I Said I Want A Second Opinion

Boy, are they ugly tomatoes. I was picking a few from our veggie patch last season, and with a name like Rouge de Marmande, you would expect them to look glorious. Aristocratic, even noble, perfectly formed, symmetrical, evenly coloured. But no, this variety of tomato is real ugly. They vary in shape from elliptical to drum-shaped […]

Allergy to Bee and Wasp stings

Bees and wasps cause painful stings because they inject venom using a small dart-like needle in their tails. The bee leaves its dart behind, stuck in your skin, and the bee subsequently dies. The wasp does not lose its dart, and does not die after the sting, and furthermore it can sting repeatedly. BEES AND […]

The A to K of asthma triggers

A few years ago I wrote an article for Current Therapeutics about the A to K of asthma triggers. It proved popular so I have updated it for this site. Deaths from asthma have fallen dramatically in Australia in the last 20 years, from about 800/year to about 400/year. That is the good news, but […]

Allergies in Alice Springs, Central Australia

INTRODUCTION Alice Springs has a permanent population of about 27,000, and is situated in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is almost at the geographical centre of the continent. The town is an important centre for the tourism, pastoral, mining and defence industries. There are 500,000 tourists annually. CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES The aborigines have lived […]

Allergy vaccines – previously only by injection, now an oral vaccine is available!!

Allergy vaccines (also called allergen immunotherapy) WORK REALLY WELL – but you’ve got to have five things just right – the right disease the right allergy the right vaccine the right reason the right precautions Let’s talk about about these five things. The right disease means hay fever or nose/sinus conditions or asthma caused by […]

Allergy Tests for Food Allergy – the good, the bad, and the ugly

If I told you that I could touch your nose with the little finger of my left hand and as a result diagnose all your food allergies, would you believe me? I didn’t think so. How would you prove that I was wrong? Well, you would ask me what I thought your allergies were, then […]

Asthma after exercise

The symptoms of asthma are cough, chest tightness, wheeze, and shortness of breath. We are all different, and our symptoms are different even if we have the same disease! So some people mainly get cough when they get asthma, and others wheezing, and so on. What is pretty common in everyone with asthma is the […]