Food Allergy

 

Introduction

Allergies in foods occur when your immune system makes a mistake. Normally, your immune system protects you from germs and disease. It does this by making antibodies that help you fight off bacteria, viruses, and other tiny organisms that can make you sick. But if you have a food allergy, your immune system mistakenly treats something in a certain food as if it's really dangerous to you.

The same sort of thing happens with any allergy, whether it is a medicine, pollen in the air, or a food, like peanuts. So the thing itself is not harmful, but the way your body reacts to it is.

 

These foods cause the most food allergies:

• Eggs
• Milk, particularly cow's milk
• Peanuts and other nuts
• Seafood, such as shrimp
• Soy
• Wheat

 

Reaction

The histamine then causes symptoms that affect a person's eyes, nose, throat, respiratory system, skin, and digestive system. A person with a food allergy could have a mild reaction - or it could be more severe.

An allergic reaction could happen right away or a few hours after the person eats it. Some of the first signs that a person may be having an allergic reaction could be a runny nose, an itchy skin rash such as hives, or a tingling in the tongue or lips. Other signs include:

• tightness in the throat
• hoarse voice
• wheezing
• cough
• nausea
• vomiting
• stomach pain
• diarrhea

In the most serious cases, a food allergy can cause anaphylaxis. This is a sudden, severe allergic reaction in which several problems occur all at once and can involve the skin, breathing, digestion, the heart, and blood vessels. A person's blood pressure can drop, breathing tubes can narrow, and the tongue can swell.

People at risk for this kind of a reaction have to be very careful and need a plan for handling emergencies, when they might need to get special medicine to stop these symptoms from getting worse.

 

Symptoms

Experts believe that allergies could be hereditary, which means if your parent or other close relative has certain allergies like hay fever, you're more likely to develop the allergies. Many people react to a certain food but are not actually allergic.

 

Check-Up

If your doctor thinks you might have a food allergy, he or she will probably send you to see a doctor who specializes in allergies. The allergy specialist will ask you about past reactions and how long it takes between eating the food and getting the symptom, such as hives. The allergist also may ask about whether anyone else in your family has allergies or other allergy-related conditions, such as eczema or asthma.

The allergist may also want to do a skin test. This is a way of seeing how your body reacts to a very small amount of the food that is giving you trouble. The allergist will use a liquid extract of the food and, possibly, other common allergy-causing foods to see if you react to any of them.

The doctor will make a little scratch on your skinand drop a little of the liquid extract on the scratched spot or spots. Different extracts will go on the different scratch spots, so the doctor can see how your skin reacts to each substance. If you get a reddish, raised spot, it shows that you are allergic to that food or substance.

Some doctors may also take a blood sample and send it to a lab. That is where it will be mixed with some of the food or substance you may be allergic to and checked for certain antibodies.

It is important to remember that even though the doctor tests for food allergies by exposing you to a very small amount of the food, you should not try this at home.

 

Treatment

There is no special medicine for food allergies. The best treatment is simply to avoid the food itself and any foods or drinks that contain the food.

One way to figure that out is to read food labels. Any foods that might cause an allergic reaction will be listed near or in the ingredient list.

Doctors and allergy organizations also can help by providing lists of safe foods and unsafe foods. Some people who are very sensitive may need to avoid foods just because they are made in the same factory that also makes their problem food.

 

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