PODCAST REVIEW: The Itch Podcast
“Itching to know more about allergies, asthma or immunology?…bring you the facts in an easily digestible manner. From deep dives to interviews they will cover the science and the lifestyle aspects”
This review has been a long time coming, as I came to this poddy party quite late and I wanted to listen to every episode before I wrote my review. The itch is hosted by Dr. Payel Gupta and Kortney Kwong Hing.
Dr Gupta is NYC based and “is triple board certified in Allergy & Immunology, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine…suffers from asthma, eczema and environmental allergies and knows what it’s like to be a patient! She completed a fellowship in Allergy & Immunology at the State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center.” Dr Gupta shows her many credentials when talking about all the topics covered. She has a way of explaining the facts in a scientific way but also allowing the audience to understand what she is talking about. I wish I had met her when I spent 3 years in NYC… probably would have done me a world of good!
Kortney is based in Berlin, Germany and has “multiple food allergies, asthma and eczema…multiple food allergies including peanuts, tree nuts, sesame, soy, sunflower seeds, poppy seeds, lobster, peas, lupin and more. She also has OAS (oral allergy syndrome).” She has a blog called Allergy girl eats because “…there weren’t enough adults talking about what it is like to live with multiple food allergies, anaphylaxis, asthma, and eczema… blog explores the ups, downs, and the situations that you may find yourself in when managing food allergies…co-founder of the travel-review website www.allergytravels.com & manages the Allergy Travels online community.” Kortney has years of experience in the allergy community. She has an array of knowledge both from first hand experience and people she knows. She asks questions that we all want the answers to but theres never enough time in the doctors appointment ask.
What I love about this podcast is that I genuinely feel like I am learning about myself. I have always felt like I was alone in this world when it comes to my allergies. My aunt is the only one that has anaphylaxis and everyone else doesn’t understand the realities of living with allergies. So I just truck on, live my life but I never really researched into it, I just know what I have and that is that.
Since social media and me starting this blog, I have really tried to figure out what some of the other allergies there are, how they manifest and what is new in the allergy world 27 years on from my diagnosis.
Listening to The Itch podcast is really great because Kortney poses questions to Dr Gupta, and facilitates a real connection, for the listener, to the both of them. It is emotional as Kortney tells real situations from her life, but it is factual with understanding the intricate nuances within the allergy, asthma & immunology community.
There are a lot of episodes that are only discussions with the co-hosts but they do have many fantastic guests that talk about their own experiences and their role within the community. They just completed an Asthma series, delving into the hows, whys, whats, when & where of Asthma, ranging from childhood through to adulthood.
I am very excited to continue listening, finding out more information, discovering people making an impact living their life with allergies, and strong advocators & educators that make the world safer for me and everybody else.
My favorite episodes:
Epidsode #2: The science behind an allergic reaction & why are allergies on the rise?
Episode #5: The types of allergy testing & why they can be so hard to interpret.
Epsiode #10: Asthma part 2 - The classification of severity & types of asthma
Episode #11: Interview with Joey Salmingo: Founder of FATE
Episode #14: Interview with Shahla: How cooking has empowered her family with their allergy diagnosis
Episode #16: Interview with Elijah’s Echo - advocating for allergies and health disparities
You can find the podcast on the Apple podcast app, Spotify or any other podcast apps by simply typing in ‘The Itch Podcast’.
Let me & them know what you think!