According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, allergies affect more than 50 million Americans each year. So, we talked to Dr. Robert Kuyper to answer a few questions about the country’s most common disease.
Dr. Robert Kuyper, DC
Alternative Health Care Center
Do children get environmental allergies?
Yes, children can have environmental allergies. Usually your child will sneeze, cough, develop rash or hives frequently with environmental allergies. Children can also have food allergies with symptoms of stomach aches, cramps or nausea after eating certain foods.
Are environmental allergies dangerous?
Environmental allergies can be dangerous if you have an anaphylaxis reaction. An anaphylaxis reaction is a serious allergic reaction that can be life-threatening. It can cause a person to go into shock, loss of consciousness, a drop-in blood pressure, severe shortness of breath, skin rash, lightheadedness, nausea, vomiting and rapid and weak pulse.
How do I find out if my child has allergies?
There are many ways you find out if your child has allergies. The easiest way is to have a test done by skin testing or blood testing. Skin testing is the most common but can have increased risk of the allergic symptoms occurring during testing. That is why blood testing for allergies is used, too. The doctor might decide to use blood testing if the patient is taking medicine that interferes with the skin testing, if the patient suffers from severe reaction to skin testing or if the patient suffers from a severe skin condition such as eczema or psoriasis. In some alternative health care clinics, you may see doctors use evaluation methods that combine or isolate acupuncture points, reflexology and applied kinesiology. These evaluations are not gold standard but are available options. Also, parents at home can journal their child’s symptoms such as: temperature, length of symptoms, time of year of symptoms and activities that bring on your child’s symptoms.
What can be done for allergy symptoms?
There are many different options for patients for treatment of allergies such as avoiding, over the counter medications, prescriptions and allergy shots. In alternative health care clinics, they will provide treatment options such as foot baths, supplements, diets changes, acupuncture, chiropractic, reflexology, applied kinesiology and Nambudipad’s allergy elimination technique (NAET). Alternative options usually are drugless.
What is an allergist?
An allergist is a medical practitioner specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of allergies.