An allergy to peanuts is the most common food allergy among children and adults. This food allergy can be mild, moderate, severe, or incredibly life threatening. A peanut food allergy that is severe can lead to anaphylactic shock that can result in death from heart failure and obstruction of the upper or lower airway. This can happen within minutes or hours after eating peanuts with this food allergy.
Currently, there is no treatment to prevent or cure a food allergy to peanuts. The only way to combat this food allergy is complete avoidance of peanuts and peanut oil, however, food allergy experts at Duke University are hopeful that there will be an immunotherapy treatment available for this food allergy within the next five years. This would be used to treat a persons immunological response to peanuts. A food allergy to peanuts is becoming more common in children, affecting about 1% of all children in total. The number of people who suffer from this food allergy doubled in the five years between 1997 and 2002.
A peanut food allergy is the most common kind of fatal food allergy reaction, and 54% of fatal food allergy reactions that were reported in the United States from 2001 2006 resulted from the ingestion of peanuts. Just this year in 2008, some of the deaths from this food allergy included an 8 year old who came in contact with peanuts in his home, a 66 year old woman who died of a severe food allergy to peanuts, a 30 year old man who died after eating a peanut butter sandwich in jail, and a 30 year old man who died after eating a cookie that had peanut butter in it at a party.
In July of 2007, in the efforts to help those who suffer from this food allergy, a scientist in North Carolina had developed a process to make allergen free peanuts. Initial testing showed a 100% inactivation of the peanut allergens, and human serums that were taken from people with this food allergy showed no reaction at all when exposed to these peanuts. Food companies are interested in licensing the process, and hopefully in the near future, people who suffer from this common food allergy will be able to eat allergen free peanuts without the fear of anaphylaxis.
Most Common Food Allergy
So recently, food allergy is yet another factor that asthma patients should not miss from their endless list of allergens.
In the United States 3% of children and 1% of adults suffer from food allergy each year; out of these approximately 30,000 cases of food-induced anaphylaxis and about 150 people die.
How sensitve are you to food?
Food sensitization is mostly prevalent in city inhabitants who have asthma. Researchers found approximately 45% of the children who suffered of asthma and were in the study were sensitive to at least one food allergen and had a higher rate of hospitalization. These cases require more steroid medication to control the allergy attack.
Many food studies have found that certain foods do trigger allergy and subsequently an attack.
Food allergy is referred to adverse immunologic reaction to food. The primary target organs of food allergic reaction are the skin, gastrointestinal tract and the respiratory system.
Both acute reactions and chronic disease such as food allergy may occur due to food allergens. To diagnose food allergy requires a careful in depth search for possible causes. Once sure of the cause one can proceed to treatment or elimination of the foods.
Allergy and the respiratory tract.
Food induced asthma is an IgE-medicated diseases that may be caused by indigestion or from inhalation of vapors released during cooking or otherwise.
The prevalence of asthma allergy in the general population is insignificant however; research shows that approximately 5% of children with asthma who have been under study have shown signs of asthma allergy.
While food may not be a major allergen for asthma patients it is possible to trigger asthma attacks.
Asthma allergy is not something asthma patients should worry about at every step but at the same time do not strike it altogether of your list.
If you encounter discomfort with some foods that lead to an asthma attack, take immediate action of treating and/or removing those foods from your diet.
Some foods products to watch
There are eight food products that causes a major portion, over 90% of food allergies and they are, milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy and tree nuts i.e. almonds, walnuts and pecans.
Keeping these products in mind it will help you observe any reaction occurred when or after consuming them.
As mentioned above food is not one of the main causes in an asthma attack however, prevention is better then a cure therefore, being careful will only help prevent an asthma attack in the future.
Although food allergies had been connected with respiratory symptoms in the past, this was first study to link them with changes in the air-passage ways through the lung-function.
There are more free articles relating to asthma at my site. Therefore, I strongly urged you to start your journey and start taking a look at my site and to get your asthma treated as soon as possible, if you are serious of getting back your asthma free life again.
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