Word: mold
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Other pervasive allergens are the spores made by molds, both the outdoor kind that grow on crops, grass and dead leaves and the household variety found on foods, leather, furniture and in air conditioners. All these fungi spores can produce vigorous allergic reactions. "Molds are boggling," says Washington University's Lewis. "There can be hundreds of thousands of mold spores per cubic meter of air." And, he points out, a person inhales about 10 or 12 cu m of air each...
...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 are gradually increased until they reach...
...some cases, the treatment pays off. "For pollen," says Dr. Jacquelynne Corey, an allergist at the University of Chicago, "the success rate is great, | around 90%." For dust mites, mold and animal dander, the results are more variable. But why the shots do -- and sometimes don't -- work remains a mystery. Medical researchers know, for instance, that administering the allergens directly into the bloodstream results in the production of immunoglobulin G, rather than IgE, antibodies. Does the presence of IgG block the IgE response? Or does the hair-of-the-dog procedure eventually desensitize key cells in the immune system...
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...
Indoor pollution can play a powerful role in urban settings. Many city dwellers live in damp, humid apartments where cockroaches and mold spores as well as dust mites can trigger allergic responses. Even if these people realize that such conditions are conducive to asthma, they may not be able to change their circumstances...