PRIVATE ALLERGY TESTING IN ESSEX

Private Allergy Testing in Esssex

Private Allergy Testing At Essex Private Doctors

Around 1 in 4 people in the UK will be affected by an allergy at some point in their lives. If you’ve been experiencing allergic symptoms, allergy testing can be very helpful in identifying the ‘allergen’, or trigger.

What is allergy?

Allergy is when the body’s immune system erroneously overreacts, producing antibodies and an inflammatory response to something that’s a harmless substance, like pollen.

How a person comes into contact with a particular allergen will often determine the kind of allergic symptom the person may experience. For example. If you inhale tree pollen, or grass pollen, you might experience nasal or respiratory symptoms (e.g. allergic rhinitis- aka hay fever). If you are allergic to shellfish and were to eat prawns, you might experience diarrhoea or stomach pain.

It is possible for any allergen, however, to produce a constellation of symptoms, and some allergic responses can be very severe, causing anaphylaxis. This is a rare condition, which can be life-threatening, and may come on very quickly. It can cause tongue and throat swelling, difficulty breathing, feeling very faint and unwell, and sometimes an itchy, bumpy rash.

RAST Testing

At Essex Private Doctors we can help you to determine what’s causing your allergic response, and help you to manage your symptoms, or even avoid the triggering allergen altogether.

RAST stands for radioallergosorbant test; it was the original blood test for investigating allergies, and whilst it’s been replaced with newer tests, we still tend to refer to allergy tests as ‘RAST tests’.

RAST testing involves measuring the levels of antibodies we may produce against different allergens, and the test looks for IgE antibodies, which are the type of antibodies associated with an allergic reaction. This kind of allergic reaction occurs when a person’s body overreacts to a substance (which is often harmless), such as pollen, peanuts, or dust.

Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever)

Allergic Rhinitis can be a distressing condition, and can cause a runny nose (rhinorrhoea), sneezing, itchy eyes and throat, eye redness and watering, coughing, and a feeling of being ‘bunged up’. It’s not always caused by grass or trees (i.e. not all allergic rhinitis is ‘hay fever’), and sometimes people can become sensitised to things around them in their work environment, such as wood dust, animal dander, and dust from grains.

In our clinic, we frequently meet patients who are allergic to the pollen from Birch trees. They will tend to experience symptoms around March to April time, and they may also experience some cross-reaction with pollen from Alder and Hazel trees.

Allergic rhinitis has strong associations with asthma, and allergy testing can be very helpful in identifying the culprit behind the allergic response. Tree pollen can be highly allergenic, and because it’s very fine, it can be carried a long way by the wind. This means you could live a considerable distance from the offending trees, and the cause might only come to light with allergy testing.

Allergic rhinitis isn’t a minor inconvenience. Treating it effectively can help improve your asthma symptoms if you’re a sufferer and help prevent the onset of asthma in children.

Allergic Rhinitis (Hay Fever)

Allergic Rhinitis can be a distressing condition, and can cause a runny nose (rhinorrhoea), sneezing, itchy eyes and throat, eye redness and watering, coughing, and a feeling of being ‘bunged up’. It’s not always caused by grass or trees (i.e. not all allergic rhinitis is ‘hay fever’), and sometimes people can become sensitised to things around them in their work environment, such as wood dust, animal dander, and dust from grains.

In our clinic, we frequently meet patients who are allergic to the pollen from Birch trees. They will tend to experience symptoms around March to April time, and they may also experience some cross-reaction with pollen from Alder and Hazel trees.

Allergic rhinitis has strong associations with asthma, and allergy testing can be very helpful in identifying the culprit behind the allergic response. Tree pollen can be highly allergenic, and because it’s very fine, it can be carried a long way by the wind. This means you could live a considerable distance from the offending trees, and the cause might only come to light with allergy testing.

Allergic rhinitis isn’t a minor inconvenience. Treating it effectively can help improve your asthma symptoms if you’re a sufferer and help prevent the onset of asthma in children.

man using nasal steroid spray

How is allergic rhinitis treated?

If you’re suffering from allergic rhinitis or hay fever, there are several effective treatments:

It’s not always possible to avoid pollen or other nasal allergens, but it is possible to minimise your exposure to them.

The Met Office broadcasts a daily pollen forecast from the start of the season in March – https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/warnings-and-advice/seasonal-advice/pollen-forecast, and hay fever symptoms will typically start to emerge when the pollen count exceeds 50. The pollen count is determined as the number of pollen grains per cubic metre. It’s considered to be ‘high’ when the grass pollen count is 50-150, and then the birch pollen count is 80-100 grains per cubic metre.

Staying indoors and closing windows during times of a high pollen count will reduce your exposure, as will wearing a mask outside if you have to venture outdoors at peak pollen times.

If house dust mites or animal dander triggers you, vacuum your home regularly with a vacuum that has a HEPA filter, and if you’re dusting, use a damp cloth.

Wash your bedding at 60 degrees Celsius and cover your mattress and pillows with anti-allergy covers. Keep pets off the bed, and wash pet bedding on a hot wash, too.

Nasal douching, also known as nasal irrigation or a sinus rinse, is a way of washing your nasal passages. Thickened mucus in the nose contains not only the pollen or allergens that are inhaled but also inflammatory mediators (chemicals), which can further increase mucus stagnation. It’s also a great way to make nasal medications and sprays more effective, by cleaning the nose first.

Salt water (saline) sprays (e.g. ‘Sterimar’), can be bought from a pharmacy (they often come in a squeezy bottle, or in a spray form), but it is possible to make your own with cooled boiled water, bicarbonate of soda, and salt. If you’ve been exposed to your trigger (e.g. after housework), nasal douching can reduce the impact.

Steroid sprays or drops for the nose can reduce inflammation, swelling and mucous production, but it’s important to use them correctly. You should angle your head down a little and use your right hand to administer the spray to your left nostril, and vice versa.

It’s a good idea to use a nasal douching spray before using your steroid spray, and you need to use the steroid spray for at least 2-3 months in order to start seeing the full benefit of it.

If you’re really suffering, a non-drowsy antihistamine medication, such as loratadine, can help you get through your working day.

Leukotrienes are substances that are released from cells in the body that govern inflammatory and allergic responses (such as mast cells, and eosinophils).  If you have asthma as well as allergic rhinitis, anti-leukotriene medication (aka leukotriene antagonists) can be helpful in preventing the allergic response, but they won’t act as ‘rescue remedies’ once the response has started.

If you’re still struggling, book an appointment for an allergy consultation.

Food Allergies

Most food allergic responses are thankfully mild, but some can be very serious.  Food allergy triggers an immunological response, whilst food intolerance isn’t caused by your immune system overreacting to certain foods.

Food allergy can cause rashes, swelling of the lips and tongue, sneezing, vomiting, diarrhoea, and tummy pain. You might experience symptoms immediately, or symptoms even days later. Peanuts, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, wheat, and soya are common allergens, and allergy blood testing (RAST testing), can be very helpful in identifying what’s making you unwell.

children eating fruit

Cow’s Milk Protein Allergy

We regularly see babies and young children who have cow’s milk protein allergy (aka cow’s milk protein intolerance), and it can be a real struggle for parents.

There are two types of cow’s milk allergy:

This allergic response typically comes on up to two hours after feeding with milk derived from cow’s milk. This is a true IgE-mediated allergic response and may cause persistent and severe symptoms of skin rashes (urticaria), coughing and wheezing, or being breathless after feeding.

This reaction typically occurs later- from 2 to 72 hours after consuming the milk. This will often bring about gastro-oesophageal reflux, diarrhoea, constipation, tummy ache, and even atopic eczema.

Extensively hydrolysed milk formulas (which have been processed to break down cow’s milk proteins) can be very helpful for infants who are suffering from cow’s milk protein allergy, and at Essex Private Doctors, we can thoroughly assess your baby, and make a treatment plan together.

If you or your child is an allergy sufferer, and you’re looking for help, book a consultation with Dr Eleanor Beddoe. She will take you through a thorough allergy consultation, and organise the appropriate testing and treatment planning.