B. Steele Rolston,
M.D.
Asthma, Allergy and Immunology, Ltd.
Covington and Metairie, La.
893-5780 887-5500
Allergy directly affects about 17% of the population. The direct
cost of treating allergic rhinitis ( “hay fever” ) is
approximately 4.6 billion dollars yearly. Allergic asthma is responsible
for around 12.4 billion dollars in direct costs yearly. But what
about indirect costs? Many studies have addressed the costs of
missed work because of illness to an employee or the child they
have to stay home with. Are there other costs?
Studies by educational psychologists have shown that allergic
individuals tend to have significantly higher I.Q. scores than
non-allergic individuals. However, test scores ( L.E.A.P., C.A.T.,
A.C.T., S.A.T., etc. ) seem to gradually get lower as allergic
students get older. Why? The answer is simply that allergic students
just do not feel well enough to pay attention in class. Their
concentration suffers and so does their homework and learning
ability. As education is something that is built on little by
little, year after year, the knowledge base does not keep up with
the students “educational age.”
There
is now a suggestion that many ( but certainly not all ) students
with labels such as A.D.D., A.D.H.D., learning impaired, behavior
disordered, etc. may be misdiagnosed. Many of these students may
just not feel well. In days gone by the “cure” frequently
caused drowsiness, fatigue, and a whole host of side effects that
also caused learning difficulties as well. This is no longer the
case. New advances in avoidance and medical therapies now allow
the physician and patient to form a “medical team” with
near normal function as the primary goal.
This is the
information that the public needs to optimize the educational
experience. The time for this information to be disseminated is
now at the beginning of a new school year before the fall ragweed
season flares up too much.
