Is It Really A Food Allergy
A differential diagnosis is the process of telling the difference between a food allergy, a food intolerance, and other illnesses. When you go to the doctor’s office and say, “I think I have a food allergy,” they have to consider a list of other things that could cause similar symptoms and be confused with a food allergy. These include:
- Other diseases
- Psychological triggers
Foods can get contaminated with bacteria and toxins. Tainted meat sometimes mimics a food allergy when it’s really a type of food poisoning.
Histamine can reach high levels in cheese, some wines, and in certain kinds of fish, especially tuna and mackerel, if it hasn’t been refrigerated properly. When you eat foods with a lot of histamine, you could have a reaction that looks like an allergic reaction. It’s called histamine toxicity.
Sulfites are made naturally during the fermentation of wine, and they’re added to other foods to enhance crispness or prevent mold growth. High concentrations of sulfites can pose problems for people with severe asthma. They give off a gas called sulfur dioxide, which the person breathes in while they’re eating the food. This irritates their lungs and can trigger an asthma attack. That’s why the FDA banned sulfites as spray-on preservatives for fresh fruits and vegetables. But sulfites are still used in some foods.
Yellow dye number 5 can cause hives, although that’s rare.
How Allergies Are Treated
The best option is to identify the substances you are allergic to and stay away from those. And if you come into contact with them, there are treatments available to relieve the symptoms. Also available is allergen immunotherapy in which you are given allergy shots to decrease the sensitivity to allergens, which in many cases offers relief to allergy symptoms.
An allergy is the result of an exaggerated immune response towards perceived threats from agents that are usually harmless. When your body comes into contact with these allergens, it makes histamine. Histamine is a chemical released in the body when the immune system sees a threat and is defending against a potential enemy. This organic nitrogenous compound C5H9N3 is secreted by the white blood cells into the bloodstream as part of the local immune response. Its role, in simple terms, is to help the body get rid of the allergen. In most people and cases the reactions are mild but when it goes out of control you get allergy symptoms that need to be treated.
The allergic reactions caused by histamine include itchy skin, watery eyes, runny nose and breathing difficulty. Most of the minor symptoms are treated with antihistamines and steroids. As the name suggests, antihistamines help treat symptoms caused by histamines in the affected area. Antihistamines are available as tablets, capsules, liquid solutions, nasal sprays, eye drops, lotions and creams, which are used depending on the affected area.
Allergy To Inhaled Food Particles When You Have A Food Allergy
While it is not common, and it’s usually found only in those whose allergies are severe and highly sensitive, an allergic reaction to inhaling small particles of food from the air is possible. In fact, this is an increasingly recognized problem in children. If you’ve ever been on a plane and you’ve heard an announcement not to open any packages of peanuts, that’s why.
The most commonly reported type of this reaction is when people with a seafood allergy inhale odors from cooking fish and shellfish. Other foods that can release particles into the air when cooked and may induce allergic reactions include wheat, peanuts, milk, and eggs.
Most people with food allergies dontand shouldntworry about food allergens floating in the air that could cause them to have an allergic reaction. Still, its probably best for people with severe shellfish allergy to avoid seafood restaurants altogether, rather than to go and order chicken.
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The 8 Most Common Food Allergies
Food allergies are extremely common. In fact, they affect around 5% of adults and 8% of children and these percentages are rising .
Interestingly, although its possible for any food to cause an allergy, most food allergies are caused by just eight foods .
This article is a detailed review of the 8 most common food allergies. It discusses their symptoms, who is at risk and what you can do about it.
Protecting A Baby From Developing Food Allergies
- While pregnant or breastfeeding, don’t eat peanuts
- Delay onset of solids until six months
- Avoid cow’s milk, egg and fish until age one
- Delay peanuts, tree nuts and shell fish until age three.
Some children can grow out of food allergies. 90% of children outgrow milk and egg allergies by age 10. 20% of children will outgrow peanut allergy. Children often out grow wheat allergy by age two.
Note that chicken and egg products are used in the manufacture of some vaccines. It’s best to ask your family doctor what is in the vaccine.
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Can Cat Allergies Cause Anaphylactic Shock
Allergies, in general, can become lethal if they cause anaphylactic shock. Anaphylaxis is a rare but severe allergic reaction that can occur suddenly, escalate quickly, and potentially even be deadly.
The condition comes on rapidly and can lead to death if the individual doesnt receive prompt treatment. It progresses from symptoms like itchy rash, throat or tongue swelling, shortness of breath, vomiting, lightheadedness, and low blood pressure. Over the course of minutes to hours, symptoms can escalate and become deadly.
The most common triggers for anaphylactic reactions are food , latex, medication, and insect stings. Although cats are not listed as a common trigger for anaphylactic shock, that doesnt mean the idea of cat dander causing anaphylactic shock is completely out of the realm of reality.
Anyone who would suffer an anaphylactic reaction to a cat is most likely someone who already suffers a severe allergy to cats and is aware of their condition. A cat allergy that makes you a little sneezy would almost never suddenly escalate to an allergy so severe that it could cause anaphylactic shock.
What Is A Food Allergy
A food allergy is a condition in which certain foods trigger an abnormal immune response .
Its caused by your immune system wrongly recognizing some of the proteins in a food as harmful. Your body then launches a range of protective measures, including releasing chemicals like histamine, which causes inflammation.
For people who have a food allergy, even exposure to very small amounts of the problem food can cause an allergic reaction.
Symptoms can occur anywhere from a few minutes after exposure to a few hours later, and they may include some of the following:
- Swelling of the tongue, mouth or face
- Difficulty breathing
- Hives
- Itchy rash
In more severe cases, a food allergy can cause anaphylaxis. Symptoms, which can come on very quickly, include an itchy rash, swelling of the throat or tongue, shortness of breath and low blood pressure. Some cases can be fatal .
Many food intolerances are often mistaken for food allergies.
However, food intolerances never involve the immune system. This means that while they can severely impact your quality of life, they are not life threatening.
True food allergies can be divided into two main types: IgE antibody or non-IgE antibody. Antibodies are a type of blood protein used by your immune system to recognize and fight infection .
In an IgE food allergy, the IgE antibody is released by your immune system. In a non-IgE food allergy, IgE antibodies arent released, and other parts of the immune system are used to fight the perceived threat.
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S For Identifying Potential Triggers
“When someone suspects they have an allergy,” Ziegelbaum said, “I always recommend that they first see an allergist to screen for potential allergens. If allergy testing does not confirm a food allergy, then I recommend keeping a food journal to identify the cause of their allergy symptoms. Food journals can be helpful because it is hard to remember everything that we eat each day.” But just writing down what you eat each day is only the beginning.
“It is important to include in food journals what you ate, the time you ate it, and any symptoms experienced. By keeping food journals, it makes it easier to see patterns and repeat offenders of certain foods.” She recommends having a registered dietitian who’s knowledgeable in food allergies and elimination diets to review your food diary and guide you on next steps.
Sometimes elimination diets may be used to help you weed out what’s causing a problem. If you suspect you have a sensitivity to something, Dr. Pedre recommends a 28-day elimination diet to avoid suspected foods to get to what he calls a “blank slate” from which you can test the food as you reintroduce it to see if you still have a reaction to it. “Foods that are highly reactive may cause even worse symptoms once your system has been cleaned out,” he said.
How Parents Can Help Children With Food Allergies
Parents play a significant role in helping children cope with food allergies. The lure of eating out is very strong in children, so they have to be told about the consequences and how lethal it can be.
It has to be communicated to childrens friends so that they dont share food. Even the school staff have to be informed about the allergy.
Parents should pack food for children wherever they go. At school and even at parties. One school student with a food allergy says that her mother even packs her snacks and a homemade cake when she goes for birthday parties. My friends know of my allergy and are very accomodating, so they dont insist on sharing food with me, Fay said.
And when cooking food at home, its better to make it from scratch rather than using packaged or frozen ingredients. Because you never know whether it contains allergen traces.
If the children are old enough, teach them to use epinephrine kits and keep a couple of kits in their bag. In the case of younger children, leave a couple of kits at school and ensure that the school staff know to use them properly.
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Can A Gallon Of Water A Day Kill You
There isn’t a set amount of water that always causes life-threatening water poisoning. The kidneys of a healthy adult can flush out 20 to 28 L of water each day, but they can only get rid of about 1 L each hour. This makes it hard for your kidneys to keep up when you drink more than 1 L per hour.
Furthermore, is it safe to drink a gallon of water a day?
Summary Drinking a gallon of water per day may work for some people but could be harmful for others. Although rare, drinking too much water too fast can cause sodium levels in your blood to drop too low, causing a dangerous condition called hyponatremia.
Also, will I die if I drink a gallon of water? All the cells and organs in your body need water to function properly. However, excessive water consumption can lead to water intoxication. This has been known to be fatal in some cases.
People also ask, can you die from drinking a gallon of water in an hour?
Therefore, in order to avoid hyponatremia symptoms, you should not drink more than 27-33 ounces of water per hour, on average . Finally, a 9-year old girl who drank almost a gallon of water in 1-2 hours developed water intoxication .
Is it OK to drink 3 gallons of water a day?
Hyponatremia occurs when consuming too much water dilutes the sodium in the blood, says New York City-based registered dietician Amy Shapiro. “For most people, three gallons of water is too much to consume in one day,” she says.
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What You Eat Can Kill You
By | Submitted On April 22, 2009
Food is necessary to sustain life and many love to eat. Going to your favorite restaurant or eating that Thanksgiving meal is a tradition that many people look forward to. But, there are literally thousands of “Food Sensitive” people who can suffer side effects if they ingest particular foods.
People who are sensitive to specific foods need to deal with daily issues for the most basic human instinct, Hunger. Imagine having to investigate every ingredient of every meal to make sure you are not dining something that could cause you to be ill?
An allergic reaction to a specific food is caused by an adverse response of the body’s immune system to a certain component in that food. This component is usually a protein, an essential building block for nutrition and health.
Children and adults alike need to be wary of the foods that cause reactions to their immune systems. Many will not even know about their food allergy exists until it manifests itself into a rash, sores or swollen areas of the body. For the extreme case of food sensitivity, a reaction can be life threatening. Analphylactic shock – a condition that can cause airways to close shutting of life giving breath leading to death can be caused by the body s inability to deal with a particular food.
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Symptoms Of A Food Allergy
The symptoms of a food allergy almost always develop a few seconds or minutes after eating the food.
Some people may develop a severe allergic reaction , which can be life threatening.
The most common type of allergic reaction to food is known as an IgE-mediated food allergy.
Symptoms include:
- tingling or itching in the mouth
- a raised, itchy red rash in some cases, the skin can turn red and itchy, but without a raised rash
- swelling of the face, mouth , throat or other areas of the body
- difficulty swallowing
- failure to grow at the expected rate
What Are The Symptoms
It might begin with severe itching of the eyes or face. Within minutes it could get more serious. You could find it hard to swallow or breathe. It can also affect your stomach — you might have belly pain, cramps,vomiting, or get diarrhea. Your skin could be involved too, with hives , and angioedema, a swelling thatâs like hives but shows up under your skin.
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While Science Seeks Answers People Live With Food Allergies
Six-year-old Xaviar Peterson is severely allergic to a wide range of food. See how he and his mom deal with the day-to-day challenges.
When Food Can Kill You: Coping With Severe Food Allergies
What do peanuts, shrimp, and eggs, have in common?On the surface, nothing much. But all of the above, it turns out, are common causes of food allergies. About 15 million Americans are allergic to food, with miserable symptoms that range from hives and rashes to runny noses, dripping eyes, coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath, and even the very worst case scenarioanaphylaxis and death.
About 90 percent of these allergies are reactions to just eight foods. The chief culprits are milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, wheat, fish, and shellfish. One out of every 13 kids has a food allergyan average of two per classroom nationwide. Many grow out of their milk, egg, and soy allergies, which are often history by the time theyre teenagers, but the three million who are allergic to peanuts and tree nuts are generally stuck with the condition for life.
We know how allergic reactions work and we know their proximate causes, but why do allergies develop in the first place? And why are they on the rise?
Clearly, when it comes to allergies, theres more research to be done. In the meantime, the best approach for those with allergies is caution.
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A young security guard at a mall in the UAE approached Dr Arijit complaining of excessive sneezing, runny nose, nasal blockage, itching of the nose and eyes.
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Use The Gerd Supplement Protocol
Using this GERD supplement protocol is often more effective than using PPIs. In fact, it has helped hundreds of my clients heal from debilitating digestive issues. In this 2006 study, 176 GERD subjects were put on a supplement protocol and compared with 175 GERD subjects that were administered 20 mg of omeprazole . At the end of 40 days, 100 percent of the patients in the supplement group reported relief of symptoms compared to 66 percent of the medication group. And here is where it gets fun. Once the initial 40-day trial ended, the researchers took the people who did not respond to the medication and gave them the supplements. All of 60 of them…100%…had resolution of their symptoms on the supplement protocol. Check out our GERD supplement packagethat contains these key nutrients for healing.
How Can I Be Prepared
If youâre allergic to bee stings or anything else that could bring on anaphylaxis, ask your doctor to prescribe an epinephrine injection kit. Carry two with you at all times.
The best way to avoid a reaction is to stay away from triggers you know about. Tell your doctor about any drug allergies before you get any kind of health care treatment, even dental work.
Itâs also a good idea to wear a medical alert bracelet or pendant, or carry a card that identifies your allergy. In an emergency, it could save your life.
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