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I have no allergies, but I grew up eating mud pies and shit (not "shit" shit, just random berries and stuff). I often wonder how this has affected my lack of allergies and general adult health. Share please?

I think I'm allergic to cats, which is unfortunate since I do generally like them.  They don't throw me into sneezing fits or anything, but I tend to get red, itchy eyes if I'm around a cat for extended periods.

My dad's side of the family has tons of allergies (I'm pretty sure every single one of them is allergic to cats, and many of them have miscellaneous weird food allergies too), so I got off fairly light.  I've never been stung by a bee (I don't bug them, they don't bug me) so I'm not sure whether I'm allergic to them or not.

I didn't eat dirt or mud as a kid, but I did do a lot of berry foraging and so forth, and never gave much thought to washing stuff before eating it.  I almost never get sick, with the chief exception being throat infections, which tear right through my immune system for some reason.

I used to be athsmatic (mostly diffuculty breathing after heavy exertion, triggered by various types of plant polen), had an inhailer and whatnot, but I seem to have outgrown it.
I actually have the same problem, however i dont think it is an allergic reaction, but rather just a natural reaction to excessive amounts of cat hair.  My Brother and his wife have 3 cats, all of them long haired breeds, and I get very dry, itchy, red eyes if i stay at their place for more then 24 hours. However, their cats shed like MAD (I mean, you can litterally go to any upholsterd surface in their house, rub your hand on it, and come up with a ball of fur.)

I also came from a family that rigourously believed that the best way to make sure your kids didnt become fatally ill was to make sure they were exposed to everything early.  None of this "oh no, little jimmy has the sniffles, better rush him to the doctors and get him on heavy antibiotics" shit that parents do now.   Nooo, my mother actually sent us over to play with the neighbours kids when she found out that they had chickenpox......

As a result, I have grown up as one of those people who believes that you dont visit the doctor unless you are pretty damn sure whatever you have is going to kill you.  I rarely ever get sick (the rounds of flu that put people at work out of comission for 4-5 days give me sniffles for about 24 hours), and try not to use medication unless it is really serious (i think the last time i took an asperin for a headache was 15 or more years ago)..

I've only had to go to the doctor for an illness once in my adult life (I had a tonsil infection). I took all my antibiotics and was fine. Sauced has struggled with bouts of sinus infections his whole life, and strong scents and pollens seem to trigger a little stuffiness. But my perfume doesn't seem to bother him. Dunno if it's because I just wear essential oil of fig (which is mild and not synthetic) or what. I went into a fancy soap store once and the scents were so strong that it felt like I had a dagger between my eyes. But it didn't trigger any allergic reaction.

I'm just curious about whether or not the stereotype about gamer nerdy-types being more prone to allergies and whatnot is accurate.

-Sulfa drugs
-Amoxicillin
-Cats
-Pollens and dust and stuff
-French people

Highly allergic to most pollens, dusts, and other crap in our air. All my life. I used to play outside a lot as a kid.  Hell, before I was 10 and moved to Chandler, all I did was play in the acre of desert land we had.

Allergic to cats, and I have four of them. I used to be much much more allergic than I am now.

I think I have a beef protein allergy, but that has never been completely proven.  Pretty sure on the lactose intollerant part of it though and I grew up drinking milk and having milk in my cereal all my life.

I get sick a lot more now that I'm less physically active.  Taking a year off atheletics after major back surgery at age 21 didn't help much.  I can pretty much count on 2 colds, 1 flu, and probably a couple bouts of extreme sinus pain every year.

Raw coconut, Brazill nuts, Amonds,  potato skin, cardboard dust, styrofoam dust, all contact allergies so it's an itch thing.

Chocolate.   :cry:

Ready for this?

Newspaper print makes me sneeze uncontrollably. Especially if it's humid. Hasn't been that bad in Arizona, but if I touch a newspaper and it gets ANYWHERE near my face - I can't stop. It's terrible.

That does suck; leafing through a heavy sunday paper is something I really enjoy.

Penicillin will kill me if I don't get to a hospital in time.   :sad_panda: 

Only thing I've ever found is a reaction to a certain wood in pencils. It's usually the cheaper kinds and made in China.  Makes the tip of my fingers blister up. Before I use a Chinese pencil I have to smell it first to see if it's safe to use.

I'm allergic to work.

The only cure is work. Ironic, that.

So I was at a Toys R Us today and they had 3 Xbox 360 Premiums and 2 Cores. I had no desire to buy one.

Same.  And my sis and my mom's side were hardly immune.

The only allergy I had growing up was skin reaction to chocolate and tomato sauce on my face. (Ugh - the only two things kids care about)  I outgrew it by age three.

At age six I developed a bizarre craving for raw meat.  Drove my parents nuts and they did what they could to keep it out of my reach.  Found it anyway, well into my mid-teens.  And until I was 26 I never got sick.  Not even colds.  This in a family (and extended family) of people who are constantly ill with something.

Then at age 26 I got hammered with mononucleosis and as I was used to being an ironman I never bothered to get it treated.  Ever since then I get pretty ill right around new years and then nothing.  Until next new years.  And that's how it has been ever since.  And I still like bachelor burgers (*) but now I'm more sophisticated and call it steak tartar.  Or as I learned in Belgium, American Fricasse (which I to the amusement of all in the hall freely translated as Fried Americans).

My private theory? Allergies are a body turning on itself because it has nothing else to fight.  So give it something to fight.  Clean freaks damage their children.  Guess a few million years of evolution still edges out a few generations of Sanitation. :P

(*) raw hamburger ground from lean steak bought from a good butcher, mixed with mustard seed and a lot of pressed garlic, served on buttered well-toasted bun with mayonaise and more mustard.  Serve with fruit, salad, and a few glasses of red wine just to make sure most of the "bugs" get pickled.  And me too. :)

Raw meat is yummy. I always get sick around my birthday. Every year. Like clockwork.

Dust mites. Not so  bad with an air purifier in the bedroom, daily claratin, and a a cleaning service.  More of an issue back when I sang, but now it's no biggie.

Pool Chlorine. I sneeze like a fiend after about half an hour in a pool.

I was taught in medical school that significant number of people claiming to have an allergy actually just had a bad reaction (stomach ache, diarrhea, etc) and aren't necessarily allergic to what they claim. I encourage any of you that haven't done so, to get tested for your allergies or have a broad allergy screen done. 

That's my 3am public service message.

Well, I have to admit that I'm not actually allergic to any of those things in the traditional sense.  They just make me itch.  If I eat a bit of good chocolate, my gums and throat itch like mad for about five or ten minutes... I don't get sick or fall over or anything like that.  If I peel potatoes without wearing gloves, my turn pink and itch.   Cardboard and styrofoam dust give me a rash.  Nothing is life threatening... just annoying enough to keep me away.  Some antibiotics make me itch in unmentionalbe places that I won't mention. 

My aunt is allergic to bee stings.  If a bee stings her, her throat swells and she has to have medicine or she'll die.   It happened once in front of me and was very scary.  THAT'S an allergy and nothing like that has ever happened to me.

I'm allergic to poison ivy and dust.  I wasn't allergic to either, but I developed allergies to both through excessive expsoure when I was young and stupid. 

Pollens, etc..

As a kid, I broke out in the hives twice from eating German sausage. I'm not sure what kind, so I stay away from all of it.

me too

I'm not allergic to anything that I know of. However there's a strange thing runing in the family which I've inherited from my father. Whenever I go to hospitals I get dizzy and sweaty, if I spend upwards an hour or more in hospitals I generaly faint. Before I was born my mother was hospitalized and my father naturaly payed her a visist. Before he reached her he fainted and instead my mother visited him in his hospital bed :-D

I think that strange affliction is called being a big pussy  :-D

Pollen, dust, general stuff like that.

There's some antibiotic I used to take a lot as a kid that I'm not allergic to, but I can't remember the name.

Oh yeah, and bee stings.

My wife has a severe nut allergy - a piece the size of the head of a pin is a hospital trip.  In much lesser degrees she's also allergic to dairy products (caseine to be precise), honey (and bee stings), orange, dust.  Apart from that she's totally healthy.

I had the same thing, from the age of 10 until ithe age of 16.  Swimming increased my lung capacity, but it was still below most people's.  Then after puberty smacked me over the summer, it was gone and I haven't had a problem since.  It used to be so bad I couldn't even go into my Aunt's house without being on medication and keeping the inhailer close by (dogs and a smoker) Now, no biggie.

Alleriges these days are nil.  Unless you count runny nose and watering eyes if the ragweed count hits just below 'omfg don't go outside' levels.  I blame the pool chemicals that bleached my hair then made it so I could rip out clumps without feeling it, and turned my skin to scales junior/ senior year.

Oddly, it seems my allergies cycle every few years.

When I was a kid, I was pretty susceptible to pollen (grass, etc) in the fall and spring. Also, cats. I use to get somewhat asthmatic if I was very active outdoors in the fall or spring, especially after someone cut their lawn.

As I got older, I also developed a case of lactose intolerance to a degree.

Now, my seasonal allergies have practically disappeared. I haven't taken pills for years, expect for almost 3 weeks in Italy (different pollen + urban atmosphere?). The lactose intolerance is practically nil.

Unfortunately, I've developed a severe allergy to crab, lobster, and shrimp. Hives, wheezing, and all. I even had a script for 2 epinephrine pens when I went overseas.

Seeing as how I believe allergies are not exactly a weakness, but a result of an overly-vigilant immune system, I don't really mind. I'm practically never sick, and the only medicine I ever take is headache pain relievers.

You go on and believe that but when you're on your mass-murder spree we'll all know how to stop you: with a gift certificate to Red Lobster.

That would kill anyone.

When I eat dairy products, I get a runny nose and phlegm in the throat.  Same for my little brother.  It didn't start hitting me until I was almost 20, but my brother has had it all his life.  It's not life threatening, but very annoying, so I avoid dairy most of the time.  Still, I gotta have my cheeseburgers and pizzza.

Is that an allergy?

Oh, the other thing that used to get me was liquid soad.  When "Softsoap" (the brand) came out, my mom bought it and my hands broke out horribly.  My skin would crack, and even start to bleed.  Eventually "Softsoap" changed its formula and caused me no probs.  I can now use most liquids, but sometimes I run into some really cheap stuff that gives me the same problems.

Did you ever find out what it was? I mean, you could've owned softsoap if there were no warnings. :P

Cute, adorable, loveable kitties.

Cats, dust, pollen, to a lesser extent, chocolate and onions.

So... this could kill you?

(http://static.flickr.com/23/27508136_8679c5c748_m.jpg)

Well, an allergy can develop from many things, and some really weird ones have come my way in the Emergency Department.  One poor person was allergic to chocolate and ketchup.  Most common types we get is that someone eats something with shellfish and didn't know it was in it, and comes in all bloated up; second most common type would be nuts.

Pretty much you won't get an allergic reaction to the antigen until the second time of exposure and the severity depends on how hyped up your immune system is to the antigen.

I do hate the assholes who come in claiming to be allergic to every non-narcotic pain reliever under the sun, just so they only will get a shot of their favorite brand of narcotics for their headache that brought them to the Emergency Department.  People like that make it so freaking hard for nurses and medics like me to be impartial after dealing with manipulative assholes like that.

I'm allergic to mangos, of all things.  I break out into a very nasty rash and get swelling anyplace the juice of the fruit touches my skin.  I've never actually tried eating any of the fruit; I figured that would be a Bad Idea.  Doing a little research, it turns out that mangos belong to the Anacardiaceae family, which includes cashew nuts, pistachio nuts, poison ivy and poison oak.  Cross-reactivity has been found among pistachio nuts, cashew nuts, and mango seeds, but this cross-reactivity doesn't extend to mango pulp.  Which makes sense, since I love pistachios and cashews and have no problem with them.

Aside from the mango thing, I don't have any allergies that I know of.

I grew up a country boy, eatin' raspberries off the vine in the woods and feasting on little woodland critters. Jumping into a snowbank is my idea of waking up. I can throw off a cold in half the time of everyone else who gets it (I rarely medicate). Had a bee sting swell up my hand like a softball when I was a kid (or a balloon, if you're into Floyd), but they don't bug me (sorry bad pun) now.

The closest I came to dying was being in the fucking hospital, it's how I learned I was allergic to amoxicillin. I'm afraid of hospitals, because I know the majority of people who work in our local hospital, and they're all the fuckups from high school, plus some doctors who couldn't get better jobs. Scary shit. There is a standing order among my family that if something bad happens, we are to go to the 'big city' hospital, even if the trip is risky.

Haven't been to the doctor outside a couple physicals for jobs since I broke my hip when I was 13 (don't fight on monkey bars). Until my molar cracked last year, I hadn't been to a dentist since I was 18, I just take care of myself, I guess. The body is a machine, you have to program it to be strong or you'll be a pussy. Might happen anyway, but I think people who over-do the antibiotics and OCD cleaning and stuff are pussifying themselves. My girlfriend is always pulling out the hand sanitizer, it's weird.

I have a reaction to poison ivy... but I thought everyone did.  Is that not the case?

I have a reaction to semen as well... usually choking.

Nope, I'm not allergic to it, and neither is my son, my mom is way allergic to it.

Not sure if it is the fact that I'm one of those dumb hillybillies who got an education who grew up running around in the woods doing pretty much what Sky did too  :-D  Got to luv pan fried squirrel with a mess of bluegills.

I've been working around sick people since 1990 and have only been sick about 2 times where I've had to miss work (both times from the puke-n-poop bad ass stomach flu from hell), but doing stupid stuff like riding my mountain bike down a staircase and breaking a leg...well won't go there  :wink:

Oh yeah, I'm allergic to Amoxocillin as well. USAF doctors gave it to me for an ear infection as an infant, it screwed me up and gave me pneumonia. I lost all my baby fat, which I am just now starting to gain back a bit of.

CVS pharmacy insists I'm not really allergic to it, so I'm hoping they give it to me at some point just so I can sue them. Idiots.

As a kid:
 - Cats
 - Pollen
 - Fresh hay
 - Cedar (gave me hives if i touched it)
 - Suposedly Milk (never believed that, as I drank a ton of it and never had issues)

Now:
 - Fresh Hay
 - some pollens - your basic Spring Hay fever

As a kid my Hay fever was alomost debilitating. Its gotten progressively milder since my early twenties though. Usually nothing more than a runny nose for a week each Spring now.

Man...I envy your hayfever. So many days spent haying for my neighbor...

Mold I think, get sinus crap when the mold count is high here.  Not allergic to anything else, except maybe the current powers that be in the oval office...

I had no allergies until my early 20's when I moved to Phoenix for a year. After returning to Minnesota I was all of a sudden allergic to many things. All year around too. I have been getting allergy shots for the past 8 years or so and I'm pretty much fine except for still being allergic to some cats. I blame the pollution in Phoenix.

I remember fresh out of high school wondering how all my most dysfunctional drug buddies wound up all working in the same hospital - not that they all applied but that any of them got hired.  Just never quite got around to admitting myself to that particular place.  OTOH it's amazing how many things in the hospital cry out to be made into a bong.

As a smoker I'm allergic to all types of crap. Cut grass, pollen, molds, etc... As a going on 2 year non-smoker now most of those things don't really bother me at all anymore. I use to be able to count on a 2 week anti-biotic requiring sinus infection twice a year evey winter->spring and every fall->winter. Now I maybe catch a 1-2 day cold during those times of year.

Really the only thing that bothers me anymore is strong fragrances like perfumes, candles, air fresheners and such. They cause instant congestion, red itchy eyes, etc... I avoid elevators at all costs anymore for fear of being trapped in that confined space with a woman who bathed in perfume that morning.

Speaking of allergies, last year around christmas my mouth kept breaking out in bizarre ways, gums swollen, canker sores like crazy.  Was terrible, but what can you do about it eh?  I just figured it was a bad run of luck or something.  I remember it was right around the time we roasted up a bunch of pecans, because I remember thinking "man the salt on these pecans is making my mouth worse, I should stop eating them." But damn they were good..

This year my wife was talking about how great the pecans were last year, so she drove out to the orchard and bought us a bunch.  I roasted them and we ate them over the weekend.  Now my mouth is all torn up with canker sores, my gums are swollen I can barely talk (it's hard to sleep at night because it's hard to find a good position to lay in that doesn't hurt my mouth)..

I'm suspecting that I'm allergic to pecans.  It sucks because I love roasted pecans (but honestly I love not having big gaping sores in my mouth more, so I guess it's an easy, if heartbreaking, choice)..

Up until this week, I've never suspected myself of being allergic to anything..

Not allergic to anything I know of.

However, this last Spring I was a giant ball of mucus.  So maybe I'm developing allergies. I hope not.  It seemed equally bad for everyone, though, even people who usually don't have allergies, so maybe it was just a really bad year for that.

I can get irritated by some stuff- tobacco smoke, for instance, if I'm stuck in a really smoky room for more than a half hour or so my eyes start tearing up and stinging.  But I don't think that really counts as an allergy... more likely it counts as being a non-smoker.

You would make a crap pot head.

And I'm sure he's going to have some restless nights because of that.

There's a fair number of 'immune' people, but almost all of them will become sensitized with enough repeated exposure; the amount required varies amongst individuals.  A very small number of people may be totally immune.  Folk remedies say you can supposedly desensitive yourself by ingesting leaves from the plant, but you'll sure as hell never catch me trying it.

for the record, I'm allergic to:

-animal dander (cats are the worst)
-mold
-pollen
-many varieties of grass and shrubs (lawns make me itch, and I will *never* have any of those goddamn annoying prickly hedge-things at my home)

Wow.  I'm less inherently skeptical of "folk remedies" than most, but if that's not a case of homeopathy gone horribly horribly wrong I don't know what is.

I have spent the last five years building up an immunity to Iocaine powder.

Just for the record, to that no one tries this, this is a very good way for a particularly sensitive person to end up in the Emergency Room.  Ingesting the leaves will most likely result in a cortisone shot.  Also be very wary of inhaling the smoke created by burning leaves, if you are highly allergic try to stay away from any fires that you may suspect contains poison ivy, again this will most likely result in a trip to the emergency room for a cortisone shot.

I found out a very scary way whether or not I'm allergic to poisonoak (a close relative). Since I'm a botanist, I can identify the shit even without leaves, so I generally just avoid it. But one time I was at some hot springs adjacent to a river trying to get back to the trail (which had washed out in a flood the previous year), so I thought, hey, I'll just climb up this cliff and the trail should be right on top. I got up really high, too high to turn back (lest I fall to my grisly death) and all of a sudden I was faced with a hedgerow of poisonoak and Oregon-grape (a spiny, low shrub that resembles holly). I had the options of a) fall and break my legs or b) barrel through head first. I opted for the latter, keeping my fingers crossed the entire time that I would be one of the lucky ~50% of people not allergic. If I had been, I would've ended up with a seepy rash all over my face and shoulders. Fortunately, I came away relatively unscathed (spare a few scratches on my shoulders from the Oregon-grape), and found the trail. I've brushed past poisonoak once or twice since, and have never been affected. Stinging nettles though? They are the awfulest thing you'll ever encounter.

I believe you have to damage the plant to come into contact with the sap (although the plants are rather fragile), so you can sometimes get away with casual contact even if you're sensitive.  But charging through; yah, you'd have to have a tolerance for it :)

And yes, please don't anyone be silly enough to eat poison ivy/oak/whatever.

Nor should you stand near any burning plants.  However, should the police be silly enough to burn a field of pot near you, then feel free to stand downwind.

As a child I was highly allergic to grass pollen and insects.  There was a common caterpillar in our area that was the worst... a single hair from one would cause a dime-sized welt on my skin, and unfortunately they shed hair like cats.  Fortunately I outgrew those around my teens.

A few years ago I found I out I am allergic to glutten (celiac disease), which is in wheat, oats, barley and similar grains.  I can tolerate a little (some people cannot tolerate any), but too much and I will be doubled-over in pain and wishing for someone to put me out of my misery.  Even low amounts can cause some unpleasant digestive effects later on, so I tend to avoid a lot of foods since an incredible amount of the typical American diet contains wheat.

Allergies

Milk (Lactose) - Too much makes me really tired and upsets my stomach, used to be worse.

Coconuts - Any amount makes me puke and out of action for hours.

Fennel (spice commonly found in Italian sausage) - heat flashes, temp loss of vision, pass out

Thank god I am not allergic to cats,  :heart: my 3.

Never deal with a Scotsman when death is on the line!

Hm, I never heard of someone being allergic to the insects themself. But I remember that some insects, esp. caterpillars, shed hair as a defense mechanism.

Why am I responding to this, I found the idea of insects with hair oddly amusing.

Oh, and I am allergic to something called "Sulfonamide", as a doctor found out by almost killing me at the age of 6 months.

I also react allergic to alcohol, strangely only when inhaled (think about most colognes, air refresher, stuff like that).

Usually most doctors just ask if you are alergic to Sulfa drugs. I know my sister is.

Oh, and Lily, I always assumed that everyone reacted badly to stinging nettles; or is it only a few lucky ones?
Scratches from those things would always swell up and itch for hours. Of course anyone in the NW has a backyard full of em.

Oh, yeah nettles sting everyone. I hate those fuckers. Working as a wetlands scientist you run into 'em all the time (they grow in swampy places). One time in early spring I didn't see the two-leaf sprout when I was digging and my knuckles grazed it. My hand tingled and stung for a whole day.

During her wild days, my mother desperatly needed to "relief herself" an jumped into a field of those fuckers ...
(http://www.mariquita.com/images/photogallery/nettles.11.jpg)

Not much relief was had, or so she told me.

I used to work with a Lithuanian girl who told me that if she was bad when she was a kid, she got spanked with them!!!! Dang but Slavs are some tough fuckers. And we thought "go fetch me a willa' switch" was child abuse.

It used to be tuna, but i accidently ate a huge chunk of raw tuna a few years back thinking it was salmon nigiri and nothing happened.  My medical files have me allergic to penicillin, but that was as a child. Brazil nuts cause a reaction in my mouth and back of throat but other nuts are fine.  

Even Deez Nuts?

Oh my God, you soooo win the thread.

I am not allergic to anything except the high concentration of pollen/pollution you get around Atlanta, and even then it's mostly just something I can fix with an antihistamine.  Not allergic to poison ivy, and I recently found out that mosquito bites can make other people red and welty.  Who knew?  In contrast, I am a pasty gamer with a desk job in IT, so there goes that stereotype.

Oh, yeah, I forgot. I am allergic to mosquito bites. Stung by a wasp? No problem. Bit by a skeeter? Huge goose egg swelling, and it's all hot and nasty. It goes away after a coupla hours, but it is ridiculous. When I was a kid I stepped on a yellow jacket nest and got stung all to shit, even right next to my eyeball. Ever since then I don't really react to bee stings, even though I should, by all medical reasoning, have an anaphylactic response to it now. Yay for me, I guess.

I'm not alergic to anything I have yet to be exposed too, but I am really fucking scared of snakes if that helps.

Now:
Horses.  (Well - have not tested in the past few years. Needless to say - very allergic)

As a kid:
Peanut Butter
Cats
Dust
Grass
Smoke

The Lactose thing Rasix and a few others mention is interesting. As near as I can tell, I'm not allergic to milk, but if I have a lot of dairy without a lactose pill 20 minutes later I'll be sitting on the toilet. There are other foods that occasionally give the same reaction, but the lactose pill seems to keep it all in check. It was horrid before I figured out the whole thing, I'd wake up at 3:00 with my intestines cramping up. (I think a round of anti-biotics killed off some of my digestive enzimes. Why you can't take a pill to get them back is what I would like to know.)

It's not the enzymes that are killed by antibiotics, it's the beneficial bacteria in your gut. They help break down the stuff that the digestive enzymes in your gut can't handle. In fact, gas is caused by the respiration of those little critters. You can get them back by taking acidophilus cultures, which can be found in yogurt (make sure you get the kind with live cultures, like Nancy's) or by buying straight-up acidophilus at the health food store.

People who can't digest lactose are missing the lactase enzymes in their gut. That's what the lactose pill is made of. It breaks lactose down into glucose and galactose, if my cell biology serves me correct. Both glucose and galactose are simple sugars that the body can process more easily.

(Wiki check: sweet! All those cell bio classes paid off. I remembered right.)

Then what about people who are merely sensitive to lactose? Do they just have a shortfall of enzymes then?

Well, truth be told, milk is for babies. Humans are the only mammals that drink it past infancy (not counting when we feed it to our pets). I have no lactose sensitivity issues per se, but if I chug a glass of milk I get mucousy. And cheese kinda bloats me up (but it is SO worth it!). So I don't really know if people who are sensitive to dairy products just have a lesser concentration of lactase in their digestive tract or are sensitive to the milkfat. A high-fat diet can also be responsible for diarrhea, so I could easily see how a reaction to dairy might be construed as a lactose issue. Also, from what I've heard from friends with issues, goat and sheep's milk don't have the same effects as cow's milk, even though they're all rumenants (have four stomachs).