This Month's Feature Review:

Desinging an Allergy-friendly home in New Zealand

New Zealand is known throughout the world as being very 'green' and eco-friendly. It seems like a 'double-edged sword' that New Zealand also has one of the highest prevalence of Allergies in the world.

Unfortunately, for about 30% of the population there is a 'down-side' to living in a 'green country', like New Zealand, ie. Regardless of where you live in the country, you won't be out of reach from pollens (especially grass and weeds), as pollens are known to travel for hundreds of miles under the right conditions.

Patients will often ask, "Is there any place in New Zealand that is better for allergy sufferers?" My standard answer would be: "It is not where you live in New Zealand that matters to the allergy sufferer, but how well designed your home is, and how you prepare yourself against your enemies".

Highly allergic patients who move to New Zealand are usually already sensitized to house dust mites, and they usually become sensitized to the local allergens (pollens etc.) within two to four years. This is the same for highly allergic individuals who move to other Western countries, like Australia.

There are studies that show improvement in allergy symptoms when patients are moved to the low allergen (house dust mites) environment of the high altitude of alpine sanitoria in Switzerland (Davos) and Italy (Misurina). Davos, Switzerland is situated at an altitude of 1556m, is well known as the highest town in Europe. Mount Cook, at 3764m is the highest mountain in New Zealand. If the allergy sufferer were prepared to live even halfway up Mt Cook, they would be expected to have similar improvements in allergy symptoms as living in Davos.

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New and Interesting Allergy Studies:

Obesity and asthma: evidence for and against a causal relation.

Mattress encasings and mite allergen levels in the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy study.

Obesity and asthma: evidence for and against a causal relation.

Chinn S.
Department of Public Health Sciences, King's College, London, UK.
Reference: J Asthma 2003 Feb; 40 (1): 1 - 16

Severel studies have shown an association between obesity and asthma. The reason for this association is not entirely clear. This study suggests a direct causality is unlikely, because in children the association is of recent origin, and trends in obesity does not explain the rising prevalence of asthma. Atopy was notassociated with obesity in a large adult study.Likely explanations, which need further study, include:

" Gastroesophageal reflux relating to obesity causing the asthma

" Diets of obese subjects may potentiate asthma.

Mattress encasings and mite allergen levels in the Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy study.

Van Strien RT, Koopman LP, Kerkhof M, Oldenwening M, De Jongste JC, Gerritsen J, Neijens HJ, Aalberse RC, Smit HA, Brunekreef B.

Reference: Clin Exp Allergy 2003 Apr;33(4):490-495

This study from Amsterdam shows that mite-impermeable mattress encasings have a significant but modest effect on dust and mite allergen levels of mattresses with low initial mite allergen levels, compared to placebo.

This is just another study showing the value of mite-impermeable matress encasing in reducing house dust mite levels in the home.