Search Results for: Gwen Smith

The shocking deaths of two teens provide clues to what goes wrong in fatal food allergy reactions. [From the Summer 2006 edition of Allergic Living.] WHEN news surfaced that 15-year-old Christina Desforges of Saguenay, Quebec, had died of what appeared to be an anaphylactic reaction to a kiss from a boyfriend who had eaten a [...]

Most Canadians with life-threatening allergies are not carrying the life-saving drug epinephrine with them. In addition to that worrying trend, a national survey reveals that a majority of Canadians would not know what to do if faced with a person having a serious allergic reaction. The survey of 1,500 Canadians, released in late August, was [...]

New regulations governing food labeling of allergens in Canada have been oft-delayed, but Health Canada finally has good news on that file. The department has announced interim guidelines to food manufacturers that end exemptions for undeclared, “hidden ingredients” in packaged foods. So when a seasoning, flour or margarine is an ingredient of a packaged food’s [...]

The failure to recognize anaphylaxis episodes when they occur is becoming an increasingly important issue as these life-threatening reactions become more common, says Dr. Estelle Simons. “There’s this paradox. Despite anaphylaxis becoming more common, it is under recognized,” Simons explained to Allergic Living, following a speech at the annual conference of the Canadian Society of Allergy [...]

As a magazine writer, Chris Koentges eats, drinks and travels for a living. The 31-year-old Calgary resident has what most people would consider a dream assignment: he samples delicious foods in fabulous resorts and exotic locales. Then he finds the right words to describe to his readers what he eats and what he sees. There’s just [...]

TREVOR SCHOFIELD is one lucky guy. We are sitting at the Schofield family’s dining room table with his mother, Diane, discussing how he has outgrown his peanut allergy. Now in Grade 12, Trevor actually has to eat peanuts to build his tolerance. The talk turns from his newfound life of liberation to what life was [...]

Much work is being done to educate North Americans about controlling asthma, and hospital admissions are down. But what remains consistently unimproved is the so-called asthma spike – the day on which many parents will show up at the hospital with school-age children in the throes of asthma attacks. Using data accumulated since 1990, scientists [...]

From the Spring 2010 edition of Allergic Living magazine. A recent study finds that one in three people reacting to peanuts and tree nuts aboard an aircraft are experiencing anaphylaxis, the most serious form of allergic reaction. Of particular concern to researchers from the University of Michigan division of allergy & clinical immunology and the [...]

With many years in the publishing industry, I thought I’d seen it all when it comes to negative or one-sided reporting. Then I read a story in the December issue of Chatelaine magazine entitled, “It’s Just Nuts.” This one made my jaw drop. The article is at once breathtaking in its cynicism about the rise of [...]

Dear Friends, First – to all of you who took part in Allergic Living’s “Reduce the Risk” airlines campaign, thank you for the support. We had a remarkable outpouring of response; over 1,000 personalized copies of Allergic Living’s form letter were couriered to the CEOs of both Air Canada and WestJet. Through the CEOs’ representatives, [...]