By Ofelia Saenz, Staff Writer
Dr. Kenneth Kim, of the Allergy, Asthma and Respiratory Care Medical Center (AARCMC) often jokes that the allergy season in Southern California is from January to December.
“There’s always something in bloom,” Kim said. “There’s always something to keep us busy.”
AARCMC is a premier facility in the treatment of allergy, asthma and respiratory diseases. Dr. Russell Spears, founded the practice nearly 50 years ago. He continues to practice out of the office part-time, along with Kim and Dr. Yu-Luen Hsu. The group is well known, according to Kim, for its cutting edge work in emerging treatments for allergy and asthma.
Kim is a nationally recognized expert in the field of latex allergy and is a regular speaker at regional and national meetings. Because of his extensive research on the subject, AARCMC was chosen as one of only two sites in the country to help develop a latex allergy test reagent, and one of 12 sites in the country that took part in developing a latex skin-test reagent.
Kim and Hsu have also been principal investigators in more than 300 clinical trials, the majority of which have been in the allergy and asthma arena.
“Over the years, we’ve developed a number of the nasal sprays that are now on the market,” said Kim. “We’ve also participated in the development of antihistamines that are on the market and a lot of the new asthma sprays.”
According to Kim, the clinic’s patients range from infants with food allergies to the elderly with drug allergies, and people of all ages with a variety of asthma and allergy related illnesses in between.
“The thing that’s really attractive about this specialty is that you can make people better,” Kim said. “There are great medicines on the market that improve people’s quality of life.”
Kim warns that two of the most commonly under-recognized symptoms of an allergy in both children and adults are chronic fatigue and chronic cough.
“When you treat [someone with nasal allergies], all of a sudden their energy level gets better,” Kim said. “It’s really gratifying to see them improve.”
The Allergy, Asthma and Respiratory Care Medical Center is located at 2600 Redondo Avenue, suite 400, in Long Beach. For information, call (562) 997-7888 or visit www.allergy-asthma.info.
