Word: pollens
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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...
...Avoiding pollen, especially ragweed pollen, is another matter. North America is host to 17 species of ragweed, a coarse, hairy plant with a slightly noxious odor and small yellow flowers. In most regions it blooms from August until October, each plant producing a billion pollen grains during an average season. These grains, carried by winds, can travel up to 400 miles -- even out to sea, where they can bedevil sufferers seeking relief aboard a cruise ship. Other places once considered havens because of less airborne pollen -- Tucson and Phoenix, for example -- are no longer ideal. Immigrants from other regions have...
Still, one sure way to cut down exposure to pollen is to take refuge in sealed, air-conditioned office buildings and houses, where filters cleanse most of the offending grains from incoming air. But even here, sufferers cannot win. Indoor allergens -- particularly 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...
...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 are gradually increased...
...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...