KARACHI, Sept 26: Some food may cause allergy to some users and a little care can help a lot to avert agonizing troubles.

Allergies to food can be mild, like a little tingling in the mouth, but for many people they can be severe - causing difficulty in breathing, for example - and even dangerous. Knowing what to expect and how to deal with food allergies can make a big difference in preventing serious illness.The most common foods that cause allergies are milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, and fish. Whether a person will have food allergies is partly influenced by heredity.

Children with certain food allergies, such as allergies to eggs, have a good chance of outgrowing them as adults. But some people never outgrow their food allergies.

People often confuse food allergies with food intolerance (like lactose intolerance or MSG intolerance) as they can cause similar symptoms. But food intolerance doesn’t involve the immune system, and when a person has food intolerance, he or she can usually eat small amounts of the particular food without having any symptoms. Although food intolerance can be unpleasant, it is rarely dangerous.

Food allergies happen when a person’s immune system mistakenly believes that something the person ate is harmful to the body. In an attempt to protect the body, the immune system produces antibodies to that food. Antibodies are special proteins the body makes that work to recognize a specific substance if the body starts seeing it harmful or foreign. Antibodies then cause mast cells (which are allergy cells in the body) to release chemicals into the bloodstream, one of which is histamine. The histamine then acts on a person’s eyes, nose, throat, lungs, skin, or gastrointestinal tract and causes the symptoms of the allergic reaction.

Once antibodies are made against a certain food, they will instantly recognize if that food is eaten and enters the digestive tract. So the next time that same food is eaten, the antibodies against it are activated, stimulating mast cells and causing histamine to be released into the bloodstream again. This creates the symptoms of the allergic reaction.

In severe food allergies, reactions can occur even if that food is simply touched or if particles of it are inhaled. Some of the first signs that a person may be having an allergic reaction to a food include: a runny nose, an itchy skin rash, tingling in the tongue, lips, or throat. Other symptoms of food allergies include: swelling in the throat or other parts of the body, abdominal pain, eczema, dizziness, diarrhea or vomiting and wheezing.

For people with a severe food allergy, eating a food or food component that they are allergic to can be life threatening. A life-threatening allergic reaction can make someone unable to breathe, cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure, and decrease blood flow in the body, especially to the brain, heart, and lungs. This is called anaphylaxis and allergies that lead to anaphylaxis are called anaphylactic allergies.

Severe food allergies sometimes cause anaphylaxis. People who have anaphylactic food allergies might also have seizures or become unconscious as blood flow to the brain decreases. Symptoms of anaphylaxis can happen quickly and without medical treatment they can cause death.

Immediate emergency treatment, including medications that increase the heart rate and blood pressure, is needed to control severe allergic reaction.

If one thinks that he might be allergic to a certain food, he must see a doctor. Doctors use three basic methods to diagnose whether a person has a food allergy: These are skin test, blood test and a food challenge test. The real way to treat a food allergy is to avoid the food in question.—PPI