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You're
Never too Old to Get Allergies
No
matter hold old you are, your immune system is
constantly in a state of flux. In fact, you can
be exposed to something over and over again, with
no allergic response, t hen 1 day, boom! Don Heiney
is a renaissance man, a wine-making, computer
expert who recently moved to the country. Don
Heiney, allergy sufferer: "W e moved right
about the time this all flared up. We bought this
house and we had been living in town, so the allergist
was telling me, you know, stay away from the trees,
stay away from open farmland. Yeah, right, I just
bought a house in the country." Don has had
mild allergies since childhood, b ut his wife''s
beautiful Arabian horse sent him reeling as an
adult. Don Heiney: "My sinuses lit right
up, my eyes started watering, my sinuses filled
up, it was just horrible." Horrible enough
to send him galloping to an allergy specialist.
Dr. Ted Gaylor, MD: "A t some point in time,
the repeated exposure triggers that process, makes
known, not necessarily occurs at a young age or
an old age, it can occur anytime." At 52,
Don had reached his breaking point with the horse.
Don Heiney: "When that threshold is reached,
you get enough of a release of histamine that
you become symptomatic, and whether it''s a horse
or a tree or grass or whatever it is, those types
of allergies occur in that fashion." After
trying various prescription allergy medications,
Don opted for allergy shots. He also makes fewer
trips to the barn. Don Heiney: "I don''t
go up there nearly as often as I used to or would
like to." Don''s best buddies, the dogs,
don''t mind the extra attention, and his case
just proves allergies can strike at any age.
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