Something to Sneeze At

In “Sighs and Sneezes” (Feb. 8), Bettyann Kevles writes that “a diet of antihistamines suppresses the body’s defenses and can weaken its ability to fight other foreign substances such as disease-causing viruses.” There is no proof that this statement is true. All that antihistamines do is block receptor sites where a histamine is to act in the body. They have no suppressing factor on the body’s immune system itself.

Sydney T. Levenson MD

Asthma & Allergy Foundation