Different filters will accomplish different goals so you wouldn't purchase the same filter for both problems mentioned above. Before you buy, consider what kind of allergens or particles you are trying to remove.

There are a variety of technologies used in room air cleaners, including ionization, ozonation, electrostatic precipitation, ultraviolet light, mechanical filtration and odor absorption. An air cleaning system with a paper air filter works somewhat like coffee grounds collecting in the coffee filter. Your air purifiers will generally have a filter that collects the particulates and gases in the air. As the filters get more and more clogged they actually can remove more particles and become more efficient, however, less air is passing through them also.

If your unit has electrostatic plates, they get clogged with dust and need to be cleaned often or they won't be efficient at all. The Ionic Breeze air purifier works somewhat this way, giving the particles an electrostatic charge.

Both systems work well; it just depends on which type you prefer for your home. If the air is too humid, a dehumidifier will lower the chances of mold and mildew growth. If you are allergic to dust mites, do some research and find exactly what kind of unit you need, for your particular allergy problem.

Controlling the air quality and climate of your home may sound daunting, but it is actually not that difficult to achieve and can lead to substantial health benefits. Take the time to consider the quality of air that you are breathing. Is it the best it can be for you and your family, or could it be improved with air filters or air purifiers?

Air filters are great, but you might also want to consider changing your surroundings if you or a family member have serious allergy problems.

• Dust mites, molds, animal dander, and insect debris are difficult to thoroughly clear from the environment. However, it is much easier and quicker to clean a hard surface such as wood, tile, vinyl, or leather than it is to clean all those nooks and crannies found in carpet, fabric, or other soft surfaces, so changing your home furnishing can go a long way in preventing or at least cutting down allergy symptoms.
  
  
• Your bedding also needs to be as clean as possible. You might want to only use fabrics that can be repeatedly washed in hot water. Avoid down blankets or pillows and enclose your mattress in plastic.
  
  
• Have the air ducts of your heating and air conditioning system cleaned every year.
  
  
• Think twice before getting a dog or cat and consider that indoor plants may promote mold growth.
  
  
• You might want to sleep with a brick under the head of the bed to allow for better sinus drainage.
  
  
• Use a HEPA vacuum frequently if you still have carpets in the house.
  
  
• Definitely stay away from smoke and keep the windows closed at high pollen times of the year.

These are just a few tips to keep the quality of your air as clean and clear as possible for you and your family. You are the one in control of your health.

First, you need to know that there are actually two sources of latex allergy, producing two distinct allergic reactions. The first type of latex allergy affects the immune system, resulting in minor skin rash. This type is often blamed on the chemical additives used in making the gloves.

The second latex allergy is a full-fledged allergic reaction to the latex itself. It results in more serious reactions, causing the person to develop itchy, red hives, rhinitis/hay fever, a runny nose, and asthma. In extreme cases, latex allergy may also cause anaphylaxis, a restriction of the air due to airway swelling, which, if not treated promptly, can cause sudden death.

The increase in prevalence of latex allergy is largely due to the increase of latex use. In the medical industry, doctors have been using latex to protect themselves from infectious diseases when touching a patient's blood, urine, feces, or other organism that may pass on an infection. In addition, more and more medical professionals these days are using latex gloves for simple procedures that never required gloves in the past, such as checking the pus in a patient's hand.

As a result of this increased exposure to latex, the occurrence of latex allergy also increased. Also, airborne latex particles have also been inhaled, triggering allergic reactions to people predisposed to develop latex allergy. A study confirmed that cornstarch used to coat the latex for easier use in putting gloves on and off absorbs the proteins and shed them into the air. This results in more people inhaling the particles, prompting latex allergy response.

Another way for you to avoid latex allergy reaction is to get yourself skin or blood-tested to determine if you have a positive response to latex. Knowing whether you have the allergy or not is always the first step in preventing the condition from occurring in the first place. So once you know, you can now take proper steps to avoid what causes your latex allergy.

For skin tests, a small solution of latex components is injected into the skin. The one conducting the test will know if you are allergic if swelling in the area occurs. Another method is blood testing. To test for latex allergy, a sample of your blood is taken and checked for certain types of allergy-producing antibodies, called IgE (immunoglobulin E).

For a person with latex allergy, exposure to latex could result in a number of symptoms, some of them even life-threatening. The signs may include nasal congestion, a runny nose, and asthma-like symptoms, including shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, and wheezing. Other symptoms include skin rashes, pus, and itchy skin.

Increase in Prevalence of Peanut Allergy

According to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN), a recent study shows that incidents of peanut allergy in children are rapidly growing, prompting the need for vastly improved standards of care and greater public education. The study, published in the December 2003 issue of Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (JACI), revealed that the incidents of peanut allergy in children doubled over a five-year period.

Researchers from the David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre in the Isle of Wight, United Kingdom, tested 1,273 children born between September 1, 1994 and August 31, 1996. A questionnaire, completed by the parents, were used to seek information on past and current atopic symptoms such as asthma, hay fever, and eczema, as well as specific questions relating to food allergy, including peanut allergy, and any anaphylactic reactions. This was then followed by a skin prick test to determine if there is positive response to peanut.

To determine a possible increase in prevalence, the results of the study were compared to a similar study from 1989.

The result showed that out of 1,246 children, 3.3% (41 children) had a positive response to peanut during the skin prick test. This is definitely higher compared with the positive response rate of 1.1% in the 1989 study. In addition, children who tested positive to peanut allergy showed a high level of atopy, which is the genetic tendency to develop allergy and asthma symptoms.

Based on the responses from the questionnaire, there was also an increase in reported peanut allergy, from 0.5% to 1.0%.

Cause and Treatment

Scientists believed that there are several reasons for this, including:

• Consumption of peanuts of women during pregnancy
  
• Infants exposed to peanut through breast milk, which may contain major peanut allergens
  
• An increase in the number of families who become vegetarian or supplement their diet with vegetarian foods, often containing nuts, particularly peanuts

The study also showed that subjects experienced severe (79%) and frequent reactions (66%) from peanut allergy. However, despite this severity and frequency, the study found that only 74% of children and 44% of adults sought medical evaluation. Additionally, of those that did seek medical treatment, less than one half were prescribed epinephrine, the drug of choice to control a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.

This is a worrisome treatment record at a time when more and more children and families are coming face-to-face with the dangers of peanut allergy," said Anne Muñoz-Furlong, CEO and fonder of FAAN. "Families must be instructed to seek the advice of their doctor, have a written emergency plan in place and never delay seeking treatment when a reaction occurs. The results can be deadly."

According to FAAN, peanut allergy is responsible for nearly 100 deaths and 15,000 visits to emergency rooms - about half the deaths and emergency room visits caused by all food allergies.

People should pay more attention to peanut allergy if they want to avoid endangering the lives of their children.

The response can range from mild or moderate to severe, including symptoms like swelling of the face and tongue, rash called "hives" (like nettle rash), breathing difficulties, runny nose and eyes, swelling of the throat, abdominal pain and bowel disturbances, nausea and vomiting and could to life threatening collapse (anaphylaxis).

Below are some practical tips to help you manage food allergy:

1. Plan ahead. If you can, write a list of foods that you can tolerate and try to get some recipes which incorporate these. You may also consult your dietician and discuss or ask for any advice/help about special dietary alternatives or recipes that won't trigger your allergy. Also, try your local libraries for recipes or contact allergy specialists for more information on sensitivities or recipes.

2. If you are eating out, telephone the host or chef in advance and explain your needs. See if they will allow you to supply your own food. If not, perhaps they can adapt the menu for you. Always make it a point to discuss everything beforehand so you won't get tempted to eat anything you shouldn't.

3. Take extra supplies whenever you go out. You might take longer than you originally planned so carrying a spare packed lunch or goodies with you can be a big help not only to stave off your hunger but also to keep you away from restaurants selling foods that may trigger your food allergy.

4. It helps if you keep a food and symptom diary so when you have a reaction, you can pinpoint what triggered your symptoms. This also helps when you make your list of tolerable foods.

5. Make everyone aware if you have a life-threatening allergy. That way, you don't have to rely on yourself whenever you find yourself in a situation where you extremely tempted to eat foods to which you are allergic. Also, in case you unknowingly ingest foods that trigger your allergy, there will be someone there who can see what has happened and get help for you.

6. Freeze and bake so you have stocks of allowed foods and don't have to bake every few days. This will make a wider selection of choice, too.

7. If you're going abroad, obtain some Allergy translation cards so you are able to show them in different countries. Also, one of the first things you ought to do in a foreign place is to find out where the nearest hospital or doctor is in case of an emergency.
   

Allergies (Type I Hypersensitivity) are actually a malfunction of our immune system in which the body becomes hypersensitive to a substance and reacts immunologically to typically non-immunogenic substances. The substances that cause our bodies to become this way are called allergens.

In 1906, Viennese pediatrician, Clemens von Pirquet, first coined the term "allergies" after he observed that certain symptoms of his patients might have been a response to outside allergens, like dust, pollen, or certain foods.

Signs and Symptoms of an Allergic Reaction

You may know your allergies are starting up again if you experience swelling in parts of your body. This is called local or systemic inflammatory response, and may be caused by the presence of allergens. For instance, if your allergies affect you in the nose, you will experience swelling of the nasal mucosa (allergic rhinitis). During this condition, you will probably find yourself performing the "nasal salute" more than necessary as itching of your nose will induce you to wipe your nose in an upward direction.

On the other hand, if the allergies hit you in the eyes, redness and itching of the conjunctiva often follows. Other common signs of allergies are wheezing and dyspnoea, bronchoconstriction, and sometimes outright attacks of asthma. You may also experience various rashes, such as eczema, hives, and contact dermatitis.

Systemic allergic responses are more serious compared to local symptoms. Depending on the severity of your response, allergies can cause cutaenous reactions, bronchoconstriction, edema, hypotension, coma, and even death.

Hay fever is one common example of minor allergies caused by airborne pollen. But aside from environmental factors, allergies may also be triggered by medications or other chemicals.

Why do we get allergies?

Our immune system is a well-trained and disciplined bio-weapon that is designed to protect our bodies from harmful substances. Its mechanics is so amazing that it can identify and destroy many foreign invaders. However, as amazing as our immune system is, it makes mistakes or becomes overwhelmed sometimes, and so we have allergies, which, as we mentioned, results from a hypersensitive immune system.

The hypersensitized immune system misidentifies an otherwise innocuous substance as harmful, and then attacks the substance with a degree of ferocity that is greater than required. As a result, we experience problems that can range from mildly inconvenient, to uncomfortable, to total failure of major organs of the body.

How does the immune system go into a hypersensitized state?

There are actually several ideas on this. Some schools of thought suggest that allergies are almost always triggered by proteins. Certain persons have faulty genetic codes so that their lymphocytes or the white blood cells (the stuff that your immune system is made of) are unable to property distinguish between the threatening and the non-threatening proteins.

So, for example, when you ingest protein from shellfish, your lymphocytes think that the substance is trying to invade the body. As a result, they produce large amounts of antibodies which attach themselves to mast cells and basophils throughout the body. This is known as the sensitizing exposure and this is the very reason why you suddenly develop allergies.

Whatever the cause, at the very least allergies produce discomfort and inconvenience in our lives, so it is worth the time and effort to learn about them and work to remove the triggers from our environments and our lives.