A recent news article titled, “When it comes to allergies, newer blood tests show that many children are misdiagnosed” explores the accuracy of allergy testing and especially, desensitization. This is predicated on an understanding of allergies as only those reactions that produce the classic allergy symptoms. While it is important and valuable to enable those who are allergic, and whose reactions are potentially life threatening and immediate, to consume foods common in our society without dying, it is important to remember that this does not end the allergy – it just reduces the severity of the symptoms.
This information is important to you for obvious reasons, but also because only you are ultimately responsible for your health. And as such, it’s important that you educate yourself so that you can look at all of this information on the web in context.
An excerpt from Boston.com:
While it’s a promising start, “we’d like to get better results,” said study coauthor Dr. Wayne Shreffler, director of the food allergy center at Massachusetts General Hospital. More than two-thirds of the children weren’t cured. And 4 of the 40 children who were treated withdrew from the study after experiencing mild allergic reactions such as hives or itchy throat. None had severe reactions, but the study didn’t include anyone who had life-threatening allergic reactions to eggs in the past.
“We still have a lot of unanswered questions about the safety of this technique,” said study coauthor Dr. Marshall Plaut, an allergy research administrator at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. But researchers are pressing ahead, with federal funding, to study the technique for treating peanut allergies, which are more frequently associated with serious allergic reactions. Only 20 percent of children outgrow peanut allergies — compared with 80 percent who outgrow other food allergies.
Article Courtesy: Dr. Stephen Wangen
