From : Bio-Magnetic Therapy
By Charlene Laino
WebMD Guest Blogger
(Washington, D.C.) -- Food allergies are scary stuff.
If you've ever seen someone have an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts,
shellfish, or any of the other common foods to which people are often allergic,
you know what I mean. Their face turns bright red. Their lips, face, neck, and
throat swell. Their airways constrict, and breathing becomes labored. Without
prompt treatment, death can occur. All in a matter of minutes.
Such reactions are extreme, but not as uncommon as you may think. Food
allergies have skyrocketed, increasing 18% over the past decade alone. About 12
million Americans are now counted among its victims, 3 million of whom are
under the age of 18. Food allergy is believed to be the leading cause of
anaphylaxis outside the hospital setting, causing an estimated 50,000 trips to
the ER and 150 deaths each year in the U.S.
Meanwhile, some new food allergies are on the rise. Sesame allergies have
probably increased more than any other type of food allergy over the past 10 to
20 years, according to new research presented at this year's meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and
Immunology.
"They're now clearly one of the six or seven most common food allergens in
the U.S.," says Robert
Wood, MD, director of the division of pediatric allergy and immunology at Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Avoiding the offending food will, of course, ward off any reaction, but that's
not as easy as you may think. You may be vigilant about checking labels, but
hidden ingredients abound, other research shows.
Some 5% of food products that carry a "may contain" label actually
contain an allergen, says Scott H. Sicherer, MD, of the Jaffe Food Allergy
Institute at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Labels on another 2% of food
products leave out the ingredient altogether.
Among the most risky of food allergies are those to peanuts. They're the cause
of half of all food allergy deaths. Life-threatening reactions can occur after
simply reusing a knife that wasn't properly scrubbed after being used to spread
peanut butter.
Adding insult to injury: The allergy shots used to treat reactions to insect
stings and pollen have never proven safe for people with food allergies.
So it was no surprise that news coming out of the meeting on a new treatment
for peanut allergies grabbed headlines nationwide. Five of nine children with
peanut allergies who swallowed small doses of peanut protein under a doctor's
supervision daily for over two and one-half years can now eat unlimited amounts
of peanuts without any signs of allergic reaction. It's the first time the
approach -- called oral immunotherapy -- has freed people of a food allergy,
researchers say.
"This is exciting stuff," says Harold B. Kaiser, MD, an allergist at
the University of
Minnesota who is studying
ragweed allergies.
"Peanut allergies are a significant problem that has kids and parents
frightened. This promises to be an option so that they don't have to be scared
every time they're in a peanut environment," he tells WebMD. (And
frightened they are. Sicherer says many parents with peanut-allergic kids avoid
flying due to worries about airborne allergens when everyone opens their
peanuts. The fact that most airlines don't give out nuts anymore hasn't
alleviated their concerns. The potential for anaphylactic reactions is just too
steep.)
There was good news for kids with milk allergies, too. Eight of 13 children
with dairy allergies who wore a skin patch for three months could drink three
times as much milk as before without showing signs of an allergic reaction,
suggests a study led by Christophe Dupont, MD, PhD, of Hospital Saint Vincent
de Paul in Paris.
Other Mt. Sinai researchers report that a
formulation of nine Chinese herbs was safe and brought on immune system changes
suggesting that the body was starting to build up tolerance against food
allergens. Only about a dozen people with peanut, tree nut, fish, or shellfish
allergies have been studied over the short-term, so stay tuned.
Other research shows that toddlers who have egg, elm, or cat allergies are at
increased risk of developing eczema by age 4. Children whose parents have eczema
are also at risk. Fortunately, traditional Chinese herbal medicine may help
here too, relieving the dry, itchy, scaly skin of the skin condition in
children and adults, according to two other studies.
While studies on food allergies took top honors at this year's meeting, new
reports on asthma are worthy of an honorable mention.
Thanks in large part to new medications, children with severe asthma are
breathing better than in years past.
In another study, cholesterol-lowering statin drugs cut the risk of
hospitalization and emergency room visits in people with asthma by about
one-third.
All in all, I'd say this year's findings are nothing to sneeze at.
Till next month, PLEASE take care of yourself and your loved ones….Have a GREAT MONTH !
Gary & Janet