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Inherited Allergies

In many cases, allergy sufferers can thank Mom and Dad for their allergic misery! If one parent has allergies, a child has a 40 percent chance of inheriting them. That number leaps to 75 percent when both parents have allergies.

Allergies occur when the body mistakes a harmless allergen (such as pollen or pet dander) for a harmful substance. It then overreacts by releasing chemicals such as histamine into the body to fight the allergens off. This move is designed to help the body, but it really ends up depleting its resources and leading to a host of uncomfortable allergy symptoms including wheezing, upset stomach, skin rashes, red eyes, itchiness, runny nose, eczema, hives, or asthma attacks.

But just because someone inherited allergies doesn’t mean they are stuck with them. The main option for immunotherapy used to be shots which can be painful and require patients to drive to the doctor’s office a couple times a week for shots. (Who has time?) But now there are alternatives including sublingual immunotherapy or SLIT. SLIT works much like allergy shots except instead of being injected, the allergy serum can be deposited under the tongue where it absorbs into the bloodstream. It’s safer than shots, so it can be taken at home rather than at the doctor’s office.

AllergyEasy offers sublingual immunotherapy through a network of physicians around the country. Contact AllergyEasy to learn more.

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About The Author

Stuart H. Agren, M.D.

Stuart H. Agren, M.D. completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Utah and went on to earn his Doctor of Medicine from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1974. He completed additional training at L.D.S. Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah and then established his private medical practice starting in 1975. Dr. Agren completed a mini-residency in Industrial Medicine at the Robert Johnson School of Medicine at Rutgers University and also completed training to become a certified Medical Review Officer.

Dr. Agren was the Medical Director at TRW and McDonnell Douglas in Mesa, Arizona and at Stauffer Chemical and Kennecott Copper in Salt Lake City, Utah. He also served as an adjunct faculty member at Arizona State University.

In his private medical practice, Dr. Agren specialized in family practice and allergy. In his work as a private practice allergist, he was one of the first doctors in the country to prescribe sublingual immunotherapy to his patients as an alternative to subcutaneous immunotherapy (allergy shots). He has also been a trailblazer in the field of food allergy treatment and research, developing a program to treat multiple food allergies simultaneously using sublingual immunotherapy. Dr. Agren has been featured on local CBS, NBC, and ABC news affiliates and won the peer-nominated “Top Doc” award from Phoenix Magazine.

After 20 years in private practice, Dr. Agren became the Founder and President of AllergyEasy, which helps primary care physicians around the country offer allergy testing and sublingual immunotherapy treatment to their patients. Over 200 physicians in over 32 states use the AllergyEasy program to help their patients overcome environmental and food allergies and asthma.