My nephew is one of the 6 million children in the United States with food allergies. He has a severe nut allergy, requiring an epinephrine (adrenaline) injection and immediate trip to the emergency room after contact with someone whose touched or eaten nuts. His rapid onset of life-threatening symptoms includes swelling of the throat, difficulty breathing, and hives. He isn’t alone. The number of children with peanut allergies has tripled in the last decade. Every three minutes a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room and every 6 minutes the reaction is one of life-threatening anaphylaxis.
Although children often out-grow their allergies to milk, egg, wheat and soy, this is occurring more slowly than in previous decades. Allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, fish or shellfish are generally lifelong allergies.
A food allergy reaction is a learned response, meaning that our bodies learn to overreact to particular food proteins. In this process, the IgE antibody, that is suppose to fight off infections, instead recognizes certain food proteins as abnormal invaders. The IgE antibody tells the body to release histamines and other chemicals that can cause a progressive and sometimes life-threatening reaction (see animated explanation).
Unfortunately there is no cure for food allergies. Unlike other allergies, there aren’t any proven treatments for food allergies either. The only solution has been to avoid the allergy-triggering food. In the case of accidental exposure, antihistamines are taken for mild reactions or epinephrine shots and a trip to the hospital are critical for more severe reactions.
However, promising food allergy therapies are now under study – recently moving from laboratory and animal testing into human clinical trials. The goal is to persuade patients’ immune systems that food allergens aren’t serious threats.