USNews: Cold versus Allergies... How to Tell The Difference

US News and World Report came out with a story on July 27, 2010 regarding how one can tell the difference between an allergy versus a cold, especially since each has symptoms in common.

Especially with mild symptoms, it may be hard even for an ENT to distinguish the two. Add chronic sinus infections and flu to the mix, it can be downright difficult without allergy testing, CT scans, and other types of testing to come up with a correct diagnosis.

To help distinguish among these possible illnesses, at least based on history, here is a chart our office has made.

NIH also has produced a chart that can be seen here.

Click here to read the US News & World Report story.

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Home Remedies Preferred Over Drugs for Kids' Coughs and Colds

In the May 2010 volume of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, researchers at Johns Hopkins published an article entitled "Over-the-counter cough and cold medications in children: Are they helpful?"

The blunt answer is that they do not!

At least before the age of 2 years, one should stick to "home remedies" to address a young child's cough and cold. Such home remedies include humidity, saline spray, and bulb suctioning of the nose. When they are a bit older and coordinated, saline gargles can be added to the regimen.

Read the abstract here.

Read a LA Times article on this here.

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Cold Urticaria (aka, Allergy to Cold Temperatures)

Fox 10 News did a story on Cold Urticaria which basically is an allergy to cold temperatures. With cold temperature exposure whether it be cold air, ice cube, or even ice cream, it can cause an allergic reaction resulting in lip swelling, drop in blood pressure, rash, significant itchiness, etc. There has even been cases where a person will go into anaphylactic shock if they jump into a cold swimming pool.

Oddly enough, the symptoms typically occur AFTER warming up after a cold exposure due histamine release.

Beyond avoiding cold things, there's no "cure" for this condition. Symptoms can be controlled with antihistamines.

Watch the story below! Or read the story here. Here's another story from a different source.

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