** Thanks for downloading this episode. If you'd like to stay in touch with our continuing story, Season 2 continues at This Medical Life, in which Dr Travis Brown continues his exploration of diseases and our approaches to treatment from history to the modern day. Have a look in your podcast app now for This Medical Life, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode **

Our immune system provides the means for us to live in a world full of pathogens. However, sometimes it gets it wrong and we can find ourselves debilitated because of our own immune system. Allergies and hypersensitivies fall into this category, with symptoms ranging from the mildly irritating, to the life-threatening anaphylaxis.

Our knowledge of these ailments come from a variety of observational and experimental studies. 

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, they did not understand the immune system nor allergies. Terms used to describe these diseases (that we know today as allergies) were Summer colds, Summer flu, Hay-asthma, and Hay-fever. The causes were unknown, the treatment ranged from experimental to dangerous and the Scientists often used themselves as the study subjects/volunteers. However, it took some clever minds and quite a bit of courage (not to mention a lot of dogs and other experimental animals) to gather the understanding of these conditions that we have today.

Our special guest is Dr Daman Langguth Head of Immunology Department Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology (SNP), Chair of SNP Partners, Member of Executive Advisory Committee, Chair of the Data Request Committee.

Daman has particular expertise in the investigation of auto-immune disease, allergy, and immune deficiency and has special interests in idiopathic inflammatory myositis, vasculitis, IgG4-related systemic disease and e-Health.

SNP’s Immunology Department is the largest laboratory of its kind in Australia.

** Thanks for downloading this episode. If you'd like to stay in touch with our continuing story, Season 2 continues at <a href="https://thismedicallife.com.au/">This Medical Life</a>, in which Dr Travis Brown continues his exploration of diseases and our approaches to treatment from history to the modern day. Have a look in your podcast app now for This Medical Life, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode **
Our immune system provides the means for us to live in a world full of pathogens. However, sometimes it gets it wrong and we can find ourselves debilitated because of our own immune system. Allergies and hypersensitivies fall into this category, with symptoms ranging from the mildly irritating, to the life-threatening anaphylaxis.
Our knowledge of these ailments come from a variety of observational and experimental studies. 
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, they did not understand the immune system nor allergies. Terms used to describe these diseases (that we know today as allergies) were Summer colds, Summer flu, Hay-asthma, and Hay-fever. The causes were unknown, the treatment ranged from experimental to dangerous and the Scientists often used themselves as the study subjects/volunteers. However, it took some clever minds and quite a bit of courage (not to mention a lot of dogs and other experimental animals) to gather the understanding of these conditions that we have today.
Our special guest is <a href="https://www.snp.com.au/about-us/our-pathologists/a-z/dr-daman-langguth">Dr Daman Langguth</a> Head of Immunology Department Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology (SNP), Chair of SNP Partners, Member of Executive Advisory Committee, Chair of the Data Request Committee.
Daman has particular expertise in the investigation of auto-immune disease, allergy, and immune deficiency and has special interests in idiopathic inflammatory myositis, vasculitis, IgG4-related systemic disease and e-Health.
SNP’s Immunology Department is the largest laboratory of its kind in Australia.

Welcome to the This Medical Life podcast. Our mission is to share stories about the triumphs and tragedies of diseases and illnesses from ancient times up until what we know today. It is about those scientific and medical minds who came before us and how, every single day, we stand on the shoulders of giants. This is a podcast about the stories of medicine.


Hosted by Dr. Travis Brown and Steve Davis, our target audience is General Practitioners, medical students, and other health professionals. We hope to educate, inspire and celebrate those who choose to care for others in their profession. From experience, we know that our audience extends beyond these fields and would like to welcome anyone to listen. The stories of those who came before us are nothing short of remarkable and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Production by Tim Whiffen

Design by Tom Buzz