Is it even allergy Awareness Week if there isn't some sort of list video I'm not sure
[Upbeat intro music]
Hello, welcome back to allergy awareness week today is day four, I believe and I'm going to bring you
Five or six ways to adapt to a new allergy- if you're new here
I'm allergic to cold and recently I acquired a dust allergy more on that in
this- this week my first tip for
Adapting to a new allergy- the brain fog is strong today, is to identify your
exposures
Which you would think would be super easy
but it isn't always as simple as it seems so for dust I
Was not aware how dusty my bedding was or how much dust lives in the cracks in my headboard,
Um, or with cold it took me way longer than is probably necessary
To figure out that air conditioning is my worst enemy how I've been identifying
My exposures is just by noticing symptoms
Where am I when it's happening?
What has changed in that environment
that's now bringing on symptoms. With dust, you can see dust
So for example this shelf sometimes I will be sniffly my mouth will itch I will get facial flushing
And I'll be like why and then I will look around and find dust
That's incense ash by the way, I don't hate myself that much
I will notice dust in places and with cold sometimes it takes me a minute to realize actually
It's quite cold in here and I regret making a bit of a mess.
[Blows] Oh no... Well...
Mistakes were made.
[coughing and spluttering]
Regrets! Regrets.
This might seem extreme but that- that was a- that was a big mistake
if you need to lip read turn the captions on because all of my videos are always captioned and it's always
actual captions not just YouTube's automatic captions
point number two
And that is to try things that I've been experimenting with
Cleaning schedules because I do not have the spoons to clean properly. With Cold Urticaria I've tried lots of things
I've tried balaclavas, I've tried scarves, I've tried medications... More on that up there
I've tried complete avoidance of exposures but that got old fast and then I tried a vogmask and
It worked. So I could go outside and do things
Which was wonderful
Trying new things
Trial and error is always a good way because you're never going to just find that solution
In your first try. I know with the dust allergy thing, um,
Trying different types of duster different sheets
Changing your bedding every week. Every two weeks every month. How long can I go? Um,
hoover bags
That sort of thing just try things out
See what works see what doesn't make a note of things that don't work. I think take a note of things that do work
So A vogmask. Third of all you can
do lots of research that can evolve just looking online for
tips and tricks of how to manage an allergy
So at least for my dust allergy there are plenty of forums and websites that talk about how to avoid dust exposure
Blowing incense ash everywhere not the way to do that. When I was diagnosed with the dust allergy
I was given this piece of paper which has
most of the things I
need to know about improving
my environment for my dust allergy and with weirder allergies like my allergy to the cold I
found out a lot about it by just doing online research and I'm in a very privileged position where I am also a
scientist and
I know how to access and read and interpret scientific journals. So I did a lot of
Research down that route for cold urticaria
but also just speaking to people and
Googling- googling helps. There are articles on the internet. I've even written one
You can find them down below in the description, but just doing your research
So, you know what you're dealing with what sort of things are likely to set it off
So I just didn't think bedding would set off a dust allergy and yet...
Top tip number four
which is kind of the same as doing research is speak to your doctor or allergist and
It also kind of goes hand in hand with trying things out
So I've spoken to doctors and allergists about what medication I can use to control my allergy symptoms
So fexofenadine is a big one that works really well for my cold urticaria
Less well for my dust allergy so I can still have dust allergy symptoms even though it take my daily antihistamine
but my cold urticaria skin reactions are generally kept under control or if there's anything that
You might need for your allergy. So not allergies I have but people that have severe allergies and require an EpiPen
talking to your doctor about
When to use your EpiPen how to carry it and store it safely how to let people know that you have one
they are in the best position to tell you how to manage that obviously, that's not a thing I can speak on because I
Don't need an EpiPen. I don't have severe allergies like that talking to your doctors
Will help you find out how to adapt
specifically to that and they will give you
Resources there's lots of information sheets that they have access to they're just in the best position to give you tailored medical advice
Whereas people on the internet making youtube videos
Not so much. Lastly online support groups can be
Incredibly helpful. These can be on Facebook. They can be communities on reddit. They can even be on instagram.
so one of my favorite reddit communities is r/allergies
Where people come online and discuss allergies sensitivities intolerances all of that
there was a lot of advice and resource sharing, tips and tricks sharing, and
again, YouTube videos. It can be a helpful place to just
Drop your questions and have a discussion. I found it incredibly useful when
Deciding how often I should try and clean what is the best bed sheet to buy,
and also giving support to others because that does make you feel good. So
this has been a
Blast. I think the dust has settled now
and online support groups can be very helpful if you have a strange allergy because
For example my cold urticaria. I've only ever met one other person with it and
Everybody I speak to and know who also has it exists on the Internet
So if you have a strange allergy to for example cold or if you have aquagenic urticaria
I know there's a couple of people that talk about that if you have an allergy to
Just Kiwis
Just thinking of random stuff off the top my head
online support groups are going to be where you're going to find those people so you can have a chat and
Find out
Weird stuff that you have in common be like, yes, that makes so much sense and sharing specific tips
because I
don't about you guys, but a lot of people have not heard about being allergic to cold and it's hard to
Get tips off people that haven't heard of it and don't know what it is
So online support groups have helped me out there. Those are my top tips for
Adapting to a new allergy. I hope this has been helpful
don't forget to like this video if it has, drop a comment down below if it hasn't been, or
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I post a new video. Videos go up every Saturday at 6 p.m
UK time with at least one bonus video every single month apart from this month because it has allergy Awareness Week in it
So you're getting seven allergy based videos in seven days
See ya.
I've just realised. I've got the wrong glasses on. Excuse me.
Have you figured it out yet?