Digital Health Trial: Can Artificial Intelligence Predict Your Risk of Allergies?

Environmental allergies - and their close relative seasonal allergies - can make a huge impact on your day-to-day life.

But there aren 't any easy answers when it comes to allergies. What really causes them? Is there a foolproof remedy?

While there’s still work to be done, artificial intelligence and digital health trials are tools that could help us better answer these questions.

Or in other words, compiling tons of medical research to find more actionable treatment is the best path forward to date to help allergy sufferers everywhere.

In this brief overview, you’ll learn the ins and outs of allergies, why they happen, and how you could get to know your condition better through the doc.ai medical companion app.

And most importantly, you’ll learn about how you can contribute to finding a solution that benefits us all and each of us.

So to get started, let’s look closer at what causes different types of allergies.

An allergy is an abnormal response to a normally harmless substance called an allergen. This can be a tree, dust mites, nuts, or almost anything else.

For unknown reasons, when these substances come into contact with your body, your immune system identifies them as invaders.

This kicks off a defensive chain reaction of chemicals, which usually manifests in something called a histamine reaction.



This is when the histamine compound is released into our body, resulting in a series of symptoms that range from merely irritating to seriously life-threatening.

And as we’ve noted, this process can be replicated with many different substances that often don’t seem to have any rhyme or reason.

However, throughout time, medical professionals have been able to pinpoint some common types of allergies, so we’ll look at those next.

Allergies don’t all fit under the same umbrella, and it helps to know the difference. Here are five of the most common types of allergies:

1. Environmental Allergies

The most common of all types of allergies fall under the environmental allergies category. These are cases when something in your surrounding context causes a histamine reaction and thus results in general unpleasantness.

Some of the most common environmental allergens include pollen, dust mites, pets, and mold. Those aren’t an exhaustive list by any means though.

Environmental allergies also include a subset known as seasonal allergies that are more geographical and temporal in nature. We’ll talk more in-depth on both of these allergy types later on, as they’re the current focus of allergy AI research.

2. Food Allergies

Food allergies are another common type of allergy that affects millions of individuals.

Much like environmental allergies, these reactions are caused when a substance enters or comes into contact with your body. For some reason, an unexpected response takes place, ranging from mild to severe.

Common food allergies include nuts, dairy (or lactose), and shellfish, although again that list isn’t extensive.

3. Drug Allergies

Drug Allergies are an adverse reaction to any type of medicine. It doesn’t matter if the medication is a pill, a liquid, or an injection. If it causes a reaction that’s not indicated by your doctor or pharmacist, then you could be allergic to that particular drug.

Common drug allergies include:

Penicillin
Sulfa drugs
Aspirin, ibuprofen, or similar NSAIDs
Chemotherapy drugs

But again, your body could potentially respond to other types of drugs with reactions that range from mild to severe. It’s best to work with your healthcare provider and an allergist in these cases.

As we’ve already touched on, environmental allergies generally refer to allergies that are caused by substances in your surrounding environment rather than a food or drug that you have taken.

The immune system in your skin may react differently to the immune system in your gut and as a result, may have different reactions.

The good thing about environmental allergies is that they’re generally more of a nuisance than anything. That means they’re not typically life-threatening, and that’s always a plus.

Only, if you’ve ever lived with environmental allergies, you know that innocuous doesn’t mean easy to live with. Environmental allergies are often persistent, come back year after year (or never leave), and are usually treated with over the counter medicines.

But one of the more deceptive sides of environmental allergies is that they’re often mistaken for the common cold.

This can lead to early misdiagnosis if you’re not too careful and may prolong your suffering. With how long the symptoms could potentially last, that’s never a good thing.

It can also be relatively difficult to pinpoint what exactly in your environment is causing the reaction, which is why environmental allergies are a prime subject of research.

Seasonal allergies can be thought of as a subset of environmental allergies, as common allergens may change depending on the season.

In most cases, pollens from trees and grasses are the main culprits here. The only upside of that is that you can usually get some relief when the seasons change, although you may still occasionally experience a flare-up.

Seasonal allergies are a global phenomenon too, which means that no matter who you are or where you live, you can suffer from them. Their near-ubiquitous nature makes them a prime target for allergy research.

And one of the main questions that many allergy sufferers live by is a very understandable one: What month is allergy season?

The answer depends on where you live and what types of plants are growing nearby.

For example, many moderate climates that see light winters and hotter, wetter summers will see more mold and ragweed allergens in the airways.

On the other hand, longer, colder winters that burst quickly into lush springtimes are more likely to have higher pollen counts from grasses and trees.

So the answer is, unfortunately, “it depends.”

At the very least, it pays to be aware of common seasonal allergy symptoms. For example, seasonal allergies can make you tired, cause mood swings, or affect your blood pressure.

But by knowing the symptoms to look for, you can more easily stay aware of your body and seek a remedy before symptoms compound and begin to detract from daily life.

It’s also a good idea to learn what elements of your climate help contribute to or detract from your potential allergens.

So for instance, you may want to know some of the facts that affect allergen counts from day to day:

Plants like grass, trees, or ragweeds produce pollen and thrive in moderate environments.
Molds grow in places with moderate to high heat and lots of humidity.
There are elevated pollen counts in the morning due to cooler night temperatures.
The cycle of rain, no pollen, and then resurgent pollen.
On windy days, pollen is blown from trees and plants to become airborne.

By keeping all of this in mind, you’re better able to assess your seasonal allergies and take action as early as possible.

But now that you know what to look for with environmental and seasonal allergies, let’s take a step back and look at how innovative technologies like AI are helping allergy sufferers get relief.

The doc.ai app is the ultimate result of the data and research trials we’ve been discussing in this post.

But how does it work, and what all do you need to know in order to join?

To get things started, you’ll need to download the web or iOS app. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll need to fill in some basic information about your health.

Once you’ve provided the basics, you’ll select to join the digital health trial.

But as you can see, you’ll need to submit the required Omics as well. If you use Apple Health or a Fitbit, these are simple additions that take only a few moments.

You’ll also be asked to complete a quick survey in the app, as well as some either daily or weekly surveys that let us keep up with your progress and data.

All of this will simply collect data from different sources and store it in a password secured profile.

By connecting all of your life data in a structured way, you can build an analytics-based approach to your health.

Under this one app, you can keep your data with you where it belongs. The AI then helps guide you through the collection and interpretation, and provides the opportunity to opt in or out of the global digital health trials.





Whether you opt in or out of the digital health trials, the benefits for you are still immense. By using the app you’ll have a more comprehensive view of your health and a path forward to an even better life.

And if you do join the research program, you’ll have access to even more health predictions and possibilities that take into account your uniqueness.

Plus, as a participant you’ll also be able to tap into a reward-driven data collection program that gives benefits in addition to your good health. We’re currently building a points-based reward system that will help you acquire new tools that improve your overall health.

But most importantly, using doc.ai will help you accelerate research in important areas.

Your data will have an unprecedented amount of value, and you can be rewarded as you strive for better health.