“Common Allergies in Sjögren’s Disease” — A4 Infographic
Every time I’ve brought an unusual symptom to a doctor who wasn’t already familiar with Sjögren’s, I’ve gotten some version of the same look — the one that says this probably isn’t related. Sometimes it wasn’t. Often, it was.
So I went looking for actual data, not anecdotes. This infographic summarizes one real, peer-reviewed cohort study comparing allergic conditions in 292 Sjögren’s patients against 413 patients with rheumatoid arthritis: 54.8% of Sjögren’s patients reported at least one allergic condition, compared to 34.9% in the rheumatoid arthritis group. Allergic rhinitis showed up almost four times more often. Contact allergies, on the other hand, showed no statistically significant difference — and I kept that finding in, because leaving out the inconvenient numbers isn’t honesty, it’s marketing.
This is association, not causation, and it’s one study, not the final word. But if you’ve been told your symptoms don’t add up, this might be worth printing out for your next appointment.
Source
Higashida-Konishi et al., “Allergic disorders and their risk factors in primary Sjögren’s syndrome,” World Allergy Organization Journal (2023), PMID: 36788991 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9922985/
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