In some, exposure to Persistent Organic Pollutants (ie dioxin) can
result in allergy-like symptoms. POP exposure make one's nerves
sensative, even to natural proteins and flavonoids found in foods.
This manifests itself as itching, creepy-crawly skin, burning tongue,
cramps & stab-like pains in gut, numbness in hands, bloating
sensation, tightness in chest, restlessness (esp legs), headaches,
irritability, etc. Besides avoiding additional exposure to POPs
(mostly via animal fats), you may find some relief by limiting
triggers (ie pesticides, dyes, flavorings, preservatives; allergens
dairy, eggs, soy, nuts, yeast, gluten, citrus, cruciferous veggies,
onion; AGEs & ALEs). Antioxidants such as ALA, ALCAR, NAC, CoQ10,
melatonin and anti-inflammatories such as aspirin, turmeric, ginger,
green tea, bromelain and resveratrol may be helpful. Besides
encouraging a good flora, a high-fiber diet helps to bind lipophilic
toxins that are otherwise reabsorbed from bile.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gfXABjmk64bm5Q5O2DJTEBt2_2BAD93VHP380
ATLANTA (AP) =97 Food allergies in American children seem to be on the
rise, now affecting about 3 million kids, according to the first
federal study of the problem.
But experts said that might be because parents are more aware and
quicker to have their kids checked out by a doctor.
About 1 in 26 children had food allergies last year, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention re****ted Wednesday. That's up from 1 in
29 kids in 1997.
The 18 percent increase is significant enough to be considered more
than a statistical blip, said Amy Branum of the CDC, the study's lead
author.
Nobody knows for sure what's driving the increase. A doubling in
peanut allergies =97 noted in earlier studies =97 is one factor, some
experts said. Also, children seems to be taking longer to outgrow milk
and egg allergies than they did in decades past.
But also figuring into the equation are parents and doctors who are
more likely to consider food as the trigger for symptoms like
vomiting, skin rashes and breathing problems.
"A couple of decades ago, it was not uncommon to have kids sick all
the time and we just said 'They have a weak stomach' or 'They're
sickly,'" said Anne Munoz-Furlong, chief executive of the Food Allergy
& Anaphylaxis Network, a Virginia-based advocacy organization.
Parents today are quicker to take their kids to specialists to check
out the possibility of food allergies, said Munoz-Furlong, who founded
the nonprofit in 1991.
The CDC results came from an in-person, door-to-door survey in 2007 of
the households of 9,500 U.S. children under age 18.
When asked if a child in the house had any kind of food allergy in the
previous 12 months, about 4 percent said yes. The parents were not
asked if a doctor had made the diagnosis, and no medical records were
checked. Some parents may not know the difference between immune
system-based food allergies and digestive disorders like lactose
intolerance, so it's possible the study's findings are a bit off,
Branum said.
However, the study's results mirror older national estimates that were
extrapolated from smaller, more intensive studies, said Dr. Hugh
Sampson, a food allergy researcher at the Mount Sinai School of
medicine.
"This tells us those earlier extrapolations were fairly close,"
Sampson said.
The CDC study did not give a breakdown of which foods were to blame
for the allergies. Other research suggests that about 1 in 40
Americans will have a milk allergy at some point in their lives, and 1
in 50 percent will be allergic to eggs. Most people outgrow these
allergies in childhood.
About 1 in 50 are allergic to shellfish and nearly 1 in 100 react to
peanuts, allergies that generally persist for a lifetime, according to
Sampson.
Some people have more than one food allergy, he said, explaining why
the overall food allergy prevalence is about 4 percent.
Children with food allergies also were more likely to have asthma,
eczema and respiratory problems than kids without food allergies, the
CDC study found, confirming previous research.
The study also found that the number of children hospitalized for food
allergies was up. The number of hospital discharges jumped from about
2,600 a year in the late 1990s to more than 9,500 annually in recent
years, the CDC results showed.
Also, Hispanic children had lower rates of food allergies than white
or black children =97 the first such racial/ethnic breakdown in a
national study.
The reason for that last finding may not be genetics, said Munoz-
Furlong. She is Hispanic and said people in her own family have been
unwilling to consider food allergies as the reason for children's
illnesses. "It's a question of awareness," she said.
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