You can’t see them, but they’re all over your home. Dust mites will be in the carpet, the sofa, the bedding, the curtains, even a child’s stuffed animals. These tiny insects, visible only under a microscope, leave a trail of waste that is a highly allergenic.

It’s estimated that between 10 and 25 per cent of North Americans are sensitized to dust mite droppings, and that these pests will spark wheezing in over 50 per cent of asthmatics. Thankfully, while you can’t get rid of dust mites completely, you can minimize their multiplying numbers.

What They Are

Dust mites, cousins to the spider, are tiny, eight-legged arachnids measuring only one-quarter to one-third of a millimetre in size. They spend their two to four months of life eating, creating waste and reproducing. A female will lay 100 eggs in her lifetime, and each mite produces about 10 to 20 waste pellets a day.

They are whitish in color, and thrive in warmth (between 24 and 26 degrees C; 75 and 80 degrees F) and humidity higher than 50 per cent. Mites eat minuscule flakes of human skin and animal dander. They can’t drink, but absorb moisture from the atmosphere.

Where They Live

Dust mites prefer a plentiful supply of skin flakes or animal dander, moisture and warmth. This is why you’ll find the highest concentration of mites in your bed. An average mattress contains between 100,000 and 10 million bugs.

A study in 2000 found that more than 45 per cent of American homes had detectable dust mite levels associated with the development of allergies, and 23 per cent had bedding with concentrations of allergen high enough to trigger asthma attacks.

Next Page: What You Can Do

“Cinnamon buns,” Beth Ringdahl says wistfully when asked what food she misses the most. “I could make gluten-free ones,” the Vancouver management consultant adds, but her intonation says: they just wouldn’t be the same.

Like most most people diagnosed with celiac disease, Ringdahl has learned to watch what she eats like a hawk.

Foods containing gluten – a protein that gives grains such as wheat, rye and barley their elasticity – can make her very ill, spurring bouts of symptoms such as diarrhea or constipation, stomach cramps and bloating, chronic headaches and concentration problems that Ringdahl refers to as “brain fog.” The only treatment for celiac is lifelong avoidance of gluten-containing foods.

Although she was only diagnosed three years ago at the age of 43, Ringdahl appears to have been living with celiac disease since childhood. “I remember, as a kid, lying on the floor of the bathroom just in so much pain,” she says. The gastrointestinal symptoms later gave way to anemia, severe headaches and achy joints.

Ringdahl suspects that early damage left its mark on her body: she stands just over five feet tall, between six and eight inches shorter than her three sisters, none of whom has celiac.

Stunted growth is certainly consistent with the disease, which affects the tiny, finger-like projections called villi that line the small intestine and help to absorb nutrients. When a person who has celiac eats gluten, the villi become flattened, which greatly reduces the uptake of vitamins and minerals in food, and the result is malnutrition and often anemia.

Children with the disease typically have delayed growth and are very thin because their bodies aren’t getting the nutrients needed to grow properly.

The same malabsorption can delay puberty and may lead to fertility issues later in life. Ringdahl, for instance, didn’t start menstruating until she was in her late teens and she says that celiac-related infertility left her unable to have children.

Ringdahl had several of the classic symptoms of the disease. But there is a long list of possible signs, so those with celiac will not necessarily always have the same symptoms or experience of it. In fact, a 2003 study by researchers at the University of Maryland Medical Center found that as many as 41 per cent of adult celiacs are asymptomatic, meaning that they don’t have any noticeable symptoms at all.

There is one constant though: the need for those with the disease to adapt to life without gluten – a protein so ubiquitous that it is hugely challenging to avoid, in much the same way that dairy is one of the toughest food allergens to eliminate from a diet. On a more positive note, it is also common to find that a celiac diagnosis offers a new sense of control to a person who may have been long baffled by those varied symptoms.

For Marilyn Dion, the diagnosis came after serious illness. “About five years ago, I got deathly ill,” says Dion, a 54-year-old mother of three from Hamilton, Ontario. “Vomiting, diarrhea, severe headaches that wouldn’t go away – I was bed-ridden.” After several trips to emergency, doctors finally figured out what was wrong, to an extent.

After a biopsy to her lower intestine (the most reliable diagnostic tool for celiac) was positive for the disease, Dion cut gluten-containing foods from her diet. The results were almost immediate, and surprising: “Colours were brighter and more distinct, so obviously my vision had been affected,” she says.

“I could learn better, remember better and I had more stamina. It was like – whoa, new person here!”

But relief has not been complete. Dion has continued to experience bloating, fatigue and pain, prompting the doctors to add possible colitis and Crohn’s disease to her diagnosis. Both conditions, which affect the intestines and colon, are often associated with celiac.

“They still don’t know for sure,” says Dion, frustrated by the lack of answers. “I’ve had miscellaneous symptoms, but not enough to put me in the hospital again.”

The Asthma Society of Canada has released a study that shows a startling number of asthmatics settling for a diminished quality of life because of poor management of their disease. One-third of the 1,000 adult asthmatics surveyed this past spring for “The Asthma Action Study” reported having serious symptoms on a daily basis. Forty-one per cent agreed that asthma was having a great negative impact on their ability to work or go to school.

The findings in Canadian children are no better. According to the 1,008 parents of asthmatic children surveyed, “17 per cent of children with asthma in Canada in the past year have had some form of emergency or urgent care,” said Dr. Mark Greenwald, chair of the society’s scientific and medical advisory committee. “That means more than 20,000 families have had to visit the emergency room, and of those, 12,000 children were hospitalized.”

Forty per cent of asthmatic children missed school during the past 12 months. In addition, 28 per cent of homes with an asthmatic child had a smoker in the family, and the study found such children far more likely to need urgent care. “They have twice as many issues in terms of hospitalization and reduced exercise and quality of life issues,” Greenwald noted.

The study has prompted the Asthma Society to draft six suggestions to improve treatment:

1. Breathing tests must be performed routinely for diagnosis and to monitor treatment;
2. Patients must be referred to specialists more often;
3. An action plan should be drafted for each patient;
4. Patient-doctor communication must improve;
5. Proper use of medications and inhaler technique should be regularly addressed;
6. And resources and counselling must be available, such as the services provided by the Asthma Society. Greenwald advises patients: “You’ve got to demand more. Don’t settle for less than you should.” – Dory Cerny

Published in Allergic Living magazine, Summer 2005
© Copyright AGW Publishing Inc.

To order that issue or to subscribe, click here.

Allergic Signs
Symptoms of an allergy to ragweed range from mild irritation of the eyes and a runny nose to completely congested sinuses; itchy eyes, mouth and throat; and sleeping problems, accompanied by fatigue and irritability.

Ragweed can provoke asthma. It is also linked to ear infections in children and sinusitis (bacterial infection of the sinuses) in adults. However, skin reactions to ragweed are rare.

The Where of It
Though there are dozens of varieties of ragweed, two are mainly responsible for the sneezing and weeping of allergic rhinitis: common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) and giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida).

In the United States, ragweed cuts a swath through central and eastern states from north to south. In Canada, Ontario is the hardest hit by its pollen, with Manitoba and Quebec following closely behind. In both countries, the coasts are mainly clear of it.

Weather’s Effect
Ragweed thrives during dry, hot summer weather. While most of us complain about clammy and rainy days, high humidity (over 70 per cent) makes it more difficult for the plant to release pollen.

Know the Enemy
Common Ragweed: An annual, it grows erect and as tall as 5 feet (150 cm). Lower leaf branches are opposite each other, but begin to alternate higher up the plant. The leaves are long and compound, with deeply toothed divisions on each leaf. Flowers are in spikes of small, greenish yellow florets, numerous and not showy.

Giant Ragweed: The weed lives up to its name, reaching as high as 15 feet (4.5 m). Its stems are multi-branched and hairy, with the leaves opposite, except on smaller branches.

The leaves are large, as rough as sandpaper, rounded and shallowly toothed. Flower heads are similar to common ragweed except the female head is larger. This is an annual as well, and both plants only reproduce by seed.

The Pollen: Flowers begin appearing in June, but don’t release pollen until the tail end of July, with pollen saturating the air from August through October. One plant will produce one billion pollen grains per season. Only the first frost will kill ragweed.

Next: How to Beat the Weed!

Ragweed

Of the sources of autumn allergy misery,ragweed is by far the worst. It is the most common cause of seasonal allergies at this time of year and it’s everywhere. In the one year a ragweed plant lives, it will produce as many as one billion grains of pollen that can be carried by the wind up to 650 kilometres (400 miles) away. Giant and common ragweed are found across North America (though less commonly on the coasts), with the prime blooming season running from late August until the first frost kills off these adaptable plants.

Other Weeds

Though ragweed is the worst offender, others can be problematic for the allergic:

White Cockle (Silene pratensis) – Grows up to a metre tall, with oblong leaves that are 2 to 10 cm long (1 to 4 inches) and 2 cm (1 inch) wide. White flowers open in the evenings; a prolific seed producer.

Cow Cockle (Vaccaria pyramidata) – Also known as China cockle, this weed has pretty bright pink flowers and bluish-green leaves. Height can reach 60 cm (2 feet).

Mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) – Perennial; grows between 0.5 to 2 metres (1.5 to 6.5 feet), with a slightly hairy stem that is often reddish-brown. Leaves are dark green on top and silvery underneath; it gives off a sage-like aroma.

Curled Dock/Narrow-leaved Dock (Rumex crispus L) and Broad-leaved Dock (Rumex obtusifolius L) – Long, dark green leaves with wavy edges form a base for a metre-long stem with clusters of green flowers.

Amaranth/Pigweed (Amaranthus) – a family of annual weeds that share similar characteristics: alternating oval-shaped leaves, green flower clusters and smooth stems. Prostrate Pigweed grows along the ground while Redroot Pigweed and Green Amaranth grow upright.

Lamb’s Quarters (Chenopodium album L) – An annual with bluish-green leaves that grows up to 2.5 metres (8 feet) high on stems with purple or red blotches. Flowers are small (up to 3 mm) green petal-lesspods with a blue tinge.

Russian Thistle (Salsola kali L) – Thin, spiky leaves sprout from multiple branches that are often striped with red. Purple-tinged stems grow to more than 1 metre (about 4 feet) tall, which dry out and break off when mature, forming “tumbleweeds” that spread seeds.

Plantain (Plantago major L) – Long, narrow flower clusters (7 to 30 cm/2.5 to 11.5 inches in length) hold numerous greenish-white flowers with wind-distributed pollen. Plant grows to 60 cm (2 feet) high, with smooth, spade-shaped leaves.

Mold

Mold can be found anywhere it’s damp, including in piles of decaying plant matter, composters, gutters, rotting wood (like those porch steps you meant to fix) and inside the house in basements, bathrooms and laundry rooms. Several types of mold cause allergy symptoms, and many of them thrive both indoors and out, including Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium, Panicillium, Epicoccum, Fusarium and Bipolaris. Your allergist can test you for sensitivity to the different types, though all are hard to avoid completely.

According to the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI), the weather plays a large role in how badly a mold allergy will flare. The damper the conditions, the more mold there will be.

How Mould Behaves

Mould allergen is spread on the wind in the form of spores, much like the lighter plant pollens. However, unlike weeds, which are generally destroyed by the first good cold snap, many moulds simply become dormant over the winter, reappearing in the spring in soggy organic matter such as piles of mulch. During drier summer months, the mould allergic person’s symptoms wane, only to resurface in the fall with more rain and dropped leaves on the ground.

Inside, basements are a fungus’s best friend. With damp walls, leaky foundations, storage boxes full of paper, improper insulation and carpeting, the subterranean level can be the perfect breeding ground. That “musty” basement smell is a dead giveaway that mould has moved in.

Next Page: What can you do?

If you know you have allergies, but don’t know to which plants or trees, visit an allergist for testing. Once your specific allergies have been diagnosed, you’ll know what to eliminate from your garden plans. Next, research the allergenicity of plants. “Read everything on the subject you can find,” advises Thomas Leo Ogren, author of the definitive Allergy-Free Gardening and an expert on horticulture and allergies. “Go on the Internet and read articles, read books, learn as much as possible.”

There are several factors that determine how much a given plant will affect someone predisposed to pollen allergy. These include the sex of the plant, size, shape and colour of the flower, how the plant is pollinated (by wind or insects) and what the pollen itself is like.

Pollen and Pollination

The size and shape of a plant’s pollen can dictate its allergenicity. So does its means of getting from one plant to another. Wind pollination requires light pollen – and lots of it – that can travel great distances. This is the troublesome kind because it is abundant, easily inhaled and likely to cause allergic reactions. Flowers that depend on bees, wasps, butterflies, moths and beetles for collection and dispersal of pollen tend to produce heavy, sticky grains that are somewhat airborne. A good rule is to avoid all wind-pollinated plants, unless there are female versions available.

Plant Gender

Head to plants with bigger, brighter blooms. “Go for flowers with bright colours and as many petals as possible,” says Ogren. The showier flowers tend to be insect pollinated, and the shape of the bloom will also play a part. If the pollen is buried deep inside the flower, it will be less likely to blow away on the wind and into your nose. Stalwart examples of low-pollen summer flowers include pansies, violets, hydrangeas, gladiolus and fucshia, to name a few.

Be careful with heavily scented blooms, which can trigger attacks in asthmatics. This is especially important when choosing roses, which are often prized for their scent as much as their beauty.

Annuals are a great way to add yard colour, and many aren’t triggers for allergies unless planted in large clusters. Some of the better choices are: impatiens, petunias, sweet pea and foxglove.

Shrubs, Trees

“I would not buy and plant anything that lives a long time, any tree or shrub, unless I had a very good idea of what it’s allergy potential was,” says Ogren. “Don’t buy any that are seedless, fruitless or podless since they are probably males and will make lots of pollen.” Look for shrubs and trees with berries or fruit rather than flowers – they’ll be female.

Grass

We love our lush lawns, but grass is the most common, persistent allergy offender. In fact, it can cause reactions even if it’s not the allergen because pollen, dust, mould, and insects and their droppings get trapped in the lawn, and then disturbed when you mow. The best option is to avoid laying sod altogether. Stylish, modern gardens are often a mix of stone pathways and flower beds.

If you must have a patch of green, weekly mowing is key. This will keep the grass from flowering and producing pollen, and provide less of a harbour for other allergens. Using a push mower also disturbs allergens less. Be sure to clean up clippings promptly to avoid mould growth. Better yet, have a non-allergic person mow the lawn.

Mold Allergens

“The worst molds in the garden are caused by insects on buggy plants,” says Ogren. Unhealthy plants should be replaced, and the others fertilized regularly to keep them healthy. Rake up leaves in the fall and avoid overwatering, which can create a perfect damp environment for mold to flourish.

The Uncontrollable

Whether it’s a towering tree you can’t cut down, pollen floating in from miles away or what your neighbors have planted next door, there will be some things beyond your control. But, there is much about your outdoor space that you can determine. With some research and planning, you, too, can get digging.

Next Page: Allergy-Friendly Plants to Look For

Basement

Furnace Room

Risks: gas fumes, dust, dirty ducts and mouldy furnace humidifiers
Solution: Have the furnace and water heater serviced annually, and clean and replace filters regularly. If you have the ducts cleaned (opinions vary as to whether this is necessary unless mould is present), insist that no biocides (mould inhibitors) or sealants be used, as they break down over time and the furnace will circulate them through the house.

Storage Area

Risks: mould, chemical fumes.
Solutions: Basements can breed dangerous mould. Bid farewell to musty mementos, recycle old furniture and run a dehumidifier. Check with your municipality to find out how to dispose of old paint and solvents. If you must keep paint strippers or pesticides, ensure that they are sealed tightly and away from lower-level family rooms. Better yet, put leftovers in the garage.

Laundry Room

Risks: chemicals and mould
Solutions: Use Eco-certified or unscented laundry products. Make sure your dryer is properly vented to the outside. Keep surfaces dry and remove mould as soon as it appears.

Ground Floor

Foyer/Front Hall

Risks: dirt, dust and pollen
Solutions: To keep dirt and pollen out, have everyone remove their shoes upon entering. Don’t let coats and hats accumulate, as pollen trapped in the fibres can spread throughout the house, and clutter prevents proper vacuuming and cleaning.

Kitchen

Risks: pests, odours, fumes from appliances, mould, chemicals
Solutions: To prevent the intrusion of roaches and mice (which can cause allergies as well as unpleasantness), remove food scraps and other household garbage frequently. Use an exhaust fan over the stove, which will also help to cut humidity levels in the room and decrease the likelihood of mould. Use non-toxic cleaning products.

Living Room / Dining Room

Risks: Dust mites (attracted by carpets, pet and human dander), chemicals, smoke
Solutions: To combat dust and dander, replace wall-to-wall carpet with hardwood or tile floors. Use a HEPA filter vacuum at least once a week on floors, drapes, furnace vents and furniture. (Vacuum under the couch!) Dust with a damp cloth as dry dusting just spreads it around. Keep books and magazines in cabinets with doors. If you have pets, bathe them regularly and keep them off of the furniture.
Buy furniture made out of solid wood or certified low-VOC particle board. Standard particle board releases Volatile Organic Compounds into the environment. Don’t allow smoking. Up to 70 per cent of smoke from wood-burning stoves and fireplaces re-enters the house. Make sure chimneys are cleaned every year and keep doors closed on wood-burning stoves.

Next Page: Upstairs Floors

About half of the 50 to 60 dogs that Perry trains in a year are now for people with peanut or other allergies (including tree nut and egg), with 10 already in homes across the United States. “There are a lot of people who really need them,” she says.

The dogs are mainly young (1- to 2-year-old) rescues from shelters, and Perry looks for good working breeds, such as poodles and Labrador retrievers. Perry and a colleague, Leslie Staven,  spend six months preparing the dogs, then work with owners for two weeks on handling, commands and “reading” the dog’s responses, which include sitting firmly by the contaminated object and touching a container with the nose when given the “show me” command.

Karen Jones* of Tampa, Florida, attests to the dogs’ effectiveness. Billy, her 9-year-old son, has a peanut detector dog that accompanies him everywhere from Spanish class to Disney World.

Upon entering a classroom one day, Remy, the black lab, put her nose on top of a box of craft supplies, indicating peanut was present. “I said, ‘show me better,’” recounts Jones. “I swear, she took the lid off the box, took something out with her teeth, and shook it at me.”

The dogs don’t come cheap, at $9,995 US, which includes training, accommodation at the ranch during owner sessions, and follow-up. But for Jones, at least, knowing there’s a super-sensitive snout protecting Billy is priceless. “That dog has literally saved his life,” she says.

* name changed by request.
For more info, see: www.peanutdog.com

“It” was her daughter’s first allergic reaction. Angela had fed Brigit egg yolk before but, this time, she “got hives around her mouth and then she turned absolutely beet red from head to toe.” Angela rushed Brigit to the hospital, where she was treated with Benadryl and monitored for 12 hours. The doctors recommended that the baby be tested for allergies as soon as possible. The tests would confirm the egg allergy (which Brigit has since outgrown), and would also reveal allergies to tree nuts and peanut.

“Brigit has a lot of other ones too,” says Angela, “environmental and animals. She’s very sensitive.” Angela and her husband Tad were about to discover a new way of life, built around their daughter’s allergies.

For families that include children with serious allergies, every day is a challenge. The learning curve is steep, and the stakes are high when one slip-up can mean life or death. Allergic Living spoke to three sets of parents who cope well with allergies to discover how they do it; what their secrets are to “managing” allergies. The families are from different parts of Canada, with kids of different ages, with varied lifestyles and opinions. But they share a common outlook: none are victimized or held back by allergies, and all of their children are leading full, safe lives.

Not that everyone started out with such control. After Brigit’s diagnosis in 1999, Angela felt lost. “You walk out of your doctor’s office and you’re shell-shocked. You do not know where to turn, you do not know where to start.” A neighbour introduced Angela, who now works as a sales and marketing executive with The Loyalty Group, and Tad, a lawyer who acts as in-house counsel for the University of Toronto, to Laurie Harada. Harada was leading the Anaphylaxis Education Group, a network of Toronto parents of allergic children. “That group was an invaluable resource for us,” says Tad. “Not only to gather information and practical experiences, but in creating a community that understood the issues.” The Browns are now the group’s co-leaders (while Harada today heads Anaphylaxis Canada).

For the Browns, the transition to living with allergies began with having to say goodbye to their cat, which they gave to friends. “We got rid of all of the allergens and we try to have a really clean house with hardwood floors, HEPA filters and no pets,” says Angela. They educated themselves about label ingredients, products, the dangers of cross-contamination and removed any allergen-containing foods from their cupboards.

When Garrett was born in 2001, the Browns were prepared. “We treated him as though he was allergic,” says Tad, “although we believed he wasn’t.” Tad and Angela were told to not to have their son tested until he was 3, to avoid unnecessary sensitization. With Garrett shielded from possible allergens, the Browns were lulled into a sense of comfort. When tests revealed that he, too, had severe peanut and tree nut allergies, his parents were taken aback.

Now 4, Garrett has never had an allergic reaction and is active in pre-school, swimming and sport ball. His sister, meanwhile, is in soccer, swim class, T-ball and karate, and has become a 6-year-old social butterfly, with a calendar full of play dates.