Kara Wada, MD

Kara Wada is an adult and pediatric allergy, immunology, and lifestyle medicine physician.

Clinical ghosts and why they haunt our exam rooms

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

July 18, 2025

As a quadruple board-certified physician and a patient with a complex autoimmune disease, I live on both sides of the examination table. My professional life is about finding answers; my personal life has been about the agony of waiting for them.

This dual perspective makes it impossible to ignore a systemic problem in modern medicine: A class of diagnoses that live in the shadows. Seronegative Sjögren’s, mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), …

From doctor to patient: my Sjogren’s journey and a challenge to colleagues

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

April 28, 2024

As physicians, we are trained to dissect symptoms and to hunt for a diagnosis. But my own journey with Sjogren’s, like my patients’, wasn’t a textbook case. It was a puzzle with pieces scattered over decades, ignored or dismissed at each turn, including by myself.

There’s the college student, fearing the agony a simple meal might bring, never dreaming of asking why. The med student, convinced of an impending heart attack, …

A specialist’s journey in health care advocacy

Kara Wada, MD

Physician

April 9, 2024

As an allergy, immunology, and autoimmune disease specialist, I frequently see patients whose stories are a harsh indictment of our medical system. They’ve been dismissed, misdiagnosed, and forced to navigate a maze designed for quick fixes, not the complexities they endure. These unseen patients fight multi-system illnesses that defy textbooks. Their journeys highlight just how broken our approach to chronic disease truly is.

Playing “medical hot potato,” they bounce between specialists …

Navigating spring allergies in the era of climate change

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

March 7, 2024

As winter chill thaws and the spring flowers begin to bloom, many of us find ourselves grappling with the unwelcome return of sneezing, itching, and congestion that signals spring allergy season. This year, like nearly every in the last decade, seems to have arrived earlier—a trend that’s becoming increasingly common. As a physician specializing in allergy and immunology, I’ve observed firsthand the impact of climate change and air pollution on …

Intralymphatic immunotherapy: a breakthrough approach for allergies

Amber Patterson, MD & Kara Wada, MD & Tiffany Owens, MD

Meds

January 28, 2024

Are you or a loved one constantly battling the frustrating symptoms of seasonal or year-round allergies? You are not alone; millions around the globe are affected by sneezing, itchy, watery red eyes, stuffy, runny noses, and headaches. Avoidance of triggers and medications may provide temporary relief, but for those seeking a longer-lasting or more natural solution, immunotherapy (IT) can be life-changing. IT provides sustained benefits of decreased symptoms and medication …

Enhancing patient care: strategies for physicians to prevent medical gaslighting

Kara Wada, MD

Physician

January 17, 2024

As physicians, our primary goal is to provide the best possible care to our patients. However, even with the best intentions, medical gaslighting can occur, leading to patient distress and potentially harmful outcomes. Medical gaslighting is not often intentional. It can happen when physicians, under time constraints, facing diagnostic challenges, or experiencing burnout, inadvertently invalidate a patient’s symptoms or concerns.

Just a few years ago, I found myself on the other …

Hit pause before embarking on a health guru’s protocol

Kara Wada, MD

Physician

November 2, 2023

In today’s age, it’s common to encounter a myriad of protocols, often promoted by celebrity doctors or health gurus, each promising solutions for various health concerns, from thyroid and adrenal issues to immune system and gut health. But what exactly is a protocol in this context? It is essentially a set of guidelines or rules designed to address specific health issues or optimize well-being. These protocols often come with dietary …

Challenges faced by patients with mast cell disorders

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

October 15, 2023

As an allergist/immunologist, the spectrum of mast cell disorders, including mastocytosis, idiopathic anaphylaxis, chronic hives, and angioedema, is not a new concept. That said, in recent years, we have seen an uptick in patients presenting with a spectrum of symptoms attributed to misbehaving mast cells. Although the medical community has acquired extensive knowledge of these more established diagnoses over time, the newer entity mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) is not …

Pageantry: an unconventional catalyst for career advancement in academic medicine

Hailey Nelson, MD & Kara Wada, MD

Physician

October 6, 2023

In an unlikely intersection, pageantry has the potential to play a pivotal role in accentuating career progression in academic medicine. Through meticulously crafting one’s professional demeanor and image, physicians can hone their interpersonal and networking skills and bolster their professional credibility. Drs. Wada and Nelson share how their participation in pageants over the years has served as an influential catalyst for success, both in medical school admissions and academic promotion.

Pageantry, …

Ragweed allergy peaks during college football season

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

September 2, 2023

Not only is it kickoff time for college football season, but it’s also prime time for fall allergies. For the 50 million Americans who suffer from ragweed allergy, the late summer and early fall signal the onset of runny noses, sneezing, congestion, cough, itchy watery eyes, and in more severe cases, sinus infections and asthma exacerbations.

Seasonal allergies are a huge source of frustration and fatigue for many of us, causing …

What every clinician needs to know about Sjogren’s from a physician turned patient

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

July 21, 2023

In the 4+ years since my own diagnosis, I have continued to peel back the layers of my illness story, realizing that seemingly unrelated complaints from my teens and twenties were actually early signs and symptoms of what would later be formally labeled as Sjogren’s. It wasn’t until my mid-30s that I finally sought evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment for this systemic progressive autoimmune disease.

Frankly, my $250K education didn’t help much …

Is inflammation too much of a good thing?

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

July 7, 2023

Inflammation is currently a popular topic, and I must admit that I’ve fallen into the trap of vilifying this natural physiological phenomenon. Simply put, inflammation is our body’s response to infection, injury, or insult. Heat, redness, swelling, pain, and pus signal that you are injured or sick and provide the necessary feedback to seek treatment or avoid further injury.

Human nature often leads us to categorize things as either good or …

How modern lifestyle changes are disrupting our immune systems

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

June 9, 2023

In addition to a steep increase in prevalence, in recent decades, we have seen an evolution in the ways our immune system misbehaves: eosinophilic esophagitis, mast cell disorders, and early onset colon cancer, among many others. This data alone should remind us that we are an ever-evolving species. With our rapidly changing lifestyle over the last century, it shouldn’t be surprising that we are seeing some sort of physiologic hangover.

Unconventional health care, flawed studies, and biases: Navigating the complexities for optimal well-being

Kara Wada, MD

Physician

June 1, 2023

When I speak with my less “crunchy” peers, I encounter a considerable amount of resistance to ideas that have initially gained traction in naturopathic or integrative spaces: food as medicine, making “non-toxic” swaps, meditation, or reiki, to name a few.

As humans, we certainly love a good us vs. them mentality, tribalism and all.

But the reality is, many of us have witnessed harm inflicted on patients who sought care in less …

Nose-brain connection: The surprising link between allergies and mental health revealed

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

May 25, 2023

Artificially separating the body from the mind has been one of the biggest missteps of modern medicine. Over the last few years, we have increasingly read studies confirming the mind-body connection, the gut-brain axis, and now we are learning more about the nose-brain connection.

Given the direct proximity between our nose and our brain, this connection shouldn’t be much of a surprise. The olfactory nerve, cranial nerve 1, wires directly to …

Healing clinician-associated trauma: a call for connection

Kara Wada, MD

Physician

February 22, 2023

Our modern existence is a state of perpetual disconnection.

Earbuds in. Staring down at our screens. Avoiding eye contact.

Disconnected from each other and ourselves, we go about our lives in adult parallel play.

Numbing any hint of uncomfortable feelings with more Netflix or scrolling.

The social, political, and health consequences of this existence have accelerated over the last three years. As a result, the physician-patient relationship is more fractured than ever. Physicians are …

5 things I would never do as an allergy and immune system expert

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

August 11, 2022

Jumping on the recent TikTok trend of medical professionals sharing the things they would never do given their knowledge and expertise, I am sharing the five things I would never do as a board-certified allergist-immunologist.

1. I would never rely on a Primatene mist inhaler to treat my asthma or breathing symptoms alone. Primatene mist is a controversial over-the-counter epinephrine inhaler that can be used for mild intermittent asthma. This inhaler …

3 misperceptions and myths about food allergies

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

May 20, 2022

Recently, singer and musician Halsey shared her recent allergy testing results on TikTok along with the news of her recent diagnosis of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and Sjogren’s Disease. Pictured were the telltale red welts we inflict day in and day out in allergy clinic with our scratch tests and a long list of foods to which she was possibly allergic.

Halsey has a history of being …

5 science-backed strategies an allergist-mom is using to protect her family’s health

Kara Wada, MD

Conditions

January 25, 2022

Like most parents, my children are my world. I would do anything to protect them and keep them healthy. It is Darwinian. Instinctual.

Most of us get by with a combination of sage advice from generations past interspersed with a “know better do better” approach. Personally and professionally, I encountered this duality pretty quickly. In March 2016, my husband and I hopped on a plane to Los Angeles with our 4-month-old …

Burnout and bias? Or medical gaslighting?

Kara Wada, MD

Physician

July 29, 2021

Five years into my practice as an academic allergist/immunologist, my perceptions continue to evolve. Though once primarily informed by my mentors’ wisdom, I continue incorporating my experiences as both physician and autoimmune patient to guide my practice. Though we all know medicine isn’t like it used to be, nostalgia is bittersweet. In its wake, the real question remains: how are we going to respond to ongoing changes and fight for …

Kara Wada, MD

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