Word: mite
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While pollen is the No. 1 troublemaker for allergy sufferers, hundreds of other substances can provoke the immune system into an irrational IgE response. Among the more formidable and difficult to avoid are the droppings of the dust mite, a microscopic insect that thrives by the millions wherever dust collects in a house. Living on sloughed-off flecks of human skin (dander) and other unappetizing protein, it leaves droppings that are about the size of pollen grains -- and just as easy to inhale. Mite dung, unfortunately, is an allergen that produces the familiar sneezing, coughing, itching symptoms in half...
...spores from molds that grow on irregularly cleaned evaporative coolers and humidifiers -- can be circulated throughout the structure, bringing on the familiar allergic symptoms often attributed to "sick-building syndrome." In houses, keeping air-treatment units free of molds will not suffice; sealed-in, circulating cat dander and dust-mite dung often more than compensate for the absence of spores...
...those allergy sufferers unconcerned with domestic decor, the National Institutes of Health recommends the following steps to achieve a dust-free, and therefore dust-mite-free, bedroom: Get rid of carpeting, upholstered furniture, heavy curtains, venetian blinds, fuzzy wool blankets and comforters stuffed with wool or feathers. Empty the room, scrub it and everything that is to be returned to it, and thereafter thoroughly clean the room every week. If replacing curtains, hang some that are lightweight and can be laundered weekly. Replace the comfortable chairs with wooden or metal ones that can be scrubbed, keep clothing in plastic zippered...
...have had some success with a course of treatment that resembles the folk- medicine cure for hangover: patients are immunized with a little hair from the dog that bit them. In this seemingly primitive therapy, allergy shots consisting of allergens taken from such exotic sources as cat saliva, dust- mite droppings and pollen and mold spores are often administered over a few years. Early on, the shots are given as little as six days apart, but as the treatment progresses, the frequency of shots is decreased until it levels off to a monthly pace. Over the same span, the doses...
Until that time, millions of Americans will continue to sneeze and suffer, victimized by errant genes, pollen grains, mold spores, dust-mite dung and the family...