I’m delighted to announce the release of my eleventh book, The Metal Allergy Guide: Successfully managing allergies to nickel, cobalt, chromium and other metals.
It’s a project I’ve been working on, on and off, for several years, but I’m glad now to have finally put it to bed — all 45,000 words of it!
Metal allergies, mainly to nickel, affect around one in eight people, the vast majority of them women, who are typically sensitised through piercings and the wearing of jewellery, often from a young age.
It’s such a common allergy, that many live with it with only trivial inconvenience, avoiding the rings and earrings which cause the telltale eczema or rash on fingers and earlobes, or else using barrier methods to overcome the problem.
But for some it causes far greater, or chronic, symptoms; and for others it causes periodic issues when exposure occurs or underlying problems flare up. Many with allergy to nickel, especially, are also allergic to other skin sensitisers, such as fragrance compounds or methylisothiazolinone, which may make finding cosmetics and toiletries particularly challenging.
There are key chapters in the book dedicated not only to giving advice on avoiding triggers, but also to finding safe products — skincare products (especially make-up, a constant problem for those sensitive to metals), as well as kitchen goods, jewellery, shoes, clothing and accessories, technology, tattoo inks and more besides — and a key one on dietary considerations, often overlooked by those with more severe nickel sensitivities, but which may exacerbate ongoing eczema or systemic dermatitis in many. People with other dietary restrictions — such as veganism — can find the reduced nickel diet extremely tough.
I know from two of the most popular articles on the Allergy Insight website — on nickel free shavers / razors, and on nickel-free make-up — that I have a lot of readers with metal allergies, so I hope if you do buy it that you find it useful, supportive and informative.
The Metal Allergy Guide: Successfully managing allergies to nickel, cobalt, chromium and other metals is available in print / eBook formats from Amazon US ($12.99/$8.99), Amazon UK (£9.49/£6.59), and other Amazon sites. It is also available for other e-readers, such as Apple, Scribd and Rakuten Kobo (click here for full list).