General health

A pleasant smell and an hour of quiet genuinely make people feel better. Aromatherapy does not treat illness — a 2024 synthesis of the trial evidence could draw no confident conclusion for any condition — and the claim that essential oils are safer than synthetic fragrance is the reverse of the truth.

What allergen immunotherapy is, which allergies it helps and which it does not, how injections and daily tablets differ, and how it is actually accessed in the UK.

Allergic and irritant contact dermatitis are different conditions with different causes and different answers. What causes each, why antihistamines do little for either, and what patch testing can settle.

Why most sting reactions are not allergic, how to tell a large local reaction from anaphylaxis, what to do in the first minutes, and when a bite or sting needs checking.

Where animal allergen actually comes from, why it turns up in homes with no pet, whether any breed is genuinely hypoallergenic, and which avoidance measures are worth the effort if the animal is staying.

Where the allergen actually is, why symptoms run all year rather than seasonally, and an honest account of which avoidance measures the evidence supports — which is fewer than most advice suggests.

Which pollen is airborne in which month, what the weather does to pollen counts, how to treat hay fever in the order that actually works, and why indoor mould is a damp problem rather than a cleaning one.

Why most hives are not allergic, how to recognise them, what separates acute from chronic urticaria, and the swelling that counts as an emergency.

The symptoms allergy produces, the one feature that most reliably points to it, and the conditions it is most often confused with — colds, non-allergic rhinitis, sinusitis, irritant rashes and intolerance.