Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to our new and fabulous site. Please have a look around, and allow me to be your tour guide to point out a few features.

First stop, the green navigation bar. If you pull down under Food Allergy, for instance, you’ll find full sections on the top food allergens, with comprehensive background articles, advice and news on each allergy.

Plus, you’ll see a section offering an Allergy Overview and the Allergy Basics.

Next stops: Maybe you’re dealing with celiac disease or asthma? No problem. Move across the green bar to those buttons to discover a great range of information, advice and articles by our team of health journalists.

Got a skin allergy or need school or travel advice? Again, we’ve got full sections under the respecitve green buttons. Healthy Home covers everything from VOC-free painting to dust mites and mold. We want to get your home “breathing” well.

Questions, Questions

In the NewsReport for September, we pointed out that experts in allergy, asthma and celiac disease will be taking online questions. ^[1]

We’re thrilled about that, since it can be a long time between scheduled visits to specialists. We all have some pressing questions to ask. And now, you can do so with the click of our orange “E-mail” button on the “Ask The Allergist, or Celiac Expert or Asthma Educator blogs.

A big thanks to the experts who are participating, and assisting our community online.

I won’t even try to mention all the features on the new site: there are too many, and you’ll enjoy discovering some.

But let me at least steer you to the new Allergy Safe Recipes and Gluten-Free Recipes – again, easy to find under “Recipes” on the green bar. Many of you know the gastronomic delights of Chef Simon Clarke from Allergic Living magazine, and now here are many of his fabulous “friendly” recipes online.

Try out the Advanced Recipe Search to narrow down the allergens you’re avoiding or if you’re looking specifically for gluten-free desserts.

Share Your View

One thing users told us on the old site was that they wanted more opportunities to add their own feedback. Well, now you can comment on almost all features on this site.

Our aim with this relaunch is to become a destination site for those living with allergies, celiac disease and asthma. We think (and hope) that in the one stop at Allergic Living you will be able to learn many new things about your or your child’s food allergy, celiac disease, asthma or environmental allergies.

Our journalists will also be reporting the latest news on allergy, celiac and asthma on the homepage. So do check in regularly for the latest.

A tremendous amount of work and dedication has gone into this site. Special thanks to Giselle Sabatini for her beautiful design; Travis Brown and the team at Flight Deck Media for their seemingly endless development work; and Wesley Corbett for his navigation expertise.

Key editorial contributors include: Claire Gagné, Jennifer Van Evra, Lisa Fitterman, Erin Stevenson, Lisa Ferlaino, Janice Paskey and, well, me too. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of the Ontario Media Development Corporation in this project.

One parting point: this site is a work in progress. You may still see the odd bad link or other hiccup. Feel free to let us know in the comments below articles or at info@allergicliving.com ^[2].

This site is built for and dedicated to Allergic Living’s great community of subscribers and supporters. (And we hope it’s of use to those who just stop by to learn about allergies.) Consider this is your site, and my hope is that it serves you well on your own journey living with allergies, celiac or asthma.

It’s all in the managing, my friends.

posted: October, 2010