Cat allergen found bad for all allergy sufferers

I hate to be the one to break the bad news . . . Your little pussycat, Fluffy, may be making your allergies far worse than they need to be, even if you aren't allergic to cats. New discoveries from researchers in London have found that reduced exposure to cats may be beneficial for allergic individuals, regardless of their specific allergies.

These new findings have just been reported in the July 2007 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society. Dr. Susan Chinn, of the Imperial College in London, and 12 other researchers from the United Kingdom did this study.

“This was an unexpected finding,” said Chinn, lead author of the study. Her team presupposed that they would find allergy problems only in those individuals who were exposed to cat allergen and whose blood tests showed that they were allergic to cats. "But our studies suggest that all allergic individuals have signs of asthmatic responses if exposed to cat allergens--even if blood tests show that they are not allergic to cats.”

“Based on the current research, it appears that many individuals could benefit from reduced cat ownership and exposure,” says Dr. Chinn. The researchers could not rule out the possibility that cat allergen exposure or cat ownership could be a proxy for exposure to endotoxin, known to be an immune stimulant marginally associated with asthmatic symptoms, which is found in higher concentrations in cat owners’ homes.

Bad news for cat owners with allergy symptoms, regardless of what you're allergic to.

Dave