Food Allergies Health Video

Last Update: October 23, 2008

Video By: LIVESTRONG.COM

We all don't like certain foods for a variety of reasons. A food allergy, however, is a reaction triggered by your immune system in response to certain foods. A food allergy, also called a food hypersensitivity, can cause serious problems and even death. Learn about the different causes, symptoms, and treatments of food allergies in this video.

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Transcript of this video

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Contact a doctor for an allergic reaction
Avoid foods that cause severe allergies
Contact a doctor about epinephrine for severe cases

About this Author

Dr. Susan McGladdery is a medical graduate from Oxford University in the UK and has a Master's Degree in Medical Sciences from Cambridge University. She has been a member of the Royal College of Physicians since 1991 and a member of the American Academy of Urgent Care since 2006. She trained as a Family Physician in the UK in Oxford and then in London. In a medical career that spans over 20 years, she has worked as a doctor in 5 countries on 3 continents and cared for patients from a multitude of different nationalities and backgrounds. Dr. McGladdery joined FirstMed Centers in mid 2002 and became Regional Medical Director in 2003.

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SUSAN MCGLADERRY, BM, BCH, MRCP: Hello. My name is Dr. Sue McGladerry. I'm the medical director from FirstMed Centers in Budapest, Hungary and I'd like to give you some information on food allergy. Food allergy is an abnormal response to food that is triggered by your body's immune system. Allergic reactions to food can sometimes cause serious illness or even death. Tree nuts and peanuts are the leading causes of deadly allergic reactions or anaphylaxis. In adults, the foods that most often trigger allergic reactions are things like fish and shellfish such as shrimp or lobster and crab, also peanuts and tree nuts such as whole nuts, and sometimes eggs. For children, problems are more likely due to eggs or milk especially in young children and infants and sometimes due to peanuts. There may be a reaction to food that's not an allergy but rather food intolerance. In this case, the immune system does not cause the symptoms of the food intolerance but it may look and feel like a food allergy. What are the symptoms of food allergy? The common is sudden symptoms of food allergy are hives or large bumps on the skin with swelling and itching of the skin and also the mouth. There may be coughing or trouble breathing or wheezing, a feeling of tightness in the throat, diarrhea and vomiting. The patient may feel very unwell because of low blood pressure and there may even be a loss of consciousness or feeling of faintness. Severe food allergy can be fatal if it causes anaphylaxis. This is a reaction that puts people into shock and makes it hard for them to breath. The most common chronic illness is associated with food allergy, a problem such as eczema and asthma. How food allergy is treated? Children usually outgrow allergies to milk, eggs, soybean products and wheat. Adults however, rarely outgrow their allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and shellfish and they have these lifelong foods that cause severe allergy. They need to be avoided and if exposure does occur, they needs to be fast treatment with a medicine called epinephrine which can be life saving. If you have a severe allergy, you need to talk with your doctor about having a special or to injection for epinephrine. When should you call your doctor? A person having an allergic reaction should be immediately taken by ambulance to hospital for emergency care.