Allergies

Recently, I had allergy testing done. The results are in, and the answer is: Yup, you're still allergic to the world.

The good news is: Chocolate is no longer on my food allergy list.

The bad news is: Wheat, eggs, corn, and rice are on the list. That pretty much does away with anything fun to eat that isn't chocolate. Maybe I shouldn't have wished so hard for the chocolate allergy to change.

Just in case you feel a sneeze coming on, let's share a few allergy randoms:

1. Every day, people breathe in about two heaping tablespoons of particles such as pollen, dust, mold, and bacteria.

2. More people are allergic to cow's milk than any other food.

3. About 400 B.C., Hippocrates studied "asthma," which means "I gasp for breath."

4. The term "allergy" was coined by an Austrian physician named Clemons von Pirquet to indicate a "state of altered reactivity resulting from the introduction of a foreign substance or agent into the body."

5. In 1966, Drs. Kimishige and Teruko Ishizaka discovered that an immunoglobulin (now called Immunoglobulin E) in the blood causes allergic reactions.

Ah-choo. Anyone got a tissue? I think that my Immunoglobulin E count is up.