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Where to Live

Dear Dr. Kagen,

We have a 5 year old son who suffers from asthma and multiple allergies and a 10 month old baby girl who is already showing the same symptoms. At the moment, we live in Walnut Creek a suburb about 20 miles east of San Francisco, California. Although the climate is predominantly dry, there is still a lot of greenery around here and our son is on an inhaler all of spring and large parts of the rest of the year. There is also a significant amount of pollution, mostly from traffic.

We are wondering if we should consider moving to another part of the U.S. to make life easier for him where he can grow up in an environment with fewer allergens and asthma triggers.

Where can we go? What type of climate is beneficial? Who can we contact locally to help us out?

Sincerely,
Christine and Borre

Dear Christine and Borre,

Thank you for asking about where to live if you or your family have allergy and asthma symptoms.

From your question, it appears that your children may be experiencing allergic reactivity already, but as yet you have not consulted with an Allergy and Asthma Specialist. It is extremely important to have an accurate diagnosis of your children's symptoms before entertaining ideas of relocation. Consulting with a Specialist in your region is a good place to begin. Take along some of our Allernet Helpful Hints and this e-mail to help the conversation along.

Very rarely do allergy sufferers have to relocate due to their disease.

Almost all allergy patients can be treated successfully with avoidance, medications and/or allergen immunotherapy (allergy injections) to the point that their asthma and allergy symptoms do not interfere with fun, school, sleeping and other basic life experiences.

You can not control the outdoor climate, but you can the indoor one. You will get a great deal of information and education from an allergy evaluation. Smart patients get better when they know what is the cause of their allergy symptoms.

See a Specialist locally, and please let me know how things are going. To find one in your area, you may call the Academy of Allergy referral line at: 1-800-822-2762.

I hope this info and the Allernet materials have been useful.

Good luck.

Steve Kagen, M.D.
Allernet.com