FOOD ALLERGIES CAN BE DEADLY

If you suffer excessive adverse effects to a certain kind of food, it’s your immune system displaying an allergy to proteins in the food. The nasty reaction can be immediate or appear as much as two hours after eating, even if you’ve only had a small amount of the food.

        Symptoms can be mild to moderate – tingling in the mouth, skin rash, nasal congestion, vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhoea, dizziness, swelling of the tongue and throat – or they can be serious.

        Anaphylaxis is a life-threatening complication of food allergies that includes perilous swelling of the throat, making it difficult to breathe – or impossible, resulting in death. So, rather than mere troublesome medical concerns, food allergies should be considered potentially quite serious.

        There’s a difference between food allergy and food intolerance, which doesn’t involve the immune system, but rather a problem in the digestion process. Insufficient lactase enzyme, the main sugar in milk, for instance, reduces your ability to digest lactose. The resulting “lactose intolerance” can cause bloating, abdominal pain and diarrhoea, but no severe complications.

        Britain’s Food Standards Agency concluded in 2008 that 5 to 8 per cent of children suffer from food allergies, and 1 to 2 per cent of adults, suggesting that children often outgrow their allergies. Allergies can return later in the life, however.

 Any food can cause an allergic reaction, but a few types are responsible for most allergies.

  Children are especially sensitive to eggs, milk, soy, wheat, peanuts and tree nuts like walnuts, almonds and pistachios. Kids are commonly allergic to eggs but most outgrow it by the time they’re five.

        Adults primarily have allergies to shellfish, fish and peanuts, the last less frequent but associated with life-threatening reactions. Children with asthma have to be particularly careful about peanuts.

        There is no standard test to confirm or rule out a food allergy. Family background, type and frequency of reactions, and skin and blood tests usually form the diagnosis. Your doctor might ask you to skip a suspected food for a couple of weeks to see if the symptoms stop.

        Nor is there any cure for an allergy. The only way to avoid an allergic reaction is prevention, which means avoiding the foods that trigger the symptoms.

        In practice, of course, you can’t be absolutely sure that the food you eat away from home contains no allergic substances. You might try something unusual only to find that it triggers a reaction.

        In minor cases, antihistamines can reduce symptoms, but a severe allergic reaction is a medical emergency, requiring an immediate injection of adrenaline.

        People at risk of severe allergies should consult their doctor about carrying an epinephrine auto-injector at all times. They should advise family, friends, co-workers and others close to them about their allergic condition in case they need help taking the drug.

        In the case of allergic children, it’s essential that school personnel and all adults who regularly interact with them are informed. And the child should also know to ask for help right away if necessary.

Dr Gerard Lalande is managing director of CEO-Health, which provides medical referrals for expatriates and customised executive medical check-ups in Thailand. He can be contacted at [email protected].