Word: cats
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...cure is in sight. Without question, says Washington University's Wedner, "the very best way of curing an allergy is to take away the allergen. No one is allergic to something that isn't there." In a few cases, that prescription is simple. Sufferers can get rid of the cat, for example, or avoid obviously allergenic foods and switch to nonlatex (but more expensive) gloves...
...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 of spores...
Dander and dung can apparently be brought under control -- although in each case the victory may not be worth the trouble. In the midst of experiments with cat dander, allergist Wedner made a serendipitous discovery. "If you wash cats once a month," he says, "then over a period of three to eight months they will stop making Fel d1. In essence, you've created a nonallergenic cat." To nail down his findings, Wedner now has his cat-owning patients experimenting with the technique on their pets...
...severe allergies, doctors 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...
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 cat...