Food Allergies and Irresponsible Awareness

Many times I have heard the phrase, "Anything that brings awareness is good" and it's starting to annoy me. As long as awareness is being raised it seems to be an excuse for the passing off of false or incomplete information. The media is great at this and doctors like to downplay things so not to cause a panic. Irresponsible awareness has the potential to do more harm than good.

I know that in a two minute news segment of a 5000 word article that every point can not be made about an issue. The idea is to get people thinking about something and do their own research to learn more. Sadly a lot of Americans consider watching Oprah or any other daytime talk show as doing research. I was recently reading in one of my many tattoo magazines that the biggest complaint of tattoo artists are people who now come into the shops after watching LA Ink, Miami Ink or any other reality tattoo show on TV and suddenly think they are experts.

The same thing happens when someone tunes into a talk show because some celebrity is on talking about whatever group they are working with to raise awareness on whatever disorder or illness they have taken a personal interest in. The next time someone tells me that they know about autism because they watched a Jenny McCarthy interview, I will scream.

There is one thing that gets on my nerves faster than Jenny McCarthy talking about and trying to educate people about autism. It's the way that food allergies are treated.

Newsweek recently featured an article on food allergies and the main focus was not so much education or how food allergies are on the rise, but on the research being done to create what amounts to a peanut allergy vaccine. Where this research is good news for those suffering with peanut allergies, the way the studies have been presented to the public are not very helpful.

The idea that medical science is working on is the same idea behind allergy shots for seasonal allergies. The vaccine is made up of what you are allergic to, and gradual exposure is supposed to desensitize the sufferer to the allergen. The doctors and scientists involved in this research are giving children small measured dosages of peanut flour or egg powder over a period of time to desensitize their bodies to eggs or peanuts. It's showing promise.

Meanwhile, sharing this information with the general public does nothing but encourage the well meaning to expose children to things that could kill them. It is one of the biggest complaints of parents. A well meaning relative feels sorry for a child because mom won't let him or her have the same candy everyone else is eating because there are nuts in it. The well meaning relative will say something like "One bite won't hurt."

One bite can kill. That is the reality.

Playing up the research that is going on is only going to encourage these well meaning people to practice science without a degree and start exposing children to allergens in the name of desensitizing them. The argument that "There is this study going on that is doing the same thing" doesn't cut it.

Parents of food allergic children do not keep them away from cake, candy, peanuts and other "treats" because they are paranoid parents over-reacting to something the doctor said. Parents of food allergic children keep their kids away from these things because the food could kill them.

Every year there are 30,000 emergency room visits, 2,000 hospitalizations and over 200 deaths attributed to food allergies in the United States alone. 8% (around 1.5 million) of children under the age of six have at least one food allergy as do 1% (almost three million) of all adults.

90% of all allergic reactions are caused by milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (almonds, cashews, etc), wheat, soy, fish and shellfish and the number of people allergic to peanuts doubled between 1997 and 2002 alone.

Even with these statistics the media and doctors like to report that food allergy deaths are rare. At around 200 deaths a year, as compared to the statistics of other mortality rates, food allergy deaths are rare. However, those are 200 deaths each year that don't have to happen at all.

During an allergic reaction the body produces a specific antibody called IgE to fight the allergen. These antibodies form together to produce something called a mast cell. Mast cells are very plentiful in the areas of the body where allergens normally enter, such as the air passage and throat. Once the allergen is detected mast cells explode releasing the chemical histamine, the cause of most allergy symptoms.

Mild reactions affect a specific area, such as a rash or itchy eyes. These reactions do not spread to other areas of the body. Moderate reactions start to include other body systems sometimes making it hard to breath. A severe reaction is known as anaphylaxis, it affects the entire body and must be treated within minutes or it can kill. It might start with the sudden onset of hives and itching and progress within minutes include abdominal pain, cramps, vomiting, as well as closure of the breathing passage, a drop in blood pressure, shock and death.

Most children are diagnosed with food allergies because of a trip to the emergency room after eating something and breaking out in hives and being unable to breath. Watching how fast food can nearly kill someone is scary and not an experience that is soon forgotten. Having the allergy diagnosed and knowing how to treat yourself or anyone in the case of accidental exposure as well as peanut-free zones in schools and product labeling laws, is what prevents the allergy death rate from climbing higher.

The only thing you can do for food allergies is totally avoid the food and have around the proper anti-histamines and epinephrine (liquid adrenalin that you inject into the body via needle) in case of exposure. These two things are only first aid and prompt medical attention is still needed.

To compound matters doctors even sometimes give out wrong information because they don't have the proper information themselves. When my daughters' shellfish allergy was diagnosed I asked the allergist if it was possible to have one of those reactions sensationalized by the media where someone is sitting in a restaurant and the server walks by with a plate of steaming shrimp. He told me that never happens. He was wrong. A few weeks later my daughter went into full blown anaphylaxis and we didn't know why. One epinephrine injection and four hours in the pediatricians' office for observation later I demanded a full range of allergy testing to be done to find out what she reacted to. The pediatrician, not the allergist as one would expect, explained to me that a reaction could occur just by walking by an allergen and breathing. Did we have pet food at home that contained shellfish? I never thought about the pet food because the kids didn't eat it. Sure enough, her anaphylaxis was caused by cat food dust particles in the air.

Allergy related deaths do not make the news unless something happens that the media can use for sensationalism, such as a school employee screwing up and not following procedure or there is a food recall because of improper labeling. Just because we don't hear about them doesn't mean they don't happen. It's interesting that we don't get statistics on how many deaths are prevented each year by epinephrine. We are just told that food allergy deaths are rare. Look at it another way. 30,000 go to the hospital each year for food allergy exposure and only 200 of them die because of proper medical treatment and first aid. That is a mortality rate of .0066%. Those are good numbers considering around 4.5 million people in the United States alone have life threatening food allergies.