Posted on 05/13/2010 1:41:01 PM PDT by decimon
Many who think they have food allergies actually do not.
A new report, commissioned by the federal government, finds the field is rife with poorly done studies, misdiagnoses and tests that can give misleading results.
While there is no doubt that people can be allergic to certain foods, with reproducible responses ranging from a rash to a severe life-threatening reaction, the true incidence of food allergies is only about 8 percent for children and less than 5 percent for adults, said Dr. Marc Riedl, an author of the new paper and an allergist and immunologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Yet about 30 percent of the population believe they have food allergies. And, Dr. Riedl said, about half the patients coming to his clinic because they had been told they had a food allergy did not really have one.
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“Everyone has a different definition” of a food allergy, said Dr. Jennifer J. Schneider Chafen of the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Palo Alto Health Care System in California and Stanford’s Center for Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, who was the lead author of the new report. People who receive a diagnosis after one of the two tests most often used — pricking the skin and injecting a tiny amount of the suspect food and looking in blood for IgE antibodies, the type associated with allergies — have less than a 50 percent chance of actually having a food allergy, the investigators found.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Ping.
I don’t beleive a word of this, the fact is allergies are increasing tremendously, mostly as a result of GMO Pharming, but not just the food, the terrible mold storms these crops release, and even worse, the various forms of fungal spores ...
I agree with your statement.
Many people confuse an intolerance with an allergy. Allergy is defined as an immune system response.
A systemic reaction to a fungal toxin is not allergy.
The same can be said about any given story from the NY Slimes...
As someone who treats allergies, this is a very difficult situation to categorize at times. Blood and skin tests are not entirely foolproof, history is inconsistent and treatment strategies are not uniform. You can be allergic on a blood test but yet have no reaction when ingesting certain foods. Also, tests can be negative but severe reactions can also occur. Also no immunotherapy available for food allergies. Cannot give allergy shots for peanuts like we can for ragweed. So much to learn about food allergies.
I had to hold my son tight as the nurses poked him with a bunch of needles that had food traces. His back looked horrible with welts all over it from the places he got reactions.
About a year ago, I ate some walnuts. Then about a half hour later I went ou for a run. About half way into my run my throat started to close up. It was a windy day and I figured it was just my allergies kicking in. I started getting itchy.
I finished my run. By then my throat was really swollen and I had hives all over. I had never has anything like it. I jumped in my pool. Still I was reacting like crazy. I popped a benadryl and it started to calm down. It was like nothing I had experienced before or since. Hope it never happens again.
I went to the doc the next day. He said it was likely “exercise induced anaphylaxis” brought on by mold on the nuts.
explain, please. I have two children with severe reactions to peanuts, sesame paste & shellfish. Both tested positive for allergies. I’m not familiar with fungal toxins and related ‘systemic response’.
I’ve suspected exposure to artificial sweeteners during pregnancy to be a potential problem. I did not consume artificial sweeteners with two prior pregnancies, since weight wasn’t a concern, and neither child has any allergies.
Hope I never get that. Mold on the nuts, that is.
Just don’t leave them laying around in the pantry for too long...(:
http://www.knowthecause.com/
For lack of understanding, the public tends to describe a food intolerance as an allergy, but even doctors are not always clear about the distinction. Moreover, the available tests are cumbersome and not always reliable or consistent. The overall burden of offending substances makes a difference, as do nutritional status and recent or ongoing infections.
I have had a lifelong ALLERGY to eggs and milk, and nearly died from an allergic reaction to cow’s milk as an infant. I still get severe, delayed reactions from exposure.
Now that I have a very severe allergy to latex, I have found that I have the same reaction to bananas, kiwis, avocados, as I do to latex. All of these are foods I used to love to eat.
I’m one of those people who never gets poison ivy, though, and if a tick bites me, it dies, LOL! Perhaps I am from a galaxy far, far away....
You seem to be supporting the ‘Who knows?’ tone of the article.
The peanut et al is n allergic reaction, IgE immunosystem gets triggered.
But exposure to fungal spores or bodies can make you ill, because of direct action of mycotoxins- not an allergy, a toxic response, not an immune response.
Lactose intolerance is not an allergy, those folks lack an enzyme to digest lactose. Milk allergy is like peanut allergy, an immunoresponse to a particular protein.
Have you been to www.foodallergy.org?
http://www.peanutallergy.com/ has good info and discussion forums, though they tend to be peopled by liberals who want to eliminate peanuts from the county rather than teach their kids to survive in a peanut world.
How could so many people be allergic to their environment? It doesn’t make sense.
You have AIDS.
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