The Latest News from Dr. Linda Dahl
May 2023
Hello beloved patients, friends, and colleagues,
Can you believe this weekend is already Memorial Day? What’s even more surprising is how bad spring allergies have been this season. In this newsletter, I’ve included an article I wrote last year explaining why allergy season keeps getting worse.
In Broadway news, it’s Tony Season! Read about some of the shows below and help support the Broadway community.
For fun, I’ve also included one of my favorite articles called Why Your Favorite Foods Taste So Good.
Exciting news coming next month about the Better Breastfeeding platform and website! Enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend (or 5-show weekend!)
Love,
Dr. Dahl
In ENT News:
Is Allergy Season Getting Worse Every Year?
Every spring, news outlets seem to recycle the same message: This is the worst allergy season on record. At first glance, the headlines may seem dramatic. But, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation, they are actually true. In the last year, 19.2 million adults and 5.2 million children in the United States suffered from hay fever. Allergy season is getting worse every year. And the reasons why may surprise you.
Before delving in, let’s first consider the types of environmental allergies and what causes them. Environmental allergy symptoms happen when we breathe in particles that trigger an allergic reaction in our eyes, noses, throats, and lungs. Those reactions can result in sneezing; nasal congestion and drip; watery, itchy eyes; sore throat; and asthma. Environmental allergies can be divided into groups like indoor, outdoor, seasonal, and year-round. The most common causes of year-round allergies are mold spores, dust mites, cockroaches, cat and dog dander, and rodent urine — allergens that are present indoors and out.
Seasonal allergies, those that flare up in the fall and spring, are caused by weed pollen, tree pollen, and grass pollen. Seasonal allergies are mostly outdoor, but pets and shoes can track those allergens inside too.
When considering seasonal allergies, pollen is the main culprit. Pollen is the dust or tiny seeds produced by the male parts of flowering trees, plants, and grasses. Because these plants can’t move on their own, they rely on wind, water, and insects to carry their seeds to females. In other words, pollen is how baby trees and plants are made. Amazingly, the outer layer of each pollen grain is very resistant to damage, remaining intact despite intense heat, chemicals, or other exposures. Pollen is only produced during certain times of the year, called growing seasons. Trees usually begin producing pollen in January, this peaks in early spring and stops in June. Grass pollen usually peaks in late spring or early summer in northern states, but it can be year-round in the south. Weed pollen is produced in late summer and fall in all states, but mostly in the East and Midwest.
So, why is allergy season getting worse every year? The main reason is climate change. Warmer air temperatures and shifts in precipitation patterns are making growing seasons longer. This means trees and plants make more pollen for longer periods of time. A recent study showed that North America’s pollen season in 2018 was already 20 days longer than it was in 1990. Carbon dioxide emissions, another consequence of climate change, cause even more of an impact. Carbon dioxide drives photosynthesis, helping trees and plants grow larger and produce even more pollen.
Another potential culprit is something called Botanical Sexism. Although its existence is debated, the theory goes like this. Tree specialists often recommend male plants in urban areas because they don’t shed messy seeds, pods, or fruits. What they do shed is pollen. Without nearby female trees to “catch” the pollen, it is free to fly through the air and up our noses.
Wholesale and commercial tree growers have created clonal males never before seen in nature, such as seedless Cyprus, shrubs, and junipers. They even made all-male hanging plants. In urban areas, this means we have an overabundance of male trees making an overabundance of pollen. While pollen does blow around, most of it lands within 20–30 feet of its source. Urban landscape design has therefore inadvertently created an epidemic of allergies and asthma in our cities.
And finally, there is Vitamin D deficiency to consider.
Vitamin D can come through your diet, from foods such as fortified dairy products and cereals, but is primarily produced when your skin is exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D works as a hormone in the body and has many functions, one of which is preventing allergy and asthma symptoms. Vitamin D deficiency, which happens in 42% of the US population, can therefore worsen allergies. Some populations, like perimenopausal women, people over 65, those who avoid the sun, those who take heartburn medicine, and those who have gut absorption issues, or kidney or liver disease, have even higher rates of Vitamin D deficiency. People with darker skin are particularly at risk because melanin reduces the skin’s ability to make Vitamin D from sunlight. In colder climates, after a long, dark winter, the majority of people have some degree of Vitamin D deficiency, which makes their reaction to an overdose of spring pollen even worse.
While allergies are getting worse every year, there are some strategies you can use to prepare and protect yourself. Stay tuned for my next article to find out what you can do about it.
Why Your Favorite Foods Taste So Good
As far back as I can remember, I’ve experienced the world primarily through my mouth. When I was young, I used to scramble up to the kitchen counter to consume slice after slice of warm, homemade bread slathered in salty butter. My first bite into a gingersnap was a revelation, the crisp shell giving way to the chewy, aromatic center by the simple movement of tongue and jaw. My sense of taste felt extrasensory–a superpower meant for more than mere sustenance. Reeling in bliss, I felt perversely grateful that something–one thing–could give me so much pleasure.
Not everyone has the same experience. Our sense of taste is complex. But whether you’re the average person with 4000 taste buds or a super taster with nearly 10,000, it all starts with chemical reactions.
We sense the five basic tastes–sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami–through chemoreceptors in our tastebuds. Tastebuds are located primarily on our tongue, but they are also sprinkled all over our mouth, digestive system, and even testes, although those taste receptors aren’t connected to your brain.
Each chemoreceptor has its own unique sensitivity, making some able to taste more salty than sweet and others, more sour than bitter. Some sense combinations of tastes, like whatever Sour Patch kids are. But basic taste is just the foundation.
There is also the way food feels in our mouths. Temperature matters (consider cold pizza or hot ice cream.) As does texture. (Crunchy tastes different than chewy. Just ask bacon. And potato chips.) We have receptors for these other sensations all over our mouths as well.
The five tastes with differing intensity levels combined with all the other sensations provide us with endless combinations.
But wait — there’s more
Taste is really a combination of nearly all our senses. Our nose adds flavor by way of smell, and flavor is, arguably, the most important part. When you chew, aroma molecules go up your nose through the back of your throat where they activate odor receptors. There are almost 400 kinds of those, helping us distinguish Morbier from Comte and Merlot from Pinot Noir. Our eyes and ears play a part too, by sensing how food looks and the way it sounds when we chew. Can you imagine eating yellow blueberries or quiet Rice Krispies? Neither can I.
All this talk of stimulating receptors may sound super complicated and sciencey, but the real question is this: How do we decide what we like to eat? And why, in my case, does it feel like heaven is in my mouth?
To answer this question, my doctor brain has to first drain the soul out of it.
So here goes:
The sensory profile of a given food goes to different parts of our brain, the most primal being the basal brain–the part needed for survival. So if something tastes like poison or spoiled milk, our basal brain tells us not to swallow it. Other signals go to higher functioning areas, like the ventral forebrain, which controls emotions and memories, or the dorsal region, which makes us crave certain flavors. Once those neuronal connections are laid down, a given food will trigger an emotional memory. If the memory is pleasant, our brain makes us want to eat it. If it’s negative, we’ll want to spit it out.
In other words, remember when you were a kid, and you had birthday cake for the first time? It smelled sweet and looked pretty. The flavor was delicious, and the burst of sugar made you feel amazing. Creamy frosting provided a smooth texture for the moist crumbly cake. From that moment on, every time you encountered a birthday cake, you likely remembered your first time. You feel happy. You want to eat it. And so you eat it, and when you do, you feel even happier, creating a positive feedback loop. Maybe Marie Antoinette, in her twisted wisdom, was onto something.
This neural loop also explains why dieting is so hard. We are hard-wired to eat food that tastes good. There’s even a science behind making foods with the perfect combination of sweet, salty, and fatty to make our brains crave it. It’s called the bliss point. It’s why we have Cheetos.
There is yet another, hormonal, component to the way food makes us feel. When we eat carbohydrates, like bread and ice cream, they are broken down to sugars in our gut. The increase in blood sugar makes our brain release serotonin, a hormone that makes us feel sleepy, content, and safe. It’s why a big bowl of pasta after a long day at work is so enticing.
Taste isn’t simply one thing. In my case, it is the entryway to my inside world. Anytime I need to feel something, I can spin through my compendium of memories and choose a flavor. A little chocolate for pleasure. Fried chicken for relief. I can escape into a bowl of truffled fettucini alfredo or cry into a roast pork sandwich. And since eating is something I need to do every day, the fun never ends. I can wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.
In Broadway News:
It is Tony season, which means Broadway is celebrating the new shows of the season. The Tony Awards made their debut at the Waldorf Astoria on Sunday, April 6, 1947. They were first broadcast on national television in 1967. This year they will take place on Sunday, June 11, broadcast live from 6:30-8pm on Pluto TV and 8pm on CBS & Paramount+. Here are this year’s nominees for best musical.
Shucked-A corn-fed, corn-bred American musical from the hottest names on Broadway and Nashville! See the hilarious new musical about the battle for the heart & soil of a small town.
Kimberly Akimbo-Kimberly is about to turn 16 and recently moved with her family to a new town in suburban New Jersey. In this “howlingly funny heartbreaker of a show” (The New Yorker), Kim is forced to navigate family dysfunction, a rare genetic condition, her first crush…and possible felony charges. Ever the optimist, she is determined to find happiness against all odds and embark on a great adventure.
Some Like It Hot-Set in Chicago when Prohibition has everyone thirsty for a little excitement, SOME LIKE IT HOT is the “glorious, big, high-kicking” (Associated Press) story of two musicians forced to flee the Windy City after witnessing a mob hit. With gangsters hot on their heels, they catch a cross-country train for the life-chasing, life-changing trip of a lifetime. All aboard Broadway’s great big musical comedy!
New York, New York-A group of New Yorkers come together to chase their dreams of music, money, and love in the new Broadway musical as spectacular as the city itself. If they can make it there, they’ll make it anywhere.
& Juliet-This hilarious new musical flips the script on the greatest love story ever told. & Juliet asks: what would happen next if Juliet didn’t end it all over Romeo? Get whisked away on a fabulous journey as she ditches her famous ending for a fresh beginning and a second chance at life and love—her way.
If you’d like to read more of my articles, you can access my Medium page here. You can become a Medium member here.
To Make an Appointment:
EMAIL: info@drlindadahl.com
CALL 212-920-3047
We are available by phone Monday through Friday.
Office hours:
Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, 9 am to 5 pm
Office location:
535 5th Avenue, 32nd Floor, NY, NY 10017
(Entrance on 44th Street between Madison Ave and 5th Ave)