Editorial Policy

These rules cover everything on AllergyNest. Our editor, Ara Ohanian, is responsible for what we publish. He is not a doctor or a clinician.

What we publish and what we don’t

We publish nine kinds of pages today.

• Allergen guides. Our 40 guides under Allergies explain what an allergen is, the symptoms it causes and when to see an allergist. Every guide has a “See an allergist if” card based on guidance from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). Guides to foods, insect stings and latex also show a “Call 911” card based on MedlinePlus’s list of the signs of anaphylaxis.
• Symptom pages. Our 26 pages under Symptoms answer “Can allergies cause it?” for common symptoms, name the allergens behind each one, explain how to tell it from a cold or an infection, and say when to see a doctor. Each has the same “See an allergist if” card, and the pages about breathing trouble and swelling open with the “Call 911” card.
• Condition pages. Our pages under Conditions explain allergic conditions such as hay fever, allergic asthma and eczema: what each one is, its symptoms, what triggers it and when to see an allergist. In place of treatment, they say to talk to an allergist. Conditions that can involve a severe reaction or swelling of the airway open with the “Call 911” card.
• Guides and glossary. Our guides explain how something works, such as the difference between a pollen index and a pollen count, how pollen forecasts are made, what a mold spore count measures and what food allergen labels must say, or a seasonal allergy such as cedar fever. Our glossary defines the words our pages use. They follow the same rules as our other pages: a numbered source for every fact and no treatment advice.
• Tools. Our tools give quick answers from your own details. Cold or allergies? compares your symptoms with what its sources say about colds and allergies, cites a source for every reason, and isn’t a diagnosis; it opens with the “Call 911” card. The allergy symptom quiz points from when and where symptoms happen to the kinds of triggers to read about, with a source for every reason, and opens with the same card. What’s pollinating now lists the plants in Google’s forecast across our metros. Compare two cities puts today’s pollen for two metros side by side.
• Food allergen recalls. Our recall pages list US food recalls for undeclared allergens from FDA’s enforcement reports. Each one shows FDA’s reason, product descriptions, distribution and dates in FDA’s words; the only thing we add is the allergen tags, matched from FDA’s reason. They aren’t alerts: a recall appears once FDA has classified it. Data sources explains more.
• Reports. Our reports publish figures we compute ourselves from public data, such as allergist access: allergists enrolled in Medicare for every 100,000 people, by state and metro area. Each report explains its method, gives a source for every figure and offers its counts as a download. Reports count clinicians but never name them.
• Allergist directory. Our directory lists doctors with an allergy or immunology specialty from two federal records: Medicare’s Doctors and Clinicians file and the national provider registry (NPPES). Each listing says which records confirm it and how current they are, and lists are in alphabetical order. Every doctor is listed free. We don’t rate, rank or recommend doctors, and our tools and quizzes never point to a particular doctor or practice. How we list doctors explains the rules.
• Pollen pages. Pollen levels for 131 US metro areas under Pollen, built from Google’s pollen data. Each metro page also has a short local write-up on the area’s geography, climate and the plants behind each season, next to NOAA’s climate averages for a nearby weather station.

We don’t publish pages about treatment, medicines or dosing. Those wait until a clinician has reviewed them. We also don’t give personal medical advice. Our pages are general information, not a diagnosis or a plan for your care. Our medical disclaimer says more.

Sources we use

Our guides are built from primary sources of three kinds:

• US government agencies, federal and state, such as the CDC, the FDA, the USDA and MedlinePlus from the National Library of Medicine, and peer-reviewed research.
• Professional societies, such as the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI) and ACAAI, and national patient organizations, such as the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA).
• Universities and their extension services.

Where a guide explains how a pollen index or forecast works, it also cites the provider’s own documentation, such as Google’s pages on its Pollen API.

We don’t cite product makers, online forums or AI chatbots as sources. Because we draft and check our pages with AI, we also don’t cite sites whose terms forbid using their content with AI tools, such as the A.D.A.M. Medical Encyclopedia on MedlinePlus. MedlinePlus’s own health topic summaries, written by the National Library of Medicine, are public domain, and we do cite those. Where an independent source covers the same point, we prefer it to a study funded by industry.

A source has to support the exact claim it is cited for. If we can’t find a good source for a claim, we leave the claim out.

How a guide is made

Each allergen guide, symptom page, condition page and guide, the glossary, the Cold or allergies? tool and the allergy symptom quiz go through the same steps.

1. Sources first. We gather the sources for the topic from the kinds listed above.
2. AI-assisted draft. A first draft is written with the help of AI (Anthropic’s Claude), working from those sources.
3. Fact-check. Separate AI fact-check passes, also run with Claude but independently of the draft, open every cited source and check each claim against the source it cites. A claim its source doesn’t support is fixed or removed. A person does not check each claim.
4. Editor. The editor is responsible for the guide as published.

Every claim in a guide links to a numbered source, and the full list of sources is on the page. Each guide shows the date it last changed.

What the byline means

Each guide names its editor and shows the date it last changed. At the end of each guide, we say how it was made and state plainly: “Not reviewed by a clinician.”

We say it because it is true. No page on AllergyNest has been reviewed by a doctor or other clinician, and our editor is not one. We want you to know how much checking stands behind a page, so you can weigh what you read and make decisions about your health with your own doctor or allergist.

We don’t use labels that suggest a doctor or other expert has checked our content. We will not say a page was reviewed by a clinician unless one has reviewed it.

Pollen pages

Our pollen pages are generated by code from the source data. Nobody writes the numbers by hand. Each block of pollen values shows:

• the source, with Google’s credit line;
• the scale, the Universal Pollen Index from 0 (None) to 5 (Very high), with each level shown as a number and a word.

Each metro’s page also shows when its values were retrieved.

The index comes from Google’s model. It is a modeled estimate, not a measured pollen count, and it can be wrong. We label it as modeled and never call it a count.

Each metro’s local write-up is made like a guide: sources first, an AI-assisted draft, then separate AI fact-check passes against every cited source. Every fact links to a numbered source listed below the write-up, and the write-up shows the date it last changed. Its climate figures come from NOAA’s 1991–2020 climate normals, and the page names the weather station they come from. The write-ups use local and regional sources such as city and county governments, state agencies, the USDA Forest Service and university extension services.

When values are missing or late, we say so instead of showing a number. We don’t fill gaps with guesses or invented numbers. Our pollen coverage is the 48 contiguous states and Washington, DC. Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are not covered. Our data sources page explains where the data comes from and the terms we follow.

Updates

Sources change, and our guides change with them. When we learn that a source we cite has changed in a way that affects a guide, we update the guide and change its date. Whenever we change what a guide says, its date changes too.

Independence

What we publish is decided by our editorial standards, not by anyone who pays us. Today, no one does: we have no advertisers, no sponsors and no affiliate links.

• Advertisers and sponsors. If we add them, they will never write, review or approve our editorial content. If we add affiliate links, commissions will never decide what we say about a product. Our advertising and affiliate policy sets out the rules.
• Aragil. Our editor also runs Aragil, a marketing agency that works with allergy practices. Aragil is a separate business. Aragil clients get no special treatment in our editorial content or in the order of any directory listing. If we name or feature an Aragil client, we disclose the relationship.
• Clinicians. We don’t recommend or endorse any particular clinician or clinic.
• Clinician contributors. We plan to invite licensed clinicians to write articles under their own names. When we do, we will check each contributor’s license against public records and disclose any conflicts of interest and any compensation, including a free or enhanced directory profile, at the top of their article. A contributor’s article does not mean they reviewed any other page. Our clinician contributors page has the details.

Corrections

If you find an error, email hello@allergynest.com with the subject “Correction”. We check every report against our sources and fix confirmed errors. When an error in a guide is significant, we add a note to the guide saying what changed and when. Our corrections policy explains the full process.

AI

We use AI to help draft our guides from the sources we choose, and to run the fact-check passes. We never cite an AI chatbot as a source, and every claim is checked against the source it cites. How we use AI explains more.