Women have evolved to have stronger immunity than men. But this comes with downsides -
women are more likely to have autoimmune diseases due to their "reactive" immune systems.
The recent severe thunderstorm in Melbourne caused hospitals across the city to be put on emergency alert as thousands of people called ambulance services, reporting severe breathing difficulties.
Hay fever and asthma are allergic conditions that inflame the lung and nose.
Mladen Mitrinovic/Shutterstock
New research has found children who are born with overly active immune cells are more likely to develop allergies to milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat and other common foods.
Being too clean isn't what's making us sick. It's the loss of biodiversity in the bacteria and organisms that live in our bodies and work with the immune system.
If you're one of the 15% of Australians who experience hay fever, it's likely you've spent weeks sneezing, itching and trying to control a runny nose and cloudy head. So, what can you do about it?
Allergies are becoming more frequent in the western world.
Al Fed/Flickr
Allergies are reactions caused by the immune system as it responds to environmental substances that are usually harmless. But we don't yet have a cure or the ability to prevent them from developing.
A Harvard University researcher last week suggested western women stop breastfeeding after a couple of months to reduce the risk of passing potentially harmful toxins on to infants via breast milk.
Richard Gunderman, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Animal attacks have been in the news a lot. Late last year, a 22-year-old student in New Jersey was killed by a black bear he had been photographing. This summer, swimmers off the coast of North Carolina…
I can’t believe it isn’t true.
Hayfever by Shutterstock
Rates of food allergies have increased over recent decades and are at an all-time high. While we don’t know the full extent of the allergy epidemic, the rate of hospitalisation for food allergies has quadrupled…
Climate change could make your hay fever much worse, thanks to three times more pollen allergens in the air.
Serhiy Kobyakov/Shutterstock
It’s now late spring, with summer just around the corner, and many people with hay fever suffer at this time of year in Australia. Although the cause of this suffering is invisible to us, it is actually…
Professor&Chair of Paediatrics | HMRI, University of Newcastle, Australia | Senior Staff Specialist Paediatric Respiratory&Sleep Medicine | John Hunter Children's Hospital, Australia, University of Newcastle
Senior Staff Specialist in Paediatric Allergy and Immunology at John Hunter Children's Hospital Newcastle NSW Conjoint Lecturer in Paediatrics, University of Newcastle
