Allergy

Joan Kerns from Salisbury, N.C., was looking for recipes for cakes made without eggs. She has a granddaughter who is highly allergic to eggs, both the yolks and the whites, and she wanted to be able to make a cake she could safely eat. Beatrice Odom from St. Pauls, N.C., says that she has two great-grandchildren who are also allergic to eggs and that she found a very good recipe for a "no egg cake" a few years ago in a magazine. This simple one-bowl cake is extremely moist and rich, and the delicious chocolate cream cheese frosting gives the cake a lovely finish.

Ever since she was an infant, Reagan Roberts could not tolerate being anywhere near cow's milk. A mere sip would leave her vomiting and gasping for breath. If she were even touched by someone with milk on their hands, she would break out in hives and a bright red rash. "We just had to keep her away from milk," said Reagan's mother, Lissa. "We couldn't have it around the house. At preschool she had to sit by herself. We brought her food to birthday parties. We couldn't go to restaurants."

Question: : Can vitamin D and turmeric in combination have an impact on allergy and asthma? I suffer from both allergies and asthma, and I am usually miserable in the spring. I started taking 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily several months ago. I am also taking turmeric capsules. This spring, I have had no allergies, no sinus infections and no asthma problems at all. Perhaps these supplements are keeping my immune system from overreacting to pollen. Answer:: Your experience is fascinating.

Spring means the same two things every year for Brian Nehus: The grass grows, and his nose runs. The 27-year-old from Kingsville finally had enough and ended up at the Asthma Sinus Allergy Program at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He learned after a battery of skin tests that he is indeed allergic to his lawn, as well as weeds and cats. "I need to cut the grass," said Nehus, as he studied his arm, which was full of red blotches, the result of the tests. "I have about an acre of land.

Ah, December. Cold, dry air, evergreen trees, boxes filled with holiday decorations - and possibly molds and dust - brought down from the attic. And you thought that this was an asthma- and allergy-free season. Among the estimated 16 million adults and 7 million children in the United States who have asthma, slightly more than half of the cases are attributable to allergies, says Dr. Alvin Sanico, medical director of the Asthma Sinus Allergy Program at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University.

Families all over are talking about the quest to pick the right dog for President-elect Barack Obama's family. Because daughter Malia is allergic, there's a lot of talk about the Obamas getting a "hypoallergenic" dog. But one local allergy expert preaches caution. "The current talk about 'hypoallergenic' dogs ... can lead to negative outcomes if they perpetuate a myth and create unfounded expectations," Dr. Alvin Sanico, medical director of the Asthma Sinus Allergy Program at Greater Baltimore Medical Center, wrote to me. "The fact is that all dogs and cats produce allergens that can be found in their dander and saliva, regardless of their breed and the length of their hair, or lack thereof," wrote Sanico, who is also an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Eight-year-old Justus Brown has had allergy problems before, but nothing like he experienced Sunday on the way to church in Towson - an attack that his parents blame on last week's record pollen counts. "He told me on Sunday morning he made a `funny noise' when he breathed," recalled his mother, Kenya Brown, 37, of Owings Mills. Justus was wheezing, and he knew something was wrong. "I thought I was going to die," he said. "It felt horrible every time I walked. Every second I had to bend down and catch my breath."

The Rev. Bill Miller-Zurell was recently presiding at Communion, moving from congregant to congregant, offering the body, offering the blood, until he got to a little boy who, seeing the piece of bread, stopped the pastor short. "He asked me if there were any nuts in it," said Miller-Zurell, who leads New Hope Lutheran Church in Columbia. "His mom, who was standing behind him, made him. And he only took it after I assured him that there were no nuts." In an increasingly susceptible world, where more and more people are realizing that things like nuts and wheat and even certain pungent scents can make them quite sick, religious organizations are reconsidering the most time-honored of traditions.

What's green and festive and makes you sneeze? It might be your Christmas tree. Allergists have long suspected that live Christmas trees are the culprits behind some folks' runny, itchy noses during the holidays -- and now one doctor believes he has proof. "I've been in practice for 30 years and, every year, between Christmas and New Year, we have everybody come in with recurring sinus infections," said Dr. John Santilli, a Connecticut allergy specialist. "We tell them, `Take down the tree,' but we never had the proof to show them."

In this season of sniffles, sneezes and itchy eyes, researchers are hoping that wind and weather patterns they recorded in a vacant, weed-choked field in Prince George's County will provide clues to fighting an airborne particle that sickens millions every year. It's called ragweed. And while its effects are well-known, scientists say there is still much to learn about how the hardy, ubiquitous plant spreads its misery. "We know ragweed produces pollen, but one of the things we want to understand is where and how does that pollen travel," said Lewis Ziska, a ragweed expert at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research laboratory in Beltsville.