscapes are frequently highly allergenic because all
too often they have been landscaped with trees and shrubs that will not
produce any seeds, seedpods or fruit—which the children might want to
toss at each other. What is over-looked is that these tidy choices are
usually male cultivars (clones) and although they are “litter-free,” they
are prodigious producers of allergenic pollen. I am now involved with a
pollen-free landscape planting at a new elementary school in Tulare
County, California. This work is being sponsored by their local asthma
coalition and it is very encouraging to see preventative measures like
this being taken. Children suffer greatly from allergies and asthma, and
asthma is now the most common chronic childhood disease in the US.
Another fine example of low-pollen landscaping surrounds the new American
Lung Association Regional Headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. With
“green” construction principles a new ‘Breathe Easy’ allergy-free office
was constructed. The allergy-friendly landscape plant materials are
predominantly female, and compliment the clean air building. Other
Breathe EasyÔ offices are also now using pollen free landscapes, as are
numerous Heath Houses.
Twelve tips: Remember, the greater the exposure to pollen, the greater
the incidence of pollen-triggered allergy and asthma.

1.Don’t plant any male trees or shrubs. These are often sold as
“seedless” or “fruitless” varieties but they’re males and they all
produce large amounts of allergenic pollen.
2.Do plant female trees and shrubs. Even though these may be messier than
males, they produce no pollen, and they actually trap and remove pollen
from the air. There is also some very good all-female sod to use for
pollen-free lawns. As an added bonus, these female lawns stay low and
require less frequent mowing.
3.Plant disease-resistant varieties: mildew, rust, black spot and other
plant diseases all reproduce by spores and these spores cause allergies.
Disease resistant plants won’t get infected as much and the air around
them will be healthier.
4.Use only trees and shrubs well adapted for your own climate zone.
Plants grown in the wrong zone will often fail to thrive. Because they
are not healthy, they will be magnets for insects. Insect residue,
“honeydew,” is a prime host for molds and molds produce allergenic mold
spores. Often native plants will be the healthiest choices.
5.Be careful with the use of all insecticides, fungicides, and
herbicides. Accidental exposure to all of these chemical pesticides has
been shown to cause breakdowns in the immune system. Sometimes one single
heavy exposure to a pesticide will result in sudden hypersensitivity to
pollen, spores, and to other allergens. This is as true for pets as it is
for their owners. Go organic as much as possible. Make and use compost!
6.Diversity is good. Don’t plant too much of the same thing in your
landscapes. Use a wide selection of plants. Lack of diversity often
causes over-exposure. Use lots of variety in your gardens.
7.Wild birds are a big plus because they eat so many insects. Plant
fruiting trees and shrubs to encourage more birds. Suet also attracts
many insect-eating birds. Insect dander causes allergies and birds
consume an incredible amount of aphids, whiteflies, scale, and other
invertebrate pests.
8.Use pollen-free selections whenever possible. There are many hybrids
with highly doubled flowers and in many cases these flowers lack any
male, pollen parts. Formal double chrysanthemums, for example, usually
have no pollen. Another example would be almost all of the erect tuberous
begonias. These have complete female flowers, but their male flowers have
nothing but petals, making them pollen-free.
9.If you simply must have some high-allergy potential plants in your
yard, just because you love them, then watch where you plant them. Don’t
use any high-allergy plants near bedroom windows or next to patios,
well-used walkways, or by front or back doors. Place the highest allergy
plants as far away from the house as possible and downwind of the house
too. Remember: the closer you are to the high-allergy tree or shrub, the
greater is your exposure.
10.Know the exact cultivar name of a tree or shrub before you buy it.
Don’t buy any that are not clearly tagged with the correct cultivar
(variety) name and the Latin, scientific name. Compare the exact name of
the plant with its OPALS/TM allergy ranking. With this scale, 1 is least
allergenic, and 10 is the most allergenic. Try to achieve a landscape
that averages at OPALS #5, or below.
11.If you have a tree or hedge that has high allergy potential and don’t
want to remove it, consider keeping it heavily sheared so that it will
flower less. Boxwood, for example, has allergenic flowers but if pruned
hard each year, it will rarely bloom at all.
12.Get involved with your own city’s tree and parks departments, and
encourage them to stop planting any more wind-pollinated trees. There are
thousands of fine choices of street trees that do not cause any allergies
and we should be using these instead. Working together we can make a
healthy difference, and we’ll all breathe better for our efforts.

*Note, with the dioecious plants (separate-sexed) males cause
pollen-allergy, and females because they are pollen free, do not.
Examples of some of these dioecious plants are: red maple, silver maple,
box elder, holly, willow, aspen, cottonwood, poplar, fringe tree, pepper
tree, carob tree, Osage orange, mulberry, cedar, juniper, podocarpus,
yews, ash, date palms, and even asparagus.

About the Author

Thomas Ogren is the author of Allergy-Free Gardening, Ten Speed Press.
Tom does consulting work on landscape plants and allergies for the USDA,
county asthma coalitions, and the Canadian and American Lung
Associations. He has appeared on HGTV and The Discovery Channel. His
book, Safe Sex in the Garden, was published in 2003. In 2004 Time Warner
Books published: What the Experts May NOT Tell You About: Growing the
Perfect Lawn. His website: www.allergyfree-gardening

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A Dozen Tips for Producing Low Allergy Gardens

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ADHD and Food Allergies

 


 

  Anthony Kane, MD

Introduction

There are a number of controversial areas in medicine when it comes to
ADHD. Food allergy is certainly one of them.

The classic allergic reaction, which is classified as the type-1
hypersensitivity reaction, can be elicited by food, but this is fairly
uncommon. When we discuss food sensitivities in ADHD we are discussing a
different, not well-defined, mechanism.

One of the main progenitors of the food allergy/ADHD connection is Dr.
Doris Rapp. Dr. Rapp was a pediatric allergist who noticed that many
children in her practice had significant physical and behavioral changes
when exposed to certain foods. They may have red ear lobes, dark circles
under their eyes, or glazed eyes after eating certain foods. These
children could have tremendous swings in behavior. They can be calm one
minute and wildly hyperactive a few minutes later.

To make it more interesting, children with food allergies usually crave
the food that affects them negatively. That means a child who is allergic
to peanuts will demand peanut butter and jelly for lunch everyday, and
for the rest of the afternoon you have to peel him off of the ceiling.

What is Food Allergy?

The classic allergic reaction operates through a very specific mechanism.
The reaction is caused when a specific type of antibody, called IgE,
reacts with a specific provoking substance called an allergen. The result
of this interaction is an allergic response and the person is deemed
allergic to that allergen.

The specific type of antibody involved in classic allergy is called IgE.
The proposed antibody mechanism for this type of food allergy does not
involve IgE, but a different antibody called IgG. This is significant
because standard allergy testing tests only for IgE antibodies. If your
child has IgG mediated sensitivity, his allergy test is going to miss it.
That means that your child may have a severe allergy to a specific food,
but your allergist will tell you he is not allergic to it.

Why the Controversy?

Reason 1: Diagnosis

I said this was a very controversial area of medicine and here is one of
the reasons why. Food allergies are very difficult to diagnose. One
reason is that the symptoms wax and wane. When a child has a classic
allergy, for example to bee stings, then every time a bee stings him, he
will have a reaction. Food allergies don’t work that way. There seems to
be a threshold that must be exceeded before there are any symptoms. In
addition, this threshold seems to vary from day to day. On some days a
food will affect the child, and on other days it won’t. Dr. Rapp explains
this phenomenon using the analogy of a barrel.

We can view each allergic child as if he has a barrel. As long as the
barrel is empty or only partially full, your child will have no problems.
Your child won’t become hyperactive until his barrel is overflowing.

Various things will fill your child’s barrel. Let’s say your child is
sensitive to chocolate, cats, and peanut butter. Each of these things all
can partially fill his barrel. As long as he only has peanut butter or
only plays with the cat, his barrel is only partially full. That means
that there are no symptoms and that his behavior is fine. Then, one day
he has a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, has chocolate ice cream for
dessert and plays with the cat all afternoon. These things in combination
make his barrel overflow, and by evening he is out of control. Your child
has food allergies, but sometimes they affect him and sometimes they
don’t.

The barrel can change sizes. If your child has a cold or is upset his
barrel gets smaller. It takes less to make it overflow. If he is happy
his barrel is bigger. It takes more to make it overflow. If he isn’t
eating well and that day he is low on certain nutrients his barrel gets
smaller.

Many traditional allergists find this barrel concept ludicrous. It
doesn’t fit into the pattern of how other allergies work.

Reason 2: Method of Diagnosis

The next problem is the way in which you test for food allergies. Dr.
Rapp describes a technique called provocation-neutralization testing.
This method works as follows: Say that a child frequently has headaches
after eating eggs. The practitioner will give an intradermal injection of
egg extract. If this elicits the child’s headache, then the child tests
positive for egg allergy. Other signs of a positive test include an
increase in pulse rate of 20 points, a large skin reaction (this
indicates a classic IgE reaction), a change in the child’s handwriting,
or some other physical or emotional complaint. This last criterion “some
other physical or emotional complaint” is problematic. It is too vague.
The result is that when studies compared how several physicians evaluated
the same group of patients, their results didn’t agree. For each patient
if there were twenty different doctors with twenty different sets of
findings. None of their diagnoses matched.

Reason 3: The Mechanism

As I mentioned before, the proposed mechanism is an IgG mediated
response. Some food allergists diagnose specific food allergies by
measuring IgG levels. This runs counter to all of modern allergy practice.

Allergists give allergy shots to treat allergy. The way this works is
they give a low level of allergen, which is not enough to elicit an IgE
reaction. The dose is slowly increased until eventually the patient can
tolerate a significant exposure to the allergen.

This is how it works. The repeated low-level exposure to the allergen
induces the body to make a different antibody to the substance. This
antibody attaches to the allergen and deactivates it before IgE can cause
the allergy reaction. What is this antibody that allergists try to induce
to cure their patients of their allergies? You guessed it, IgG. So the
very antibody the traditional allergists have been inducing for decades
to successfully treat allergies, the food allergy people claim is the
antibody guilty of causing allergies.

For a traditional allergist this is nothing short of heresy. IgG has been
used for decades to treat allergies successfully. Comes along Rapp and
her friends and they claim that IgG causes allergy? This is a little hard
for some people to accept.

Just how strongly do allergists reject this idea? I once tried to contact
an Israeli physician who was a food allergy specialist to discuss with
him provocation-neutralization testing. I called the hospital where he is
on staff and asked to speak with him. For some reason the operator
instead put me through to the head of the Department of Allergy.

I began discussing with him the theory of food allergies,
provocation-neutralization testing and IgG testing. He told me that he
was the head of a committee of allergists who were in the process of
testifying before the Israeli Knesset to get legislation passed to make
IgG testing illegal in Israel.

Can you imagine? You visit a prison in Israel. In one cell there is car
thief. In the next cell there is a mass murderer. And in the next cell
there is a guy who tested someone for food allergies. Now that’s pretty
strong opposition!

Do Food Allergies Really Exist?

The formal medical societies like the AMA claim there is no such thing as
food allergies. Rapp and her friends have been screaming for decades that
they do exist. So, what is the bottom line? Does it really make sense
that what a child eats can affect him so strongly that experts will
diagnose him as having ADHD?

We know that the brain is a highly complicated and sensitive organ. We
know that many foods have a physiological effect on the body without
inducing a classic allergic response. For example, people who are
sensitive to monosodium glutamate can have a severe reaction to eating
it. The chemicals in red wine affect certain people. We also know that
ingesting certain foods alters brain function. Diet has been proven to
influence neurotransmitter function. Components of foods can also be used
as drugs. For example, tryptophan, tyrosine, and choline have been used
in the treatment of sleep disorders, pain, depression, mania,
hypertension, shock, or dyskinesias.

The logic of Rapp’s argument is so strong and there is enough
circumstantial evidence, that I feel that the question is really the
other way around. We know that the brain is intricate and has tremendous
metabolic requirements. We know that some people have very strong
reactions, including behavioral changes, to certain foods. These things
are undisputed. If it turns out that foods do not elicit significant
problems in sensitive children, in my opinion, we would need to explain
why not!

Are we really seeing an allergy mechanism to food? I prefer to stay out
of that debate. Rather than be ostracized by the doctors who specialize
in allergy, I feel it is safer to call them food sensitivities. There are
no doctors who specialize in sensitivity.

Does Your Child Have Food Sensitivities?

A large number of ADHD children may be having a negative response to
food, and this response may be the primary cause of their ADHD. In what
type of child should you suspect food allergies?

The following is a list of symptoms that resulted from food allergies in
certain children:

* Hyperactivity

* Changes in mood

* Halitosis

* Sleep disturbances

* Delay in sleep onset

* Migraines

* Other headaches

* Abdominal pain

* Bedwetting

* Tantrums

* Eczema

* Asthma

* Seizures

Research shows that by treating the food allergies all of these symptoms
can be relieved.

If you see your child’s symptoms in this list it is possible that food
allergies may be contributing to his problem. If your child also has
other allergic problems, such as allergy or asthma, then food allergies
are almost certainly contributing to his problems.

What Should You Do?

As I wrote in How to Help the Child You Love, there are a number of
approaches to diagnosing food allergies. None of them are well
substantiated and all of them have difficulties. Yet, many people find
that these diagnostic techniques worked for them. Therefore, I’d suggest
you could use them provided you have it on good authority that the person
administering them has a strong record of success. In my experience,
these techniques are more of an art than a science. They really depend
upon the talent of the diagnostician.

As I said last time, the best approach to finding food allergies in your
child is an elimination diet. It doesn’t really matter which one you
choose. I prefer the three that I outline in How to Help the Child You
Love. (see addadhdadvances /childyoulove.html)

Conclusion

Researchers claim that the percentage of ADHD children whose behavioral
symptoms are affected by foods ranges from 60% to 75%. This, however, is
probably not an accurate number. Parents who consent to have their
children participate in diet studies usually believe they have observed
food-induced problems in their children. Therefore, children who
participate in these studies are more likely to respond to foods than the
general population. The truth is we do not know what percentage of ADHD
children will respond to dietary changes, but it seems that the number is
significant.

Treating the food sensitivities in ADHD children has a number of
advantages over using medication. One major advantage all the current
methods of treatment can be used to treat pre-school children. Most
clinicians do not use medication on pre-school children. A more
significant advantage of treating food allergy is that when it works, it
works all day. In contrast, Ritalin wears off in about 4 hours.

All this, of course, is providing that food allergies really do exist.

The main thing to remember is that if you think your child has food
allergies, then the biggest mistake you can make is to go to an
allergist. They don’t believe in food allergies. And whatever you do, do
not go to an allergist and ask to have your child
provocation-neutralization tested for food allergies. He is going to
laugh at you.

Food allergy is an alternative medicine diagnosis. Still, there are
physicians who specialize in diagnosing and treating these sensitivities,
but they no longer call themselves allergists. Rapp and her group were so
ostracized by the formal allergy societies that they eventually broke off
and formed a new field called Environmental Medicine.

Therefore, if you want a physician to treat your child you need to find
an Environmental Medicine specialist. They are not so common, but they
are around.

As I mentioned before, there are a number of approaches to treating food
sensitivities. The one you can do yourself is to use an elimination diet.
I devoted a large section of How to Help the Child You Love describing
exactly how to use elimination diets to diagnose and treat food
sensitivities.

In the final analysis, I feel it is fair to say that many ADHD children
have sensitivities to the foods they eat. These sensitivities may
exacerbate their ADHD symptoms. I won’t go so far as to say that food
allergies cause ADHD. That means that if your ADHD child has severe food
sensitivity, treating that sensitivity may not get rid of his ADHD.
However, until you treat his food allergy, nothing else you do will
really help your child’s ADHD, either.

Anthony Kane, MD

ADD ADHD Advances

addadhdadvances

Anthony Kane, MD is a physician, an international lecturer, and director
of special education. He is the author of a book, numerous articles, and
a number of online programs dealing with ADHD
(addadhdadvances /childyoulove.html) treatment, ODD, parenting issues
(addadhdadvances /betterbehavior.html), and education. You may visit
his website at addadhdadvances . To sign up for the free ADD
ADHD Advances online journal send a blank email to:
subscribe@addadhdadvances ?subject=subscribeartcity

akane@addadhdadvances

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ADHD and Food Allergies

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Air Purifier Info For Dummies

 


 

  Reggie Dunn

If you are in the dark about what air purifiers are and what

they actually do, you are not alone. Many people have at

least thought about the notion of improving their indoor air

quality, but quickly abandon the idea because of the

confusion surrounding the topic of air purifiers. Hopefully,

after reading this article, you will have a working

knowledge of air purifiers and how they work.

First of all, lets define the term air purifier. An air

purifier is a mechanism that is designed to free air from

contaminants. Different techniques are used to render this

task and these include filters, adsorbents, and

electrostatic charges. Asthma sufferers, those that have

allergies, and those with other respitory problems have the

most to gain from an air purifier.

Air purifiers work by drawing these contaminants

(pollutants, particles, and pollen) from within the air that

we are breathing. Harmful air is pulled into the air

purifier by the inlet grill. Some air purifiers have a

pre-filter that helps contain the larger of the airborne

particles. Air will then travel through the carbon filter

which will help reduce unpleasant odors. Then the air will

pass through another filter that is composed of many tightly

woven fibers. Finally, the fan redirects the filtered air

throughout the room.

There are several factors that must be taken into

consideration to determine how much expense will be involved

in the purchase of an air purifier. When considering cost,

you must look into how much the replacement filters will run

as well as how often they will need changed. What may appear

to be a bargain up front on a less expensive model, could

potentially cost you much more later on down the road. Also,

it is important to see if you can order the replacement

filters in bulk at a discounted rate. It is always a good

idea to find out from the manufacturer what the estimated

electrical usage will be and whether or not the air purifier

runs on a cycle or does it have to stay on constantly.

At the end of the day, it is up to you to decide if an air

purifier is right for you and your family, but hopefully the

information contained here has given you a working knowledge

on what exactly air purifiers are and how they work.

About the Author

Reggie Dunn is a long time volunteer environmentalist and the webmaster
of Reggie Dunn is a long time volunteer environmentalist and the
webmaster of

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Air Purifier Info For Dummies

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Air Purifiers: An Investigation of the Types and their Benef

 


 

  Mike Spencer

Considering the amount of irritants that are present in the air today,
those who suffer from allergies and other breathing disorders are
challenged to find effective ways to clean the air that they breathe
within their

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Air purifiers and air filters can help the health of Allergy

 


 

  S.A. Smith

Indoor air pollution in the form of dander, dust and pollen particulate
matter can be a real irritant for suffers of asthma, allergies and other
respiratory conditions. In addition to removal of all direct irritant
sources and minimizing the irritant containment materials in your house,
you should also consider the indoor ventilation and filtration system of

ISO
9002 ACCREDITED NATURIST HERBAL REMEDY

www.healasthma.com

  Or In The Workplace

===========================================================================

Air Quality We Breathe At

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Air Purifiers, Are They Worth The Money?

 


 

  Dominic Ferrara

When you suffer from allergies or asthma, you may think it may be a good
idea to purchase an air filtration system for your house. But one
legitimate question would be: is it worth paying the money? Experts say
that it can ease your symptoms, but that is true only if you make other
changes in your environment, too.

These changes concern avoiding the carpeting, finding another place for
your pets and using air conditioning during the warmer months in order to
get rid of the pollens or allergens. You should as well clean the air
filters, the air conditioner filters, and the duct filters every season.
Another possibility is not to open your windows and to avoid staying a
lot outdoors, during the period when your allergies are acute.

If you have tried all these and didn’t find adequate relief, then it may
be better for you to think about using an air filter. The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as well as the American Lung
Association recommends air filtration for those who suffer from allergies
and asthma, but not as a solution per-se. Controlling the pollution and
ventilation that can cause allergies is more important; there are
arguments on whether filters can give relief from asthma in a house that
is clean and well ventilated. Air cleaners may be helpful in some
situations and may help reducing allergy or asthma symptoms, but that air
cleaning is not the one to reduce consistently the symptoms.

About The Author

Dominic is the author of this article. This article may be reproduced on
websites subject to credit being given to the author, and a link to his
website. If you would like more information go to
www.airpurifiersources .

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Air Purifiers, Are They Worth The Money?

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Allergic Food Reactions

 


 

  Wong Lai Teng

The topic of allergic food reactions is undoubtedly one of the most
confused of clinical immunology. The term ‘allergic’ is frequently used
inappropriately to describe all conditions where reproducible reactions
are triggered by food ingestions, disappear on an elimination diet and
recur on a blind challenge. ‘Food intolerance’ is the appropriate term to
define the entirety of these conditions.

Allergic food reactions should be confined to those cases where an immune
mechanism can be demonstrated. Most instances of food intolerance are not
explained by a clear immunological mechanism, being caused by toxics
(spices, sulphites) and pharmacological (caffeine, sodium nitrite)
stimuli or by enzymatic deficiencies (lactose deficiency in some cases of
milk intolerance). In these non-immune food reactions, however, many of
the manifestations may be accounted for by activation of the alternative
complement pathway. It is postulated that this pathway is triggered by
non-immune stimuli such as food contaminants, leading to formation of
anaphylotoxins such as C5a.

In the first year of life, food intolerance is relatively common, with
cow’s milk being the most frequent initiating stimulus. It appears as
gastrointestinal symptoms and possibly wheezing. In adults the foods most
frequently involved in intolerance are milk, eggs, fish, nuts, wheat and
chocolate. These food reactions frequently have an allergic pathogenesis.
Symptoms include urticaria, angioedema, asthma, anaphylaxis and less
frequently, nausea and vomiting. Such manifestations, but even more those
comprising the oral allergy syndrome-swelling of the lips within minutes
of food ingestions and tingling in the mouth and the throat-closely
correlate with the presence of specific IgE and implicate a type I
hypersensitivity as the mechanism responsible for the clinical
manifestations.

Involvement of type I hypersensitivity can be documented by the detection
of specific IgE using the RAST or, less expensively, with a skin prick
test. The prick test, unfortunately, is only as good as the antigen it
uses. Therefore, while antigenic preparations from eggs, milk or
shellfish may provoke a positive skin reaction in sensitized individuals,
highly purified preparations from apple are rarely do, even if a
hypersensitive subject gives strikingly positive reactions when
challenged with cruder preparations from apple juice or apple peel. The
main diagnostic procedure in food intolerance is an elimination diet from
which suspect foods are gradually removed until symptoms disappear. A
positive diagnosis is made when symptoms reappear upon reintroducing a
specific food. This challenge should be done in a double-blind manner
using placebo controls. The challenge should be avoided, however, if the
food is suspected to have caused systemic anaphylaxis in the past.

About the Author

www.medical-explorer

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Allergic Food Reactions

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Allergies, Asthma and City Trees

 


 

  Thomas Ogren

Allergies, Asthma and City Trees

Thomas Leo Ogren

Some urban tree species cause an inordinate amount of asthma and allergy
problems, while other tree species cause little or no health problems. A
large part of the problem is that the arborists and landscape
professionals, who plant these trees, often don’t know the difference.
The type of trees (and shrubs) used in modern city landscapes has changed
dramatically in the past three decades. In the past, the majority of
street trees used were perfect-flowered, insect-pollinated trees, such as
the once so common American elm tree.
Today though, many of the most widely used city trees are wind-pollinated
species. Most of these species are unisexually flowered (dioecious and/or
monoecious) and further compounding the problem, thousands of popular
cultivars sold today are touted to be “seedless,” “low-maintenance,”
“pod-free” or “litter-free.”
These fruitless, seedless trees are male plants, all male, and male trees
produce prodigious amounts of allergenic pollen. Female trees produce NO
pollen what so ever.
In dioecious-flowered trees such as most ash, willow and poplars, it is
easy to propagate male only trees because they are separate-sexed.
Monoecious trees, which in Nature always have both sexes (male and female
flowers) on the same tree, also usually produce abundant pollen. It is
possible to have all-male trees from the monoecious species. On many
species the sexes will be born on separate branches, such as on a Honey
Locust tree. If you take cuttings, or budwood, only from the branches
with male flowers, then, you’ll get an all-male tree. Lots of monoecious
Acer spp. cultivars are male-only plants. In a somewhat different way,
there are also numerous monoecious species where only the top or only the
bottom will have either male or female flowers. For example, the bottom
half of a mature Italian Cypress for example is all-male. Female
wood is found only at the top of the plant. Thus, scion wood taken from
the bottom usually produces “seedless” plants.
The terms “dioecious,” and “monoecious,” are botanical terms, not
horticultural terms. We could perhaps say that a manipulated, asexually
propagated all-male cultivar, taken from a monoecious species, is now
“dioecious,” but this is not quite correct. A proper dioecious tree is
one that in Nature is separate-sexed. These modern engineered trees are
never found in Nature.
Interestingly, the first reference in print I ever found to this single
sexing-out with monoecious street trees, was in a USDA booklet, from
1982, called “Genetic Improvement of Urban Street Trees.”

How Bad Is Allergy Now?
In 1959 the official rate of allergy in the U.S. was between 2 to 5% of
the public. By 1999 the official rate of allergy had increased to an
incredible 38% of Americans. Asthma, which was once considered rare, is
now the number one chronic childhood disease in the US.

Where are Allergies and Asthma the Worst?
The most common allergen of all is pollen and since there are so many
more plants growing in the country than in the city, it would make sense
then that there is more allergy and asthma in the countryside. Right? No,
wrong! Allergies and asthma are far worse in the city than they are in
the country.

Several things contribute to this:
1.Pavement makes a poor pollen trap. Pollen in the city often lands on
pavement where wind can cause it to become airborne again. In naturally
vegetated areas where there is much more vegetation, pollen often lands
on and becomes stuck in grasses, shrubs and vines or in trees.
2.Cities have more air pollution, which weakens the immune system and
lung function.
3.Stress, which is generally higher in cities, can contribute to both
asthma and allergy development.
4.Increased carbon dioxide levels within cities causes pollen-forming
plants to produce more pollen with each bloom cycle, and also often
causes urban plants to bloom more often.
5.Pollen loads are actually far greater in cities because there is a
sexual imbalance within the plant community. In the city there is a
preponderance of male trees and shrubs, while in the rural areas there is
almost always a complete balance of plant sexuality. The excess of male
plants in the city results in an excess of pollen.
6.The very lack of female plant materials in the urban environment also
is a prime factor in the epidemic of allergy and asthma. Female flowers
carry an electrical negative (-) charge (the trees are grounded with
their roots) and airborne pollen holds a positive (+) charge. The tree
and the pollen are mutually attractive; thus a female plant becomes a
very effective pollen trap for pollen of its own species. But with almost
no female trees and shrubs in modern landscapes, most of the pollen
remains airborne.

How to Improve Health and Air Quality through Tree Selection
Landscaping to reduce allergies, especially pollen allergies, is an idea
that is coming into its own. In the past few years several books have
been written on the subject and interest is growing rapidly.
With the addition of OPALS™, (Ogren Plant-Allergy Scale) arborists now
have a means to design allergy-free plantings. This scale ranks all
landscape plant materials on a simple 1 to 10 allergy basis. Trees that
produce zero pollen, e.g., female cultivars, usually rank the best –
number one. Trees that have abundant, highly allergenic pollen,
especially those with very long bloom periods, are usually ranked the
worst – in the 9-10 range. There are many trees and shrubs, however, that
fall somewhere in between. Using a list of over 100 factors, OPALS™
numerically ranks each species and then further ranks the individual
cultivars. There are often dramatic allergy differences even between two
species in the same genus.

How Are Plants Allergy-Ranked?
OPALS™ was developed based on the following considerations: “What do
plants that are well known to cause allergies have in common?” and “What
do plants that are well known NOT to cause allergies have in common?”
With these two questions it was possible to build two opposing sets of
medical-botanical-allergy criteria. One set is positive and one set is
negative. Examples of negative criteria: tiny flowers, excerted stamens,
small (less than 25 microns in diameter) sized pollen grains, extended
bloom period. Examples of positive criteria: complete flowered, sticky,
heavy pollen grains, presence of nectaries, brief bloom period.
There are now over a hundred criteria used to develop OPALS™ rankings.
Individual landscapers, city arborists, the USDA and the American Lung
Association have already use the scale to make better landscaping
decisions.
Based on the plant-allergy scale it is now possible to state, for
example, that Acer rubrum – ‘Red Sunset’ maple, is ranked number one and
causes no allergies. By comparison, ‘Autumn Spire,’ a male cultivar of
red maple does cause allergies and is ranked number nine. Most Pine trees
will rank at numbers 4 to 5 and will cause some allergy. Platanus species
(sycamore) rank number eight, and cause quite a bit of allergy. A male
Canary Island Palm, Phoenix canariensis, which is considered one of the
worst at a ranking of 10, will produce an abundance of pollen that will
cause severe allergic reactions to many living nearby.
Pollen dispersal rates have been measured since 1972 (Gilbert Raynor, NY
meteorologist) and although many pollen grains travel far in the air,
research shows that most often 99% of a tree’s pollen falls out and
sticks within fifty feet of the tree. This means that the closer one is
to the pollinating tree the greater the exposure. Thus, the job for
arborists is to plant trees that will not expose everyone near them to
allergenic pollen.

So, How Do You Tell the Boys from the Girls?
It isn’t always that obvious by looking at a tree (especially a young
tree) as to whether or not it is a pollen-free female or a
pollen-producing male. But since so many city trees are now asexually
produced cultivars, the sex is predetermined. In the book Allergy-Free
Gardening, which is the result of 15 years of research on this subject,
several thousand trees were individually sexed and allergy-ranked. In
some cities, pollen control ordinances are already on the books, although
most of these could be improved an updated. Albuquerque, New Mexico is
particular interesting, since it has attempted to curb allergies by
prohibiting the sale and planting of any male cultivars.
As the public grows more knowledgeable about allergy-free landscapes,
municipal arborists and landscape specialists will want to be ahead of
the curve. They will want to show their clients that they are
well-informed on the subject. In the future, instead of planting high
allergy-trees, they will need to plan and plant ‘healthy’ urban
landscapes.

References:
1.Lewis, Walter H., Airborne and Allergenic Pollen of North America, John
Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, 1976.
2.Jacobson, Arthur Lee, North American Landscape Trees, Ten Speed Press,
Berkeley, California, 1996.
3.Koch, Christopher Von, Allergy, Die Woche, pg. 27, July 7, 2000,
Hamburg, Germany.
4.Dworschak, Manfred, Der Spiegel, Feind am StraBenrad, Pp. 174, 175, Nr.
29, 2000.
5.Ogren, Thomas Leo, Turn Back the Pollen Clock, New Scientist, London,
Pp. 46, 47, June 3rd, 2000.

About the Author

Thomas Ogren is the author of Allergy-Free Gardening, Ten Speed Press.
Tom does consulting work on plants and allergies for the USDA, county
asthma coalitions, and the Canadian and American Lung Associations. He
has appeared on HGTV and The Discovery Channel. His book, Safe Sex in the
Garden, was published in 2003. In 2004 Time Warner Books published his
latest book: What the Experts May NOT Tell You About: Growing the Perfect
Lawn. His website: www.allergyfree-gardening

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Allergies, Asthma and City Trees

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Allergies-which way do you want to go?

 


 

  Elizabeth Turner

Almost every other person is allergic to something or the other… dust
mites, pollen, nuts, dairy, aspirin etc. This article briefly covers what
an allergic reaction involves and what options people with allergies have.
Almost every other person is allergic to something or the other… dust
mites, pollen, nuts, dairy, aspirin etc. Allergies are so common nowadays
that most of us do not even think about why we are allergic to certain
things and not others. The common reflex is to go straight to the
medicine cabinet, reach out for the stuff that worked the last time and
hope it will do the trick again. This article briefly covers what an
allergic reaction involves and what options people with allergies have.

An allergy is basically a cleansing reaction from the body to a certain
substance. These substances may be totally harmless and incapable of
causing any danger to other people but some people may not be able to
cope with the same substance hence provoking the body’s defense system
which in this case works by cleansing out the substance. These substances
are called allergens.

Common allergens include:

• Pollen grains • Dust mites • Certain cosmetics • Bee stings • Certain
medication • Certain foods and etc

These are common substances that we come across everyday and most people
are not even allergic to these. But quite frankly one can be allergic to
anything. Allergic reactions can be classed into 3 different types
depending upon the seriousness of the discomfort caused.

Mild allergic reactions include sneezing, watery eyes, scratching, hives,
rashes, and swelling,

Stronger reactions include congestion, wheezing, coughing, shortness of
breath and in some cases a patient may experience stomach pain, cramping,
and even diarrhea.

And extra strong reactions which are also called anaphylaxis involve
narrowing of the airway tubes and therefore making breathing very
difficult. This may lead to a drop in blood pressure resulting into
dizziness and loss of consciousness. Without immediate medical attention
a patient having an anaphylaxis attack may even die. This is the worst of
allergic reactions and persons with such allergies must be careful not to
allow the allergy to trigger. Such reactions are commonly associated with
food allergies (nuts, fish, dairy…) or certain types of medications (such
as aspirins for certain people) or insect bites (such as bee stings).

In order to understand allergies we must shed some light on what exactly
happens when the body comes in contact with an allergen. The body’s
reaction to harmful substances is to react defensively. The defense
reaction is to produce antibodies. The antibodies that fight allergens
are called IgE antibodies (ImmunoglobulinE). These work by attaching
themselves to the allergen and some of the body’s own cells which are the
mast cells located in the nose, skin, lungs and gastrointestinal tract or
basophils cells found mainly in the blood. Upon attachment certain
chemicals are produced. One of these chemicals is called histamine.
Histamine causes defensive/cleansing reactions such as watery eyes to
clear the eyes or a cough to expel toxic fumes before they get inhaled.

How do you know what you are allergic to?

Allergy tests involve introducing various suspected allergens to the body
and checking for a reaction. It is a good tool to find out what the
person may be allergic to. However it may not determine all the causes of
the allergy.

What can be done for those who are allergic?

A lot is the answer but it depends upon which way you want to go:

Avoid the triggers: So if you are allergic to dust then make sure there
is no dust in your surrounding. However this is not possible at all times.

Medication available: There is a lot of medication available to deal with
allergies. Most work quickly by suppressing the allergic reaction in some
way or another. Antihistamines Such drugs work to suppress the body’s
histamine from reacting to the allergen. Decongestants These work by
reducing swellings of the membranes in the nose. Nasal Sprays These
relieve congestion in the nose and allow the patient to breath more
freely.

Immunotherapy:

This works by increasing the body’s immune system to allergens. By giving
the patient regular doses (from very low doses increasing them gradually)
of what they may be allergic to. Gradually the patient’s body becomes
immune to the allergen and may not produce an allergic reaction when
exposed to it. Immunotherapy is a lengthy procedure and may take up to 6
months. Patients with allergic asthma and those allergic to dairy
products and bee stings have benefited from immunotherapy.

Homoeopathy:

Homoeopathy also works by increasing the body’s own immune system to the
allergen and may take time.

Detoxification:

This works by cleansing out toxic substances in the body which are
blocking the body’s natural immune system from working correctly. Once
the body has been detoxified patients find that there is no longer an
allergic reaction.

Vitamin therapy:

This works by finding the deficient vitamins per person which is usually
Vitamin C, the most necessary vitamin for boosting the immune system.
However each person’s deficiency in vitamin C may differ and the amount
of dosage may differ. The dosage is gradually increased until the
patient’s allergic reactions do not return. Care has to be taken so that
the dosage is kept below the level which will give the patient diarrhea.

Do nothing at all:

Some believe that if nothing is done about a mild allergy such as dust or
smoke then after some time of exposure to it the body stops reacting
defensively to it. For example people who are beginning to smoke choke
and cough for the first few times they smoke and then the body gets used
to it. This doesn’t mean that smoking is not harmful to the person any
longer but it just means that the body’s ability to throw off the toxins
has weakened.

Certainly these are not the only choices you have for fighting your
battle against allergies but I aim to inform you on what it is that
happens within your body when you have an allergic reaction and to open
up your options a little as to what it is that can help you.

About the Author

Elizabeth Turner is a Chartered Certified Accountant. She is an all
rounder and writes on a variety of subjects. She specializes in preparing
tutorial material for students of finance.

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Allergies-which way do you want to go?