allergies

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #75 – Jeff Kessler, FACHE – Allergies and Therapy

Jeff Kessler, FACHE

Allergy Choices

This week I sit down with Jeff Kessler to discuss allergies and sublingual immune therapy.

Jeff Kessler is a business leader and a thought leader in the allergy therapy space. His relevant backstory goes back to 1999 when he had the fortunate opportunity to work on a project to select and implement an Electronic Medical Record system for the Allergy Associates of La Crosse (AAOL) clinic in La Crosse WI. Fortuitously for his daughter who at the time suffered profoundly with allergies, asthma and eczema, this opportunity presented a new course of therapy that would eventually be taken for the entire family leading to allergic disease modification. Enthralled with the therapy and company, Jeff dedicated his career in the healthcare industry from that point on to the allergy treatment approach that he witnessed change thousands of lives including his families. The growing AAOL organization became linked to Allergychoices, an education company dedicated to teaching healthcare providers around the U.S. on the protocol (La Crosse Method – LCM) that had been perfected since 1970. Jeff has served as President of Allergychoices since its formation and its services have grown to help providers deliver immunotherapy using the LCM to their patients directly at the primary care level. Bringing together AAOL, the most advanced allergy immunotherapy clinic in the U.S. and Allergychoices, capable of delivering the benefits of disease modifying allergy immunotherapy to anyone, anywhere, the distinctive competencies of these companies continue to help hundreds of thousands of allergy sufferers of all types, including foods.

Jeff earned a bachelors in science from the University of Wisconsin LaCrosse before he received his MBA in Strategic Planning from University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management in 1987.

Please enjoy my conversation with Jeff Kessler,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #70 – Stan Gabryszewski, M.D., Ph.D. – Allergies

This week I sit down with Dr. Stan Gabryszewski to discuss allergies from multiple angles.
Dr. Gabryszewski graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Molecular Biology before attending Columbia University for his MD as well as a PhD degree in Cellular, Molecular and Biomedical Studies. He then completed his pediatric residency and is a senior allergy immunology fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia where he now teaches and performs research in the lab of Dr. David Hall. His research is focused on better understanding the epidemiologic and immunologic features among pediatric allergic disorders, in particular the food allergies IgE-mediated food allergy and eosinophilic esophagitis.
In this conversation, Stan and I sit down to discuss his recent paper in Pediatrics entitled, Patterns in the Development of Pediatric Allergy. This article is a much needed look at the true prevalence of allergy and allergic diseases in children. We discuss the statistics as well as the thoughts behind the why this is occurring. The upstream reasons are very important, hard to tease out but worthy of discussion.
Please enjoy my conversation with Stan Gabryszewski,
Dr. M
His recent paper in pediatrics.

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 14 Issue 14

Allergy Season and School – What is your plan?
Spring is coming and maybe even here already in Carolina. School is in full swing for kids and they are filled with joy and excitement. They are back outside enjoying sports and play. For the parents of allergy suffering kids, this is a time for check ups, medicines and the countless forms required by school. I know! What a pain!
The goal for parents and educators is to limit missed or unproductive school days due to asthma and allergies and to get the most out of the learning environment for all children. My goal is to help children be symptom free or as close as possible while also focusing on reducing mucous development which is a direct precursor to bacterial sinus and ear infections….and more
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #68 – John Warner, M.D. – Allergy, Milk and Prevention

This week we sit down with Dr.  John Warner, an Emeritus professor of Pediatrics at the Imperial College of London in the United Kingdom and also at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. We discuss his recent paper entitled: Strategies and Future Opportunities for the Prevention, Diagnosis, and Management of Cow Milk Allergy. Dr. Warner completed his undergraduate medical training in the School of Medicine, University of Sheffield and his initial pediatric experience was at the Children”s Hospital, Sheffield in the United Kingdom. He moved to London as Professor of Pediatrics and Head of Department at Imperial College St Mary’s hospital campus.  He is also Hon Professor of Pediatrics in the University of Cape Town.

In 2008 he became Director of Research for the Women and Children’s Clinical Programme Group, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (ICHT). He was the lead for pediatrics in both the Biomedical Research Centre in ICHT and the NW London CLAHRC (Collaboration for Applied Health Research and Care) and was President of the Academic Pediatrics Association.

Professor Warner’s research has focused on the early life origins of asthma and related allergic and respiratory disorders.  He has published over 500 papers in scientific journals on these topics.  He was Editor in Chief of the journal Paediatric Allergy and Immunology from 1997-2010 and chairman of the paediatric section of the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology for 5 years until 2010.  He was also a member of the Speciality and Training committee of the World Allergy Organisation and a past Trustee of the charity known as The Anaphylaxis Campaign. 

He was a member of the Advisory Committee for Novel Foods and Processes of the Food Standards Agency for 12 years until 2012 and was recognised for his work in food allergy research by the award of an OBE in 2013.

 

Please enjoy my conversation with Professor Warner,

Dr. M

 

Dr. M’s Women and Children First Podcast #58 – Mahmoud Ghannoum, Ph. D. – Microbiomes – Bacterial and Fungal

This week’s guest is Professor Mahmoud Ghannoum. For over four decades, Dr. Ghannoum has been exploring a critical but neglected inhabitant of the human body, the fungus. Born and raised in Lebanon, Dr Mahmoud Ghannoum is the current Director of the Center for Medical Mycology at Case Western Reserve University. He began his scientific journey at Loughborough University in England where he studied the fungus candida and its health associated diseases. Coupling this work to his curiosity about the whole area of intestinal microorganisms in the human body, he has become one of the leading researchers in the world in this space.
His discoveries include the knowledge that fungal organisms constitute an essential part of the microbiome. In fact, in 2010, Dr Ghannoum was the first scientist to identify over 100 native species of fungi in the oral cavity and that they are mostly friendly to us. Like with bacteria, there are good fungi as well as bad fungi. And just as it was startling to discover that we need positive bacteria in our guts, most people today are shocked to learn that their health depends on flourishing colonies of helpful fungi. Symbiosis in all things seems to be the flavor of the day and history has proven this to be what we should have always assumed.
He is widely published in top journals as well as being the founder and director of Biohm, a company dedicated to microbiome analysis and management from the perspective of fungal and bacterial communities. He is the author of Total Gut Health. This week, Dr. Ghannoum and I look critically at the microbiome of humans from the well trafficked bacterial road to the less travelled fungal road.
Enjoy,
Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 41

Literature Review:

  1. Over the past 15 years we have noted a connection between the intestinal microbiome and allergic/autoimmune disease activity in humans. This study continues to pull on this thread of knowledge. We see a direct correlation between a dysbiotic microbiome and human disease risk as young as 5 years of age. The upstream targets remain the same. Healthy food, avoidance of chemicals, consistent daily movement, exposure to normal macrobes and microbes, chronic stress mitigation, vaginal deliveries, breast feeding, avoidance of antibiotics/antacids and more…..Then Section II with – Are we addicted to food? and the recipe of the week.

Enjoy,

Dr. M

Dr. M’s SPA Newsletter Audiocast Volume 13 Issue 34

Asthma and Nutrition Part V

Case presentation: DM is a 12 yo caucasian male who presented to integrative pediatric clinic for the first time at age 8 years with the chief complaint of moderate persistent asthma and allergic rhinitis. His past medical history relates one to three severe asthmatic flairs per winter requiring steroids and overnight hospital stays over the past few years. He had relatively mild disease in between major flares and was well controlled with a high dose inhaled corticosteroid making it difficult to predict these severe respiratory events. His mother brought him to our clinic for a different approach since they had failed to stop the flairs over the last 5 years…. and a blurb on choking prevention.

 

Enjoy, Dr. M