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[ad_1] London  — Spring is in the air, and so is misery for millions of seasonal allergy sufferers . Stopping to smell the flowers can lead to sneezing, watery eyes or worse for Londoner Alex Hill. "It's like stuffy nose, sinus headaches, like nosebleeds," he told CBS News as he walked his dog Roxie through a park in the British capital. But scientists in the U.K. say they've found a better way to measure exactly what makes people like Hill miserable, and they're hoping it can lead to more useful advice than the currently available pollen counts. Researchers at King's College London and Imperial College London believe measuring and reporting the levels of airborne grass allergens, instead of the pollen particles that carry the tiny offenders, could be more beneficial for hay fever sufferers. For years, hay fever sufferers have monitored peak pollen count times in a bid to help manage their symptoms. But authors of the...

[ad_1] The scientific understanding of why some people are more susceptible to allergies than others is being strengthened by new studies. The University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine researchers discovered how genetic variations that change a particular protein called ETS1 can affect how our bodies react to allergens. They discovered that in an animal model, even minor alterations in ETS1 can enhance the likelihood of allergic reactions that result in inflammation. The results were reported in Immunity. Allergies are the sixth most common cause of chronic illness in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, costing the country more than USD 18 billion annually.  It is still unknown how our DNA can alter our chances of acquiring an allergy, despite the fact that prior research has proven a strong genetic basis for allergies and discovered specific genetic sequence differences that predispose for these chronic diseas...