New Food Allergy Guidelines Out
Comprehensive Guidelines Aim to Help Doctors Diagnose, Treat Food Allergies
The guidelines define food allergy as "an adverse health effect arising from a specific immune response that occurs reproducibly on exposure to a given food."
It distinguishes allergies from intolerances. Foods that cause the same reproducible adverse reaction but don't have a likely or established immune system response are not considered allergies, but rather intolerances.
For instance, someone allergic to cow's milk due to an immune system response to milk protein has a food allergy. But someone who has a difficult time drinking milk due to an inability to digest the lactose in milk has a food intolerance.
Among the most common food allergies are reactions to:
Anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction that comes on rapidly and may cause death, can occur in response to food. Up to 65% of anaphylaxis cases are thought to be due to food.
Under the new guidelines, the panel of experts recommends that intradermal or skin testing should not be used to make a diagnosis of food allergy.
The experts recommend skin puncture tests, in which a small amount of the extract of a suspected food in placed on the skin, then the skin is punctured through the droplet, to help identify possible troublesome foods but not to make a diagnosis based on it alone.
It also recommends against the routine use of measuring total blood IgE, the antibody formed in reaction to an allergen.
It recommends allergen-specific IgE blood testing but cautions that the test results alone are not enough to make a diagnosis.
Food elimination diets -- taking away one or a few specific foods to see if the reaction disappears -- may help.
Oral food challenges -- exposing the person to the suspected food under medical supervision -- are thought to be helpful.
If exposure to a certain food triggers symptoms, the doctor should then see if that finding matches with lab tests and medical history.
Avoidance is best, the experts agree. They write: "There are nomedications currently recommended by the EP [expert panel] to prevent IgE-mediated food-induced allergic reactions from occurring in an individual with existing food allergies."
When food allergies trigger anaphylaxis, the experts recommend epinephrine injections first.
New Food Allergy Guidelines Out
Comprehensive Guidelines Aim to Help Doctors Diagnose, Treat Food Allergies
Food Allergy Guidelines: Definitions and More
The guidelines define food allergy as "an adverse health effect arising from a specific immune response that occurs reproducibly on exposure to a given food."
It distinguishes allergies from intolerances. Foods that cause the same reproducible adverse reaction but don't have a likely or established immune system response are not considered allergies, but rather intolerances.
For instance, someone allergic to cow's milk due to an immune system response to milk protein has a food allergy. But someone who has a difficult time drinking milk due to an inability to digest the lactose in milk has a food intolerance.
Among the most common food allergies are reactions to:
- Peanuts
- Tree nuts
- Seafood
- Milk
- Eggs
Anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction that comes on rapidly and may cause death, can occur in response to food. Up to 65% of anaphylaxis cases are thought to be due to food.
Food Allergy Guidelines: Diagnosis
Under the new guidelines, the panel of experts recommends that intradermal or skin testing should not be used to make a diagnosis of food allergy.
The experts recommend skin puncture tests, in which a small amount of the extract of a suspected food in placed on the skin, then the skin is punctured through the droplet, to help identify possible troublesome foods but not to make a diagnosis based on it alone.
It also recommends against the routine use of measuring total blood IgE, the antibody formed in reaction to an allergen.
It recommends allergen-specific IgE blood testing but cautions that the test results alone are not enough to make a diagnosis.
Food elimination diets -- taking away one or a few specific foods to see if the reaction disappears -- may help.
Oral food challenges -- exposing the person to the suspected food under medical supervision -- are thought to be helpful.
If exposure to a certain food triggers symptoms, the doctor should then see if that finding matches with lab tests and medical history.
Food Allergy Guidelines: Management
Avoidance is best, the experts agree. They write: "There are nomedications currently recommended by the EP [expert panel] to prevent IgE-mediated food-induced allergic reactions from occurring in an individual with existing food allergies."
When food allergies trigger anaphylaxis, the experts recommend epinephrine injections first.
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