Keeping your gut healthy can keep the rest of your body healthy if you’re an allergy sufferer.

According to a University of Michigan study, if a person’s gut is full of helpful fungi and bacteria, that person may be less likely to suffer from allergies.

Dr. Gary Huffnagle and Dr. Mairi Noverr conducted research suggesting that allergy and asthma symptoms start in the gut. In studies done on mice, they found that mice treated with large amounts of medical antibiotics would suffer from asthma-like symptoms after being exposed to allergens.

Huffnagle, the principal investigator, has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue his study, Noverr said.

“We have tested a common mold allergen,” Noverr said. “And we tested another [mold], but we haven’t tested for any other common allergens yet.”

Noverr said research linking antibiotic use and pulmonary allergies has not been conducted before.

“We tested with a broad spectrum of [medical] antibiotics,” Noverr said.

These antibiotics were used to kill some specific bacteria, and they intend to test with other antibiotics, as well.

Realistically, she said, a number of factors influence allergy development.

“Diet, allergen exposure, pollutants in the air and definitely genetic disposition; these all correlate strongly to whether or not someone develops an allergy,” Noverr said. “This is just one of the factors.”

It is not unusual for students to develop a new allergy when coming to Iowa State. This is often because they are exposed to an allergy they have never been affected by before.

Mary Fosse, program coordinator for the Thielen Student Health Center, said people from other parts of the country often develop allergies.

“Somebody from California, for example, could never be troubled by allergies before, then come out here and develop hay fever,” she said.

Fosse said she gives about 100 students allergy shots each semester and is familiar with the different types of allergies. She said the cleanliness and amount of pollution in an allergy sufferer’s living space makes a difference in how he or she reacts.

A cat, a smoking roommate or even a dirty rug can result in allergic reactions, Fosse said.

She stressed that although some people do develop allergies, many others get better as they grow older. What happens then, she said, is that they still have those allergies, but their immune systems are able to deal with them better.

Jordan Dahlberg, freshman in liberal arts and sciences-open option, is a Larch Hall resident. She said her living situation this fall caused her some health problems — her nose was stuffed up and her eyes were constantly watering during the first semester of school.

Dahlberg said her perpetual cold was probably from all the dust that was in her room, but now her body has gotten used to the environment and she is feeling fine.

Tiffany Conover, freshman in liberal arts and sciences-open option, lives in Oak Hall and said she has suffered from allergy symptoms ever since she moved on campus.

“All winter long, I have had a stuffy nose, sore throat or a cough,” she said.

Conover said the fact that she has had to keep her window open all year to maintain the temperature in her room is probably the main reason her allegories have flared up.

Students who do develop allergies usually don’t recognize them as allergies for at least a month, Fosse said.

“We will get a phone call where they say, ‘I’ve had this cold for three weeks now,’ or perhaps ‘a month now.’ That’s a pretty good sign that they’ve developed an allergy,” she said.

Because symptoms of allergies are so similar — runny noses, coughs, sinus drainage — students usually think it’s a cold instead, Fosse said. But colds don’t last for that long.

Fosse said students should be careful if they have or suspect that they have allergies. Students who do have allergies should be prepared for them.

If they are seasonal flare-ups, they should purchase the proper medication. Otherwise, they should take precautions when around anything that could produce an allergic reaction.

“Students should try to keep track, keep a record of when they have these symptoms,” Fosse said. “What they eat or what they come into contact with or where they’ve been — students should try to keep track of and write down effects of what they’re having.”