In the last section you learned how common it is for people to have allergies or sensitivities to various substances and food products. It is hard to categorize allergies into one group, because they come in so many different shapes and sizes. There are many types of allergies one may develop. Allergies also affect people in different ways. What many people believe to be allergies more commonly are sensitivities that, when properly treated, may resolve themselves with a little TLC.
This section will cover some of the more common “types” of allergies people have or develop. We’ll start with an overview of food allergies, since a growing number of people are discovering they have food sensitivities and allergies throughout the world.
Since most people expose themselves to various foods each day, it is important you understand how relevant food allergies and sensitivities are to your overall health and wellness.
Food Allergies
Food allergies and sensitivities are among the most common in the world today. People are exposed to foods every day. Most people also do not eat the types of foods our bodies were necessarily designed to eat; if you think about it, in times of old there was no such thing as “processed” foods. Most people ate what was available in nature. It is likely that back in early times, food allergies and sensitivities were almost unheard of.
Much of the food we eat today however is processed, handled, manipulated, and changed from its natural state. The addition of food processing has correlated with increasing levels of food sensitivities and true allergies among people throughout the world. There are even some studies suggesting the pasteurization process, which is supposed to make milk and other products safer to eat, may contribute to food sensitivities.
The American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, with the Food & Drug Administration, suggest between 1 and 2 percent of people develop allergies while adults, while up to 6 percent of children develop allergies before the age of five. That means food allergies are more likely to develop early in life than they are later in life, though it is possible to develop an allergy as an adult even if you never had one as a child.
Why the disparity? Often children are far more sensitive to food allergens than adults, in part because of their immature digestive and immune systems. This is especially the case during infancy. Most doctor’s and other healthcare providers recommend parents avoid feeding their children anything other than breast milk or formula until the child is four months, but usually at least six months old.
After this time, foods should be introduced slowly, so parents can detect whether their child may have food sensitivities. Offering children foods they are sensitive to can frequently lead to a host of problems, including eczema, GERD (short for gastro-esophageal reflux disease), irritability, colic and eventually a true, potentially life-threatening food allergy resulting in an anaphylactic reaction.
Food allergies occur when the body’s immune system mistakenly believes that the foods we eat pose a threat to our health.
The immune system flairs up to protect the body from the “supposed” intruder. This response is an allergy, with symptoms ranging from mild nausea and discomfort to diarrhea, vomiting or in very severe cases, anaphylaxis.
If anaphylaxis occurs, a person’s airways may become constricted, causing an emergent, life-threatening event. Food allergies are more likely than other allergies to cause anaphylactic reactions, and can come on suddenly, even on first contact with a food. Medical attention is almost always critical in cases like this. Peanut Butter is an example of a food that often causes anaphylactic reactions in allergy-prone people; seafood is another.
This is one reason many airlines stopped serving peanuts, because people who are allergic to peanuts may experience a reaction just by being close to, or breathing in remnants of, peanuts. While it is rare for people to have this severe a food sensitivity, it can happen, and if it does, it is very important the person with the sensitivity take great care to protect themselves.
Most people who have true food allergies develop them while they are children, or have sensitivity early in life that develops into a full-blown allergy later in life after repeated exposure to the known irritant. Many healthcare providers recommend parents avoid giving their children certain highly allergenic foods until after they are two years old, to lessen their chances of developing allergies.
