What do you want to hear about?
This is a really quick blog to let you all know that my website is undergoing a much needed spring clean and touch up. I hope you’ve noticed it’s been updated and would love to hear your thoughts. And also to give you an update on my thoughts behind the unsubscribe email.
So firstly, What works? What do you want more of?
What do you enjoy reading about?
What don’t you like? What do you find boring?
The unsubscribe experiment
I recently sent an email to all my subscribers as an experiment, asking them to unsubscribe if they were not reading my blogs or no longer needed the information etc.
I can see the stats for each blog post and sometimes as little as 8% of my subscribers actually open and read the article. That’s not great and means they are either going unopened and just being deleted.
I’ve had emails suggesting I unsubscribe myself and I think it’s a great regular activity, to clear out that inbox. If you never open emails and just delete them every time, they are just clogging up your inbox. The response was amazing and also fascinating.
Lots of people unsubscribed
And that’s totally OK. I wanted to make sure I had a live audience and that if and when I post, I would be seen by people who really needed or wanted to follow. One key reason for this is that I’d like to work with brands and for this to work, they need to know that people will read about their new product. And I just wasn’t sure who was reading as often blogs don’t get any comments.
So far an amazing 69 have unsubscribed and most with lovely little messages to say their circumstances had changed or they had no time to read etc.
Some simply said the reason was: Because you told me to! 🤣
Welllll I didn’t order anyone to, I merely invited my readers to consider whether they really needed my waffling cluttering up their inbox any more.
It was a successful operation and I might try it again, perhaps a little more politely, later in the year.
So don’t ever be offended. If you’re reading and happy to keep reading, the unsub email is the only one to delete without reading đ
Some people were offended
Quite a few were offended. They felt I was having a go and that I only wanted people who opened, read and commented on a regular basis. That is absolutely not the case. You can read my blog for ten years and never comment and that’s fine. Some of us are commenters and some of us are not. I completely understand that. I read a lot of blogs that I never comment on. Some are really hard to comment on, especially when reading on a mobile device, so I get that.
Some thought my email was quite rude, so to those people I do wholeheartedly apologise. It wasn’t meant in that way at all. If you decide to come back I shall welcome you with open arms.
And so many told me why they’d stay!
Here are just a few…
 I have been reading your emails and planning to continue reading them. I am an Allergist-Immunologist and are very interested and intrigued in reading the patient’s point of view. What you publish is always of interest and carry on choosing what you want to write about. Luisa, Italy
I had one from a poor lady reply who was just back from A&E after an anaphylactic reaction, which I won’t share, but I hope she’s on the mend!
For eczema, I personally think it is best to avoid beef, and avoid touching acidic stuff like lemon, oranges, as well as perfume, alcohol-based sanitizers. I am using QV Cream for hand moisturizer. It is cheaper than Avene therapy products. Avene shower foam/body cleanser is calming to the skin. I stopped using steroids for hand eczema years ago. Here is some sharing from me regarding Eczema.
Ruth, I’ll stay please – Charles.
Please keep me in active status. And keep the updates coming. If you can, please pass along any info you have or receive on allergies that are âacquiredâ or develop in maturity (like nickel). We need to continue building our community. John
I LOVE SUBSCRIBING TO YOUR BLOG RUTH. I LEARN SO MUCH THAT I CAN’T LEARN ELSEWHERE – Andrew – Allergy Nurse
I really enjoy your blog so would like to keep subscribed. In terms of what Iâd like to see more of – I love hearing about new free from food ranges, recipe ideas, tips on how to handle social events involving food when you have an allergy, eczema management, and also maybe immunotherapy? It seems to be quite commonly available in the US, and Iâm not sure why itâs not more widely offered in the UK. Anyway, thanks for all the hard work you put into the blog. – Cordelia
I read your blog often as I have multiple allergies and asthma, and find it to be a valuable source of information, both on new products and on the kind of issues allergic people may face. I donât always have time to comment or engage on an article, but that doesnât mean that people like me arenât out there, reading and valuing your emails and site. : -)  Iâm a member of an allergy social media site also, which I rarely use it as it doesnât present content in the format I like or which I find quick to access at work, personally I greatly prefer blog articles or website articles with optional comments. Love the product reviews, tips and hearing about your experience as well as that of others. I will try to leave a comment from time to time. If you are looking for more  I suggest perhaps setting up an additional old fashioned newsgroup/email ring to invite responses, or put some forums on for more engagement. Iâve just found you on Facebook so can follow you there also. Thanks for writing the blog and for what youâve done with it so far, good luck with everything.
Firstly, thank you all! There were more responses and I hardly have time to reply but I plan to respond to everyone who took the time to email me.
Secondly, please don’t feel you have to reply. I know how busy everyone is and often there isn’t a response required. But when anyone does reply it does make a humble blogger do a little happy dance.
And sometimes I wonder what I should be writing about so thanks to those who gave me some ideas, above, which I’ll try to include if and when I find inspiration somewhere.
Thank you all… xxx one happy blogger
PS. Please don’t feel you need to comment… LOLS
Thank you for doing great job for allergy patients !
Thank you Ruta this means a lot,
Yes, expert patient blog describing life is very helpful and can help health care peeps (HCP) stay in tune with the actual trials and tribulations of a patient and the family, the multiple real issues physical, emotional and mental that arise in the case of chronic or/and acute disease. I do appreciate it. You provide insight into the lived experience and this does temper the way I feel and reflect on peoples health issues in the area of allergy or other genetic or immunological driven disease.
I will be honest and say that I am a little wary of product recommendations especially about diet that don’t have a proper peer reviewed scientific research base behind them. Though peoples experiences are useful and can help some, I am very well aware of the dubious claims made by celebrities and manufactures that are based on making money rather than a genuine proven treatment. Diet exclusions are especially dangerous without a registered dietitians involvement.
Please do continue with your interesting blog which for me does help to bridge the unnecessary, sometimes unbridged, void between patient and HCP.
Many thanks
Andrew
Thank you Andrew! It means so much because this exactly what I’m trying to do, help those who are struggling with the diagnosis and feeling alone and confused. I am with on the products too, I am very careful what I recommend on here. It’s got to be something I love or have tried out myself, not just a company willing to pay. Believe me I get so many emails asking to be advertised and I am very choosy!
Hi
I was wondering what you think of collagen as a way of healing the gut, and hence sorting out allergies at root? What do you think of the GAPS diet, or any Collagen-based diet. regards, Nadia
i’m not sure Nadia, no something i’ve every looked into but I will do some research. I’ve heard of the GAPS diet but don’t know much about that either. No expert here, just navigating my journey through eczema and allergies.
I’m sort of on the GAPS diet – well my own very modified version of it (no dairy, eating bone broth everyday, and eating liver once a week). It’s certainly helping me I think. It’s supposed to be the collagen in the bone broth that really soothes and heals the gut. It’s certainly helped “transit” issues for me, as I have IBD. A lot of people swear that having a really strong, intact gut helps allergies and skin issues. Which I also have actually – migraines, eyes stuck together and weeping when I wake up – that sort of thing.
That is really interesting. I’m hearing a lot about the GAPS diet lately. I don’t eat any dairy anyway but bone broth is so good for you. Not really ever eaten much liver either. Thanks so much for sharing. I will look into this. My gut is so much better these last few months just eating very simply, no processed foods, covid19 has taught me something here I think, the whole slowing down, going back to basis, less stress… be interesting to see what happens when they let us all out again.
Ha ha – the liver thing is less essential – I do it because I am anaemic. But liver can be very good for all people – the more I read about it the more wondrous it seems: it has collagen in it, it has choline which helps the liver cleanse. Liver is good for the liver! (this is very Chinese medicine – there is a lot of wisdom in Chinese medicine I think – they say like heals like, so if you have joint pain a Chinese herbalist will tell you to eat the cartilage of chicken or pork boiled down for a few hours – as it has the same amino acids which can be used as repair materials.)
But Bone Broth is very healing. But just as a caution for anyone who wants to try it – my first time I had a strong histamine reaction – and basically anyone with a damaged gut will likely have a histamine reaction. So on your first time make it mild: boil up a pack of organic chicken wings for 2 hours only (bone broth is often simmered for 8-40hours) and drink the meat stock. Start slowly.