Food Allergies
Food allergies are the worst type of allergies to have. You have to watch what you eat and read labels of everything that you purchase from the super-market. Even if it is just a little bit of the food or product, you can have a full-blown attack and your throat will swell. It is important to avoid these types of attacks as much as possible, because most food allergens will cause your throat and passageways to swell and this will stop your breathing. If you do not receive medical attention quickly, it is quite possible to suffocate due to an allergen.
If you experience an allergy attack for the first time and do not understand what could have caused it, you can go to your family doctor and then they will help you to find the trigger point. This will help you in the future when you are trying to avoid the food. Your allergy attack experience will differ from person to person. This is because everyone's immune system is different.
You may just swell in the face or you could very well have you air passageways close up. Your doctor will help you with your first experience by running multiple tests to see what may have caused the reaction. This procedure can be painful and time-consuming. During the process, they usually take a patch of skin, usually on your back, and inject a bit of the allergen. This will cause a reaction to the specific area and will tell the doctor everything that you are allergic to.
How to avoid an attack: you need to do severeal things. First you need to identify what allergies that you have. Then you have to cut those items out of your life for good. No matter how much you like the allergen, like crawfish, you must avoid from eating it. You need to understand that this will control a piece of your diet. You will start to read labels of the food you eat and purchase. This is important to people who are allergic to wheat products or dairy products. They are common ingredients that can be used for practically anything. This is why you must read your labels.
Recommended Reading
- Allergies to wheat
- Sharing Information With Others About Your Food Allergies
- Reading Food Labels for Allergies
- Common Food Allergies and the Reactions They Cause
- Fighting Off Food Allergy Reactions
Food Allergies
Ever eaten something that made you break into rashes? How about itchiness of the throat, around the eyes, your ears, and even your hands and feet? These are actually symptoms of food allergies.
Food allergies are a condition where the body's immune system becomes hypersensitized. As a result of this hypersensitized state, it mistakenly believes that food entering the body is harmful and creates antibodies to counteract it. So, the next time you eat that food, the immune system releases massive amounts of these antibodies and other chemicals, including histamine, as a protective measure against the "harmful" substance.
The release of these chemicals is what triggers your food allergies to act up. The allergic symptoms could affect any part of the body, but mostly the respiratory system, gastrointestinal tract, skin, and the cardiovascular system. An estimated 11 million Americans suffer from true food allergies, with symptoms ranging from the mildly inconvenient to uncomfortable to complete collapse of major organs of the body, a condition known as anaphylaxis.
Symptoms and Treatment
If you've had allergic reactions before, then you probably are already familiar with the symptoms of food allergies. It could range from a tingling sensation in the mouth, the swelling of the tongue and the throat, difficulty breathing, hives, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, drop in blood pressure, and loss of consciousness to death. Typically, the symptoms appear within minutes or two hours after the person has eaten the food he or she is allergic to.
The best treatment to food allergies is strict avoidance of foods you have allergic reactions to. There are no medications as of yet that would totally cure food allergies. Your doctor would probably prescribe drugs to treat the symptoms, but as to cure, there is none so far. Epinephrine, also called "adrenaline," is the medication of choice for controlling a severe reaction.
Most people do outgrow their food allergies. However, peanuts, nuts, fish, and shellfish are considered lifelong allergies. Some research is currently being done in this area and the results look promising.
Still, your best chance of overcoming food allergies is to avoid foods that you are allergic to. It might help if you read ingredient labels for all foods. If the food has no label, you should avoid eating it all together. And if the label contains unfamiliar terms, ask the manufacturer for a definition or avoid eating that food.
Avoidance Method
Having food allergies doesn't mean that you ought to stop eating foods that you are otherwise not allergic to. Just because you think you're allergic to something doesn't mean that you really are allergic. Taking food out of your diet could result in unbalanced diet, which could lead to other health problems. In addition, you may reach a point where you become frustrated because you think that everything you eat causes food allergies.
By avoidance, we don't mean complete avoidance of foods. Try to keep a food diary where you make a list of all the foods that you've eaten for the day and whether or not you suffered any allergies as a result. The information you garner from your list could help you determine exactly what foods trigger what, and could also give your doctor important information about your food allergies.
Recommended Reading
- Food Allergy
- Special Diets for Food Allergies
- A Broad Look at Food Allergies and What They Mean to Those Who Have Them
- At War With Food: The Cause of Food Allergy
- Diagnosing Food Allergies
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