What Causes Allergies – Houseplants Maybe?

An interesting allergy study was recently conducted by researchers from the Free University of Brussels led by Dr. Olivier Michel which identified common houseplants as the cause of or trigger to many allergies.

Houseplants Trigger Allergies

The researchers tested 59 allergy sufferers and 15 allergy free people to skin-prick tests using both the leaves of their own plants and extracts of the most common airborne allergens. The results were notable in that none of the allergy free people reacted to the skin-prick test whereas 78 percent or 46 of 59 allergy sufferers had a reaction to at least one of the common houseplants tested. Plants that were the most common triggers were figs, ivy, and palm. The researchers also noted that two suffers from Ficus noticed that "removing the plant from their environment stopped their symptoms completely".

Allergy Relief

My advice for those who suffer allergies in the house is to decrease the amount of plants you might have indoors or simply buy a good HEPA filter which pulls the allergens out of the air. You could also try the holistic method of acupuncture to decrease your symptoms, though admittedly this is not for me. It's important however to do something because first, nobody wants to live with the sniffles, and second, allergic reactions are basically inflammatory responses which could be tough on the body in the long term.  Finding sinus pain relief is another major reason to seek ways to eliminate household allergens.

Source
Allergy, September 2006

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