Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - Heal Your Seasonal & Food Allergies | Immunology Expert Dr. Tania Elliott, MD
Episode Date: June 20, 2025✨ Ever wondered WHY peanut allergies are suddenly everywhere? Or what your brutal spring allergies are actually trying to tell you? 😩🌸This week on The Culture Apothecary, Dr. Tania Elliott—b...oard-certified allergist and full-on science nerd 🧬—is breaking down why allergies are skyrocketing, how your environment and even emotions might be messing with your immune system, and what you can actually do to fix it.Seasonal or food allergies? You NEED this episode.Let us know your biggest trigger in the comments!👇Thank you to our sponsors!TAYLOR DUKES WELLNESS: Use code "ALEXCLARK" for 10% OFFA'DEL: Use code "ALEX" for 25% off first-time ordersMASA CHIPS: Use code "REALALEXCLARK" for 25% OFF first-time ordersHARVESTRIGHTJUST INGREDIENTS: Use code 'ALEX' for 15% off your entire orderPRIMALLY PURE: Use code “ALEXCLARK” to get 15% OFFOur Guest: Dr. Tania Elliott, MDDr. Tania Elliott's Links:WebsiteInstagramLinkedInTikTokDr. Tania’s Healthy Home Guide (Her Favorite Book)🌿 Top Tip: Don't wear false lashes or use hairspray to avoid seasonal allergies - pollen will stick to it!FOLLOW ALEX:Instagram |@realalexclarkInstagram |@cultureapothecaryFacebook |@realalexclarkX |@yoalexrapzYouTube |@RealAlexClarkSpotify |Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark Apple Podcast |Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark🌿 Culture Apothecary WEBSITE🗞️ WEEKLY NEWSLETTER SIGNUPJoin the Cuteservatives Facebook group to connect with likeminded friends who love America and all things health and wellness! Join the CUTEservative Facebook Group!Subscribe to ‘Culture Apothecary’ on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. New episodes drop 6pm PST/ 9pm EST every Monday and Thursday.#Allergies #PeanutAllergy #SpringAllergies #ImmuneHealth #FunctionalMedicine #HolisticHealth #AllergyRelief #FoodAllergies #NaturalHealing #CultureApothecary
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There is a real, scandalous, scientific story behind how we got to.
Every kid has a peanut allergy.
In the United States, there was a recommendation made by the American Academy of Pediatrics
that said, do not feed peanuts to your children until after the age of two.
The science at the time thought you should avoid things so that you don't get an allergy.
When you introduce things early on within the first 12 months of life, you are less likely to have an allergy.
Ever wonder why peanut allergies became such a thing or how to beat severe spring allergies?
Today we're joined by someone who's made it her mission to help people understand the deeper story behind their symptoms in both seasonal and food allergies, Dr. Tanya Elliott.
A self-proclaimed science nerd since childhood, Dr. Elliott knew by age seven that she wanted to be the doctor in her family.
She went on to complete her internal medicine residency at Mount Sinai Hospital and specialized in allergy and clinical immunology at Winthrop University Hospital.
a leading voice in her field. Dr. Elliott is here to help us decode what our bodies are really telling us.
She's been featured everywhere from the Today Show to Good Morning America and even Fox News.
Watch this episode on Real Alex Clark YouTube channel or Culture Apothecary on Spotify.
You can pause right now and leave a five-star review. If you do this, which takes only a couple
seconds every time you listen, it immensely positively impacts this show, which, by the way,
let me remind you we do for free. Follow the show on Instagram at Culture Apothecary and also
join the cute servatives Facebook group. You're going to meet a lot of like-minded women who also
love the show. Please welcome allergist, Dr. Tanya Elliott, to culture apothecary. Are seasonal allergies
normal or a sign that something is wrong? Allergies, a definition of an allergy, is an abnormal
reaction to something that's normally occurring in the environment. So it's sort of like an immune
system response. So sometimes people have an autoimmune issue where your immune system attacks
their own cells. This is an immune inflammatory response where your immune system is recognizing
something as foreign that it shouldn't be recognizing as foreign. So I want to get into both food allergies
and seasonal allergies today. I want to dive into food allergies first. There is a real
scandalous, scientific story behind how we got to every kid has a peanut allergy. Can you kind of
tell us about that? So let's first talk about the incidence of peanut allergy in this
country, which is about 10% of children. Now let's look at the incidence of peanut allergy
in another country like Israel. The incidence of peanut allergy is 0.2%. Why is there
such a difference between the incidents in this country versus other countries? The key is that
peanut is introduced in teething rings in Middle Eastern countries and in Israel. And so it's
introduced very, very early on within the first couple of months of life. When you introduce things
early on within the first 12 months of life, you are less likely to have an allergy. So what happens
in the United States? In the United States, there was a recommendation made by the American Academy
of Pediatrics that said, do not feed peanuts to your children until after the age of two. So what
happens? We don't introduce peanuts. Interestingly, older siblings are eating peanuts, right? They're having
their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and everything. So the initial way that babies were getting
exposed to peanut was through the skin. Now, it's important to understand when you're exposed to
something for the first time through the skin, your skin is the largest immune organ in your body. So when
you get exposed through the skin, the body's like, oh, this is something foreign. This is a bacterial
infection. This is a virus. This is something weird. So because peanut was around surfaces and the
big brothers and sisters were eating peanut or whatever, there was exposure to peanut through the skin.
Then when it gets introduced after the age of two, the body says, oh, what's this? This is that weird thing
that got introduced through my skin, and the body then has that abnormal reaction to something
that's normally occurring in the environment. So it was an accidental flaw in this recommendation
to not introduce peanut early on in children. And partially because there was concern that it
might be a choking hazard, and partially because the science at the time thought you should avoid
things so that you don't get an allergy. And what we've learned now about the immune system is
early exposure is what actually trains your immune system to properly recognize what is foreign and what is not foreign.
So it was bad science?
It was unknown science, right?
It was like, this is what we were operating on.
We didn't quite understand how the immune system worked.
We didn't understand the immune markers.
We're talking like 20 years ago and think about all the advances in science and immunology and the ability to do laboratory testing to understand how we make antibodies, right?
And so there was an assumption mean that introducing peanuts early would lead to allergy.
And then we found that it was just the opposite.
So is this type of situation playing out over and over again with all different types of food?
Is this why we're seeing this uptick and everybody has a food allergy now?
Or is it something else in your opinion?
Well, it's one piece.
So that's relating to peanut in particular.
However, why are food allergies on such a rise in this country?
And there are a couple of other factors.
One is introduction of early antibiotics in moms who are pregnant and then also in babies before
they're 12 months of age because that skews the microbiome.
So the microbiome plays a role in all of this.
And it kills off all the good bacteria.
That good bacteria is important to have a balance and then create a proper immune system
response.
So introduction of early antibiotics and overuse of antibiotics.
And then the other contributing factor for food allergy is increased amounts of C-sections.
And the reason there is you are bypassing the baby's initial exposure to the good bacteria in the vaginal canal.
And so when you do that, these babies are more prone to have allergic disease.
Okay, this is fascinating because the United States has a higher C-section rate than basically anywhere else, correct?
Yes.
Wow.
Because I think a lot of people, and I mean, I don't know, maybe there's some truth.
But I think a lot of people, especially my audience, wants to blame the food allergy thing on vaccines.
But I feel like I agree with you.
I think it is the antibiotics.
I think the C-section thing is interesting.
And I think the not exposing them to peanuts till a lot later makes more sense to me.
Those are the three major factors.
And like the C-section rates are really high and we can get into the reasons why they're really high.
But sometimes women were just saying like, well, out of convenience or like, I don't want to have
to have a vaginal birth.
That sounds painful.
Or I am a high-powered, very busy woman.
and I don't want to have, I want to schedule my birth.
Yeah.
Right.
And so we've just seen for lots of reasons and perverse incentives and reimburse incentives and
reimbursement rates and all of that, C-sections through the roof in this country when
they're not medically necessary and there are consequences associated with that.
I would say the biggest factor as it relates to why we're seeing more allergies actually
ties to the microbiome.
So we're finding more and more things pointing to the microbiome in your gut.
How do you explain an adult developing a food allergy suddenly to something that they've eaten
in their entire life?
No problem.
Yeah, we usually see it in shellfish allergy in particular.
And the leading theory right now is twofold.
One is increased use of antacids and the other is increased use of alcohol.
So what happens is lots of antacids, right, the proton pump inhibitors, they basically inhibit the production of acid in your stomach.
Alcohol also messes with the pH in your stomach.
So what happens is you're eating these foods and then suddenly the way that the protein is broken down is different.
So for shellfish allergy in particular, and we don't know why it happens with shellfish and not as much with other allergies, but the way this shellfish protein now gets broken down by the body because your stomach lining and your pH is kind of messed up, it looks foreign.
And so that's why you tend to see shellfish allergy and adults that are more likely have taken either antacets for a prolonged period of time or alcohol.
Okay, this is my biggest fear because seafood is my number one favorite food.
So just keep eating it.
Yeah.
Okay.
Because I do.
Like that is if I had to give up everything, I can only choose one type of food to eat the rest of my life.
It would be seafood.
You did it every day and you won't develop an allergy to it.
Okay, good.
I see, I hear these horror stories and I get really freaked out.
So that's good to know.
What is the biggest misconception you see spreading on social media about food allergies?
Well, food allergies and food intolerances and food sensitivities, I think.
And people are like, oh, I must have a food allergy.
I need to go get a test to find out what I'm allergic to.
You'll know if you're allergic to a food because your face is going to blow up.
I don't know if you've seen this movie Hitch with Will Smith where like he eats something.
you know, all of a sudden, it's like his whole face blows up his lips.
Like, that's what happens when you have an allergy, and it happens within minutes to hours.
A food sensitivity or a food intolerance is much more nuanced, and there isn't a good test to diagnose it.
So I think the thing that irks me the most are companies that are saying, figure out what you're allergic to, have this food intolerance test, this food sensitivity test.
There's no data to support that.
You're not going to suddenly uncover an intolerance or uncover an allergy.
As it relates to allergy, you would know.
And so you eat something.
Every time you eat it, you have a reaction.
Then you come into the doctor's office.
Or you can have a blood test.
And then that is a confirmation of your allergy.
But there is no test where it's like we would just order a whole food panel and then something is positive.
And then we say, oh, you've been, you know, eating cheese your whole life.
But this test just came up positive.
You're allergic.
Okay.
Well, now, wait a minute, though.
Then what about the IgG-I test?
Bologna.
You heard it here.
Okay.
finally. I bring this up with like every guess that I have because it's so frustrating to me.
I took this freaking test and, you know, it was a blood test or whatever and it had 15 things
that came up for me that were like food, ear tints or whatever that causing inflammation
that I need to get rid of. Irrelevant. Every single thing was what I eat every day. There was
nothing on there that that I never eat. There was no cheese or anything like that because I don't
eat cheese. I've never liked it. Because that probably doesn't react well so you avoid it and so you
already kind of know. Well, the only thing on this whole list, because it had also, it's interesting
because I have an autoimmune disease. It's like the thing, all the food that I'm supposed to be eating
like cinnamon and garlic and things that are really helpful for autoimmune, those were all coming up for me
because I eat them a lot because it tells, I'm supposed to. Well, I don't ever feel any type of way when I
eat these foods at all. The only thing, but I did what they said. I eliminated everything. The only
thing on that list that I like got rid of and then tried to reintroduce after like three months was
eggs and immediately I threw up. So I was like maybe this one was legit. I don't know, but the whole
test itself was very confusing to me. And I felt like a prisoner trying to navigate what to eat
when you have to avoid garlic, but I also can't have gluten and all these things. It was like awful,
awful. These tests are a waste of money. They are not relevant. If you have an autoimmune disease
in particular, your body just makes random antibodies. That's just what it does. It's insignificant.
It's called a sensitization. We don't understand the clinical relevance of it.
the best approach for somebody who has a food intolerance or a food sensitivity is to keep a food
diary and say, here are the things that I'm eating for a two-week period of time. And here's how
I'm feeling. And then don't even try to interpret it. Just document it. You can even use one of those
apps where you take pictures of your food that's more of like a calorie counter just to kind
of track what it is that you're putting into your body. And then like, oh, this day I felt
uploaded. This day I had headaches. Just say whatever. You're just kind of, you know, tracking your
symptoms. Then you work with someone who can put those two things together to say,
okay, now we're going to come up with an elimination diet based off of the most likely things, right?
So that's an approach.
Another approach is to just say, look, I will tell you the top 10 foods that are irritant that
most people are reactive to.
And let's cut out those things.
So egg would have been on my list.
Soy would have been on my list.
Wheat would have been on my list, right?
Right.
Right.
So we would do an elimination diet.
We would choose those nine things that are the most likely things.
We'd see how you feel.
And the goal is to have you feel at your baseline, at your optimal, like, you know, how.
feeling your best, and then we slowly reintroduce those food.
So we would do all of those things and save you $300 and not have you gone through that test.
That's just super confusing.
Holy cow.
Wow, my life is a lie.
Okay, so what's the deal with cross-reactivity and food allergies?
Like, why might somebody be allergic to shrimp and then they'll also react to crab or whatever?
Yeah, so that is how similar the protein structures look.
So those are your crustacean shellfish, so shrimp, crab,
and lobster. So if you're allergic to one of those, then there's a high likelihood that you're
allergic to all three. Okay. And then there's some cross-reactivity with non-crustation shellfish.
So about 10% of people with a crustacean shellfish allergy, shrimp, lobster crab will also react
to oysters or clams or colomari or muscles. So that's like we just kind of have these charts
and these statistics based off of what we see in the population. For peanut allergy, in particular,
it's interesting because 30% of people will react to tree nuts, specifically hazelnut.
So you have a peanut allergy, you may also react to hazelnut.
But peanut's not actually a nut.
It's a legume.
And so it's in the soy and lentil family.
So lots of people don't realize that about 10% of people will also have an allergy to soy or lentils.
So that's important because lentils, for example, are not one of those like top 10 food
allergens that you would even think of.
How safe and effective are oral immunotherapy treatments for food allergies?
like those with peanut allergies?
It depends, but generally speaking, so there are FDA approved like peanut powders and things,
they're pretty safe.
There are also a lot of doctors that actually create oral immunotherapy.
But let me explain to you what oral immunotherapy is into your audience because it could be,
it's a really interesting concept, but it's essentially giving you small amounts of what you're
allergic to and training your immune system to no longer be allergic or no longer react.
So it's helping you to build a tolerance in a natural.
way by giving you small amounts of what you're allergic to. So there are companies that actually
have, like, the peanut protein, but lots of doctors actually just take, like, a PB2 protein powder
and they dilute it down into, like, very, very small concentrations, and they make little mixtures
in their offices, I'm not kidding. And then they give you small amounts of it. Obviously,
they've got their, you know, their protocols or what have you. It's safe. It wouldn't be safe
to do this at home, right? We're like, oh, just take a little bite of, like, a Reese's Beat
a Better Cup or something. Like, don't do that.
But the science is such that you slowly train your immune system to no longer be allergic.
The risk is if you take too much, you're still at risk of having a reaction.
But these things, we're talking about the equivalent of like a hundredth of a peanut.
And then we're building you up to be able to tolerate like a quarter of a peanut.
Yeah.
Now, the thing is, you need to be on that immunotherapy every day consistently.
Otherwise, you lose that tolerance.
There are other therapies, though, that are now available that I like a lot better than doing the immune therapy.
the food immunotherapy because the challenge is like, you know, if you're allergic to peanuts and a
couple of other things, like, what are you supposed to do? Like, be taking these multiple powders
and mixtures and tinctures like every day. So there is a medicine. It's called Zolair. And it's
approved for the treatment of chronic hives. It's approved for the treatment of asthma. And what
it essentially does is it downregulates all the allergy receptors that you have in your body. So your
body is just less allergic in general. And data has shown that now it has FDA clearance for food
allergy. So it's really good, especially for kids, if they've got like multiple food allergies,
it's an injection once a month that basically calms down your immune system. And the key is,
like, these kids are not going to be cured of their allergy. What we're playing for here with food
immunotherapy or these injections is an accidental ingestion and your body being okay with that.
To say like, oh, I accidentally ate a cookie that's a little bit of a peanut or I don't have
to worry as much about cross-contamination in a factory because I know that my allergy response is
essentially muted. And that's what we're playing for. So today, there isn't, like, a complete cure
for these things, but there is, like, the tempering of the immune system so that you don't have a
life-threatening reaction from an accidental ingestion. Ask my team, uh, I have to have a dessert
after dinner no matter what. I will track an ice cream down. It's also my favorite thing to look for
in an airport. My favorite flavor since I was eight, cookies and cream. God works in mysterious ways
because he knows that's my favorite flavor.
And he also knows that I've been needing
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cosmetics.com code Alex. Okay, so let's switch into seasonal allergies. How can somebody figure out
if they're sneezing and their itchy eyes are allergies or just a cold? Three key ways to figure out
the difference because there's lots of similar symptoms in overlap, right? You've got your runny nose,
your post-neasal drip and your cough. Also, the reason why it's confusing.
using is if you have poorly controlled allergies, you're more likely to pick up a virus and develop an
infection. But three ways to tell the difference. So allergies do not cause a fever or swollen
lymph nodes. That's number one. The second relates to the timing of your symptoms. So when you
have a cold, like you're in bed for a week. You feel crummy. When you have allergies, you have some
relief when you come inside or right after you take a shower or like if you've got indoor
allergies when you go outside and get some fresh air or like when you're no longer around a cat,
it goes away, right? Whereas cold and flu symptoms, you're like stuck in bed. You feel like,
crap for that period of time. So the timing of your symptoms. And then the last is the duration of
your symptoms. So if you have seasonal allergies, you're talking about symptoms for weeks to months where
you're kind of feeling crummy and miserable. Cold and flu lasts only about seven to ten days,
no longer than that. What is a trick that everyone should know for surviving spring pollen season?
So there's a couple of things you can do. Number one, don't wear hair spray when you go out. If you
like really suffer from allergies because pollen will get stuck in your hair anyway. And then if you have
hair spray. It's like, and it sticks on. Oh my gosh. Wait, that's such a game changer.
Right? The good thing about living in Phoenix is I have zero humidity. We don't have to do very
much hairspray, but other places definitely do. Yeah. Fake eyelashes. Skip the fake eyelashes
in the spring because pollen will get stuck in your lashes. And you know, when you have fake
lashes, you're not like rubbing them and then they all fall out, right? And you're like really
careful about touching them. And then you have pollen stuck in your lashes. Wearing glasses
instead of contact lenses. Or if you want to wear your contact lenses, we're sunglasses. But again,
the pollen will get stuck to the lenses too.
So wide-brimed hat and sunglasses when you go outside.
Showering when you come home and showering at night.
Like, I don't understand how people are out and about all day and then they just go to bed.
Take a nighttime shower.
You could shower in the morning also, but take a nighttime shower.
Otherwise, you're tracking all that pollen and whatever else.
Like, you picked up throughout the day and you're just plopping that in your bed.
So shower at night.
Shower right when you get home, rinse all that pollen off of you.
You've said that allergies are often kind of brushed off as like minor, no big deal.
If somebody has allergies and they are not treating them or do anything about them, how can that impact their health long term?
So we call this the atopic march or the allergic mark.
So first it'll start off as like eczema or something in kids, right?
And then it progresses to your nasal passages.
And then from your nasal passages and your nose and post nasal drip and sinus issues, it can progress to asthma.
And then when your asthma gets poorly controlled, you can end up with obstructive sleep apnea.
And when you have obstructive sleep apnea, you can end up with right heart failure.
So everyone thinks like, oh, allergies are just a nuisance.
Oh, it's just my allergies.
And people don't realize the association with chronic disease, one.
Two, impact on your sleep, impact on your productivity at work, increased number of miswork days for people with allergies.
So you feel miserable and then it manifests as like you're not able to function as well.
Is there any way for people to like get over allergies, like to dogs or grass or anything?
So immunotherapy that we were talking about for food, there is immunotherapy like for environmental
allergies and there are three main ways to get it.
One is an injection.
Two is drops under the tongue.
Three is tablets.
But it's all the same process, which is giving you small amounts of what you're allergic
to and building up your tolerance over time.
So with allergy shots, like let's say you're allergic to like,
dogs, cats, and pollen, they can put all those allergenic proteins into a shot.
And then once a week, you go to the doctor's office for six months.
And then after that once a month for anywhere from two to three years and then like you're done and you're cured of your allergies with the drops.
If they're allergic to just dogs or just cats, you can get them up to their quote maintenance dose.
They put it in like a little sugar thing.
And then you're essentially like cured of your allergies or at least 80% improved in your symptoms.
What is the biggest scam when it comes to over-the-counter allergy meds?
Over-the-counter allergy is like the craziest place.
Like I'm like overwhelmed and I'm an allergist and I'm like, what are these things?
So here's a great example, Allegra.
Sorry, Allegra.
They have like Allegra allergy and then they have Allegra hives as if it matters.
It's the same Allegra.
It doesn't matter.
We give antihistamines for people.
So what you find are like this additional labeling of allergy medicines and it's all the same
stuff. I'm not a fan of the multi-symptom relief. The other big one that was like huge in the media is
phenyl-ephrin, which is a oral decongestant, which was put in like so treated, you know,
allergy treatment, cold and flu treatment. And it's no better than placebo. So the FDA actually
decided to pull it off the shelves. But it's in all of these multi-symptom cold and flu formulas
and lots of different allergy formulas. Fenal-effrin. So like pseudafed PE. Right, right. Bad.
You can take a sugar pill.
It's fake.
It's fake.
Wow.
Okay, so then what are you doing?
What are you taking?
Or maybe you're not taking anything.
Maybe you have a different thing you do for allergies or you don't have allergies.
I don't know.
So I do have some allergies.
I did do immunotherapy, sublingal immunotherapy for grass pollen and tree pollen allergy.
So that's like giving me small amounts of the individual trees and grasses I'm allergic to, two drops under the tongue every day.
It's like I keep it next to my toothbrush.
and I've seen a significant improvement.
I'm one year in, significant improvement in my spring allergy symptom.
So that's one thing.
The second thing is I like to hang a little fresh eucalyptus in my shower.
Oh.
And it just like opens up the nasal passages.
The third thing I love to do is take a pot of hot water, bring it to a boil, and add some fresh ginger.
And then I just breathe that in and it has a natural anti-inflammatory effect on your nasal passages, on your sinuses, on your lungs.
And then nasal saline spray.
Nettie pots work too, but it feels like really weird for me.
where I like pour, it feels like a magic trick.
It doesn't work for me.
I'm pouring stuff in one nostril and then it's like coming out the other.
But nasal ceiling spray is like, great.
I just like sprayed and I'm washing out my nasal passages
throughout the course of the day.
It's just like we wash our hands.
I'm like washing out my nasal passages and it works wonders.
You know what?
I just realized this.
Is the reason netty pots don't work for me because I have a deviated septum?
It could if it's not like, it's supposed to be like, whoop.
Yeah.
It doesn't do that.
Nothing happens.
So it probably just gets stuck.
Yeah.
That's what it is.
I didn't know I had that until very recently and I just put that together.
because I've always told me like, I don't know, it doesn't work.
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tips. Okay, you had some air purifier videos that went super viral. What should people actually
look for in an air purifier when they're buying one to help with allergies? And what were you saying
in this video that like, so this was a really good, it's a good question. Number one, you want to
make sure the air purifier is the appropriate size for your room. So like, don't get a little tiny
air purifier and then put it in your living room and think it's going to do anything because you have
to make sure that it's like, it'll tell you the like measurements and the square footage and
stuff. So you have to do a little math, but make sure it's,
the appropriate size for the room. The second is you want to make sure you have an activated carbon
filter if you're wanting to get what we call volatile organic compounds out of the air. So these are
these off gases and stuff, whether it's like from mold or it's from composite wood furniture or any
plastic furniture and stuff like that. Like people don't think about their indoor microbiome
in the air that you're breathing. And we spend 90% of our time indoors. And so like if there's paint,
or again, you just buy new furniture.
Do you ever have like a smell to your furniture?
Oh, 100%.
Those are toxins.
Yeah, a very old episode I did a couple years ago, which was all about like having a non-toxic home.
They were talking about that.
Like the worst thing you could do ever is buy a new couch and immediately put in your living room.
Yeah.
Buy a new couch.
Have it like sit outside.
If you can, if the weather permits, like have it set outside for a couple days before moving it in and all this.
And that your furniture's got to air out and off gas.
Well, you know, it's crazy.
it's like, why don't we have better furniture standards?
Like, why is it that there can be like off gassing and all of these chemicals?
And it comes from like the composite furniture.
It's the adhesive glue that's in there.
These things, even chemical flame retardants that your mattress is treated with or the
couch is treated with, like this all gets suspended back into the air and can be very irritating.
So anyway, the air filter should be activated carbon to get rid of those volatile organic compounds that are circulating around as well as like small particles.
like smoke and things like that.
Then you also want a HEPA filter as well
because that's what's going to capture the allergens.
So you want it to be those two things.
If it's not, what can happen with an air filter
or air purifier is it sucks in this air.
It doesn't have the proper filtration system.
And then the air goes back up
and recirculates with all that junk inside of it.
So you really want to be careful with your air purifier.
Well, someone tell RFK,
we need a furniture chemical division of Maha.
I think. It's the same thing. It's like we're talking about the ultra-processed foods.
We're talking about the synthetic fragrance as present in cosmetics and the preservatives are in cosmetics.
And then the third bucket is the stuff that we're bringing into our home.
Bringing into the home and also building our homes with. Exactly.
And there's no standards.
No standards. Yeah. Yeah. In California, they at least have a standard that says this contains something that will be harmful to your respiratory
health. But it's the only state that even requires it. Yeah, we need to look into that.
And at least it's a label.
I mean, it's a label. We're still not saying you can't have it just as you have to make people aware of it.
Right. But why is that only the standard in one state and then everywhere else? You don't require that.
Good questions you're asking. Not okay. How reliable are at-home allergy tests compared to what you do in the clinic? And then when should people skip the DIY kits?
So the science has gotten a lot better with the DIY allergy kits. But like let's start here with you can have a skin test or you can have a blood test, right? And then within blood tests, you can have either a blood drop.
or you can have a finger prick test, right?
So the DII kits that you can have in your home are a finger prick test.
So this is a newer science, but it's gotten really good where you squeeze a little bit of
out and you put it on blotting paper and they send it to the lab.
There have been validation studies that show that certain test kits are almost as good as having a
blood draw.
So like the science has gotten pretty good.
So basically like directionally accurate, right?
If it's a positive test, you can trust that you likely have what we call a sensitization,
and then we correlate that with your history.
So there's value in just the finger prick tests, right?
Blood draw versus the skin prick test that we would do in the doctor's office, pretty much equivalent.
We used to say that a skin prick test that's done in the doctor's office, and what that is
is we give you, we take the tiny allergenic proteins, we drop it on your skin, and then we literally prick your skin.
We like scratch your skin.
and then you get it like all these welts on you.
We used to say that that was more likely to pick up more allergens or more allergies.
Now the science is such that we say the blood test is just as good.
And the benefit of the blood draw test is that you don't have to stop taking your allergy medicines in order to do it.
Because when you're taking something like an antihistamine like a Zyrtec or a Clarogen or something and you have the skin prick test, it'll blunt the response.
You won't react because you have antihistamines in you.
I'm sure that you've had to help solve like some really mysterious allergies.
situations before. So how do you play detective when the allergy trigger isn't super obvious?
It's like why I became a doctor. It's like the most fun thing because you just have to listen
and you have to like be really attentive and be like, okay, what were you doing on this day?
Like who were you with? Where were you? What were you eating? What were you wearing? Like it's so
multifactorial. I have people react to like their wool clothing, you know, and they thought, oh my gosh,
I had hives from a food. And it was like, no, I was wearing this.
new Angora Wool sweater that I just got from like Brazil or whatever. And like, you know,
it's like, where's the location of your rash? You know, have you eaten those foods again and
then not have an allergy? Okay, so the foods are ruled out. So it's real detective work.
When it comes to food allergy, the hardest ones to diagnose are spice allergy. And about
2% of the population will have that. And I mean like you're allergic to you, garlic powder,
onion powder, cinnamon, some kind of spice. What a horrible hell to live in. So we've had to go to like,
restaurants and be like, okay, what's the ingredient list? And like, compare the list. Was there a
different chef on that day? Did you run out of a particular oil? Did you run out of it? Did you
swap out of spice and like interview people? But it's like really fun. You're partnering with the
patient and then you're using your expertise to be like, okay, well, what about this? Like, let's go
down this rabbit hole together. Let's go down that rabbit hole together. And you kind of just like look at
things from every angle to identify what the trigger is. Then the other thing that's really important is like
to have access. And it's sort of why I got.
into digital health and telemedicine because it's like, I want to know exactly when this reaction
happens if it happens again. Like, call me. FaceTime me, right? So we're able to be like,
oh my gosh, it happened again. Where are you? Okay, FaceTime me. Let's look around. Let's assess the
situation. And then you're able to be like, it's that hanging tapestry you have in your bedroom that's
like whatever, full of dust that's probably triggering your symptoms. Like, oh my gosh, I can't
believe we didn't realize this because I was asking you about carpets and I wasn't asking about
a tapestry you had hanging. So stuff like that where you get the environmental context. You're like there with the patient.
Did you have a severe allergies at why you decided to become an allergist?
No, it was most, I'll tell you, a little bit of lifestyle, right?
There's not, like, huge emergency.
So that's one piece, which, like, I don't care what anyone, doctor says.
Like, they think about, like, what their life's going to be like, right?
So it was that piece where I wanted something where I had, like, a lifestyle where I wasn't, like, in the emergency room or in the operating room or in the hospital all the time.
And then the second was when you're an allergist, you're also an immunologist, right?
So you really understand the basic science of how the immune system works.
So we don't really talk about that much, but we deal with like really rare disorders,
what we call primary immune deficiencies.
We can understand why certain people are like more prone to different types of infections
where they may have deficiencies in certain immune system cells and things like that.
So that was super like I like to geek out on that stuff.
And then I loved like the whole diagnostic dilemma.
And you also have two little kids.
What are you feeding your kids in their first year of life to make sure that you're strengthening
their immune system and helping with allergies and stuff?
Anything that's not a choking hazard, and if it's a choking hazard, I smush it up.
Yeah.
And I also, the other-
Nothing's off limits.
No.
What about honey?
Great.
I mean, unless you're, like, a concern that, like, you're feeding them raw honey
and there's a risk of, like, some sort of infection or something like that.
Or, you know, you want to be, like, concerned from that perspective as their immune system isn't developed.
So you don't want to, like, introduce things that maybe, like, haven't been pasteurized and stuff like that because they're more prone to picking up a virus developing an infection.
But other than that.
So are you anti-raw milk for kids under one?
There's always a risk benefit, right? Some people would say, like, well, I appreciate the immune
benefit, right? Great. Also understand that there's a risk of infection. Like, you make that
decision, you make that choice. Yeah. Does stress amplify allergies? Oh, my gosh. Think about
what happens when you're stressed out. Doesn't your face get all red and you get all flush because
you have an dilation of your blood vessels, opening up of your blood vessels, and then all the blood,
sorry, all the blood rushes, right, to your face, to your cheeks and everything.
We've seen people who break out in hives or have like worsening of their allergy attacks due
to distress. Absolutely.
So I'm getting my hair done the other day, just catching up with my stylist and mid-trimmed.
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Something new?
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What is a case that really stumped you in your career but felt amazing to solve?
Well, it felt amazing for me, but not as much for the patient.
So I had this patient. I was in private practice on Park Avenue and she was like, I'm getting hives. I keep getting hives everywhere. And she would come in and it would look like she'd like these waltz on her body and we like couldn't figure it out. She's like I've tried different like food elimination diets. I've changed all my detergents. We did like every test under the sun, environmental allergy testing, food allergy testing. You name it patch testing, which evaluates you for like an allergic reaction to like a personal product, everything. We couldn't identify.
what the triggers were. Then one day she comes in and I'm looking at her hives and I'm like,
I don't know if those are hives. And they had like this very interesting distribution of like
linear one hive, the next hive, the next hive, right? And I'm like, oh my God, I think these
are bed bugs. Oh! And I so, and you know what I had, I made an assumption on her because she was
like always stressed really well and always talking about these fancy vacation she was going on. And
She had her Chanel bag and all this.
And I was like, surely she, like, couldn't have bed bugs in her fancy.
You're 100%.
So, whoa.
That's juicy.
And she was, and what was crazy, like, the reason why originally we sort of ruled it out was
because her husband was sleeping in the same bed as her.
They did everything together.
Like, why wouldn't he have bedbugs?
But the truth is, it relates to somebody's core body temperature.
And her core body temperature, she's going through menopause was warmer.
And the bugs just liked her better.
Wow.
And so he was totally fine.
and she had bedbugs.
Has anybody ever been allergic to their partner?
You can be allergic to their semen.
Really?
Yeah, it's a thing.
Tell us about that.
How'd you figure, has somebody, like, figure that out?
You can have anaphylaxis to.
And then what happens for those married couples?
Well, you can get immunotherapy if you're so inclined to take small amounts of what you're allergic to.
Right.
That's wild.
Yeah, it's a true thing.
I was just kind of being funny.
I thought there's no way.
It's a real thing.
Whoa.
Okay.
Are we nearing a future at all where allergies can be completely prevented or cured?
There's hope for people with food allergies, as I mentioned before, to provide them with therapies
that can calm their immune system down so you don't have to worry about accidental ingestions.
And that's like around the corner.
The first therapeutic has already been approved.
It's already used for the treatment of other allergic diseases.
So there's like value there.
I don't think in terms of environmental allergies that it's going, well,
or food allergies is going to get any better.
For environmental allergies, part of the problem is it's not even like an true allergy to something.
It's an irritant because what happens is this pollen.
There's more and more pollen in the air.
We've had above average temperatures, more rainfall.
So pollen season is lasting longer.
The pollen will then bind to things like diesel exhaust and other pollutants in the air.
And so it's irritating to everybody.
So we're probably going to see more of what we call like irritant allergy versus like a true,
it's in my blood allergy antibody.
So that's one where I think environmental allergies
and like our outdoor air quality,
we're going to continue to have challenges.
Same thing with indoor air quality.
The second piece I'm going to say right now
that it concerns me is all this nut-free stuff at schools.
Yes.
We're going to make the same mistake that we made with peanut allergy
because we are removing nuts from places.
So what happens?
Parents are like, well, I'm not going to buy a snack
that has nuts in it because I can't even bring it to my kid's school.
I'd have to have it labeled.
Like, forget it.
I'm just not going to have nuts in my house, right?
And so we're essentially creating, like, populations of children that avoid nuts.
So what's going to happen?
We're going to see an increase in nut allergy.
If someone is not allergic, right?
They're not going to breathe nut from the air because somebody three tables over is eating
something with hazelnut in it.
It's just, like, not how that works.
Same thing with peanut.
You would have to be, like, have a paper bag over your head and have someone, like,
spray a bunch of, like, peanut powder into the bag.
order for you to react to it. It'd be like saying, like, I'm not going to let my peanut allergic
child walk down an aisle at the supermarket because there might be some foods there or whatever.
Well, they don't serve it on planes anymore, you know? So here's the concern. I complete, I'm an
allergist. I absolutely respect that we want to, like, avoid children with not allergies having
accidental ingestion, right? And we also don't want to stigmatize children with not allergies
where they're like, oh, you're at the special table. But like, how about we use proper, like,
and hygiene, how about we just have like just conversations about, oh, I have an allergy I'm going to
sit here or whatever, right? And like, desigmatize it that way as opposed to removing nuts from our
environment because I'm telling you right now you're going to have more nut allergies.
Yeah. Yep. I think you're exactly right on that. It's the same thing that happened with peanut.
Yep. Don't, don't introduce it into the environment and remove it from the environment, see what happens.
What is one simple action that every listener can take today to get a handle on their allergies
or boost their immune health with no doctor needed.
If it's environmental allergies, then just doing a nasal ceiling spray.
Like, think about, I wash my hands.
I'm going to wash out my nasal passages.
It's as simple as that.
That's helpful.
Yeah, so what is your social media?
It's Dr. Tanya Elliott.
Very easy.
And you have all kinds of content on there talking about all this kind of stuff,
lots of tips and tricks for those people that are really trying to be allergies.
Is there anything that people should know about actually working with you
and a personal capacity as their doctor?
The biggest thing is, like, I'm really big proponent of health education.
So if there's a topic that you're interested in that you want me to do the detective work for,
that you want to learn more about, is it metabolic health, is it weight loss, is it longevity,
is it whatever?
Like, DM me and let's get into it.
And I'll do the research.
We'll do a post about it.
And I want to empower you, right?
I think the biggest thing to avoid your allergies, to feel healthier or better is empowerment
with knowledge.
It's the biggest thing you can do for yourself.
Now, I ask every single guest this at the end of the show, if you could provide one remedy
to heal a sick culture, physically, emotionally, or spiritually, what would it be?
Oh my gosh, that's such like a hard question, but it's such an important one.
I think it's prioritization of self-care and like putting yourself before anyone else.
Because if you're not showing up as your best version of yourself or if you're playing small,
you're not doing a service to your loved ones, to yourself, or to society.
I love that. I love that. Dr. Elliott, thanks for coming on culture apothecary.
Thanks for having me.
Who's ready to tackle spring allergies or give their baby peanut butter?
Remember peanut butter baby?
Yeah.
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