Cats Can Be Trouble Even for the Non-Allergic
Just why felines affect people this way remains unknown
 (HealthDay News) -- Even if they're not specifically allergic to cat dander, people with allergies can still be affected by felines.
Researchers in Europe tested the responsiveness of the air passageways in 1,900 people who volunteered to be exposed to cat dander and found a similar increase in airway reaction among people who were allergic to cats and those who weren't but were sensitive to other common allergens: dust mites, mold or timothy grass.
"Exposure to cats is more of a problem than was thought," study author Susan Chinn, a professor of medical statistics at Imperial College London, told HealthDay .
"Bronchial responsiveness is a measure of the propensity of the airways to constrict," she explained. "Although it's not synonymous with asthma, it is an indicator of airways likely to show an asthmatic response."
The researchers concluded that "cat allergen exposure at moderate levels may be harmful" to all adults with allergies, regardless of their allergy triggers.
Having a cat in the house is a good example of moderate exposure. But even the presence of cats kept by neighbors was enough to leave cat allergens in mattress dust from homes tested by researchers, Chinn said. The findings were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine .
"The clinical implication is that it is insufficient to test patients with asthma for cat sensitization" because all people with allergies "might benefit from reduced cat exposure," Chinn said.
Whether it's wise to have cats as house pets, though, was a question she deferred, citing the need for further research.
The study found that men and women are equally sensitive to cats, but women had more exposure to cat allergens, were more likely to own a cat and were more likely to allow the cat in the bedroom.
Dr. Jerry Shier, an allergist and an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., told HealthDay that this type of research may make people who are allergic more likely to heed their doctors' recommendations against owning pets, even if they're not yet allergic to animals.
But it remains unclear why people with allergies, but not to cats, are still sensitive to cat allergens.
One reason may be that cat allergens are so small -- they can be one-quarter the size of dust mites -- and "are much more likely to have access to the lung than other allergens," Dr. Marc Riedl, an assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, told HealthDay .
As a result, cat allergens could have wider effects that have nothing to do with allergic sensitivity per se, Riedl suggested.
On the Web
To learn more about controlling allergies, check out information from the American Academy of Family Physicians.
SOURCES:
HealthDay News ; Susan Chinn, D.Sc., professor of medical statistics, Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Health Group, Imperial College London, England; Marc Riedl, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles; Jerry Shier, M.D., assistant clinical professor of pediatrics, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C.; July 2007, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
Author:
Robert Preidt
Publication Date:
June 30, 2008
Copyright © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.
|