What are the cause and effect of food allergies?
29
Apr
Question by Jessie: What are the cause and effect of food allergies?
I am doing a project on food allergies and I need to know the cause and the effect of food allergies.
Best answer:
Answer by Read My Mind!
The body thinks its being invaded by germs/bacteria and goes into a shut down mode.
I have peanut allergies. Its hard to breathe, tongue swells up, lips bloat up. Its horrible. Not funny!
Dairy allergy: my stomach pukes it up. Something to do with a sugar enzyme.
What do you think? Answer below!
OK-so if your doing a project on food allergies you need your facts to be right to start with!
A food allergy is an adverse reaction to specific foods such as peanuts, shellfish, egg, and milk that involves the immune system. (its important to note that its an abnormal immune response to something that is essentially harmless-the body perceives it as being harmful and produces antibodies to combat it).
The effects range from very mild-eczema, hives, minor swelling requiring antihistamines to life threatening anaphylaxis-throat swelling, tongue swelling,severe wheeze, hypotension, collapse,etc,-requiring adrenaline injection and emergency hospital admission. There is presently no cure for food allergies-some can be outgrown-such as egg and milk-others like peanuts/shellfish tend to be life long allergies.
There are other types of food allergies that are not immediate reactions but are delayed such as in conditions like eosinophilic eosophagitis-the body produces eosinophils (white blood cells) in the oesophagus because it thinks the food being eaten is harming the body. It can result in nausea, abdominal pain ,weight loss, reflux type symptoms severe swelling of the oesophagus-food will actually get stuck/impacted, etc-the treatment of this food allergic condition can be severe dietary restrictions until the offending food is detected (often diet consists of removing wheat, dairy, egg, nuts, fish, meats, soy, etc before gradually reintroducing each one followed by a gastroscope and biopsy to determine response-) It is a chronic condition that can severely impact quality of life .
Hope this helps
caz