Allergy and Asthma Clinic: Relief is at Hand
from BestHealth, April 2005
Itchy eyes? Runny nose? Reactions to certain foods? About 50 million Americans suffer from some form of allergy. The good news is that a host of treatments are available to manage symptoms and provide relief.
The Asthma and Allergy Clinic at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center offers a specialized team of physicians, nurses and equipment to prevent and treat the symptoms of allergic disease. Patients at the clinic benefit from the wide range of basic science research studies and clinical trials research being conducted at the Wake Forest Baptist Center for Human Genomics. Access to clinical trials is one of the major benefits of treatment at an academic medical center.
“Allergic disease is a disorder of chronic illnesses affecting an extremely large population,” said allergy immunologist Mary Fontana-Penn, M.D. “Because many of these diseases are hereditary, we are equipped to treat families as a group.”
The allergy clinic treats adult and pediatric allergic disease of the nose and eyes, asthma, food allergies, drug allergies and insect stings including bee, wasp and fire ant.
“We can also help identify individuals who have wheat intolerance, known as Celiac disease, and gastroenteritis that may be due to food intolerance,” said Fontana-Penn. “We also take care of a large group of immune deficiency disorders that may be life-threatening, excluding secondary disorders such as HIV/AIDS.”
The clinic offers immune therapy and allergy shots for allergic rhinitis—commonly known as hay fever—as well as Xoliar (omalizumab) shots for people with hard to treat allergic asthma. Located on the eighth floor of the Richard Janeway Clinical Sciences Tower, the Allergy and Asthma Clinic is open Monday through Friday. Patients may refer themselves for treatment. Contact Health On-Call®, 336-716-2255 or 800-446-2255.
Facts from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
• Approximately 50 million Americans suffer from some form of allergic disease, and the incidence is increasing. When most of us think of allergies, we think of sneezing, a runny nose or watery eyes. While those are symptoms of some types of allergic disease, an allergic reaction is actually a product of several events occurring within one’s immune system.
• More than 17 million Americans suffer from asthma, a chronic lung disease characterized by inflammation of the airways. Symptoms include cough, chest tightness, shortness of breath and wheezing.
• Up to two million, or 8 percent, of children in the United States and up to 2 percent of adults are estimated to have food allergies. With a true food allergy, an individual's immune system will overreact to an ordinarily harmless food. This is caused by an allergic antibody called IgE (Immunoglobulin E), which is found in people with allergies. The most common food allergens—responsible for up to 90 percent of all allergic reactions—are the proteins in cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish and tree nuts.