Food Allergy Treatment – Working to Make It Easier

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Part of the reason I love practicing allergy is that we have so many successful ways to handle the problems that come up. Those allergic to dust mites find successful relief with avoidance of dust, treatment of symptoms with pills, or prevention of symptoms with nose sprays. Airborne allergy can even be changed with allergy shots, which are designed to make you less allergic. Things are not so easy with food allergies. The only effective treatment is avoiding what you're allergic to.

If a severe reaction occurs, we try to prepare our patients ahead of time to carry injectable epinephrine, either an EpiPen or Twinject. There are no effective allergy shots that can fix a food allergy. Try being allergic to peanuts and scheduling an evening flight on Southwest Airlines. Or enjoying a meal at a nice restaurant if you experience anaphylaxis when eating pecans, almonds, or shellfish. Luckily, a tremendous asset exists for those with food allergies: The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network.

The difficulties in living with food allergies are made easier by their practical tips. Check out the Downloads section of the website for School Guidelines for Managing Food Allergy, or How to Read a Food Label.

Each year the Food Allergy Walk comes to Houston. The Allergy Clinic is a platinum sponsor of the Walk and invites all of our patients (as well as the whole community) to participate. Sign up at Walk for Food Allergy.

Unfortunately, the incidence of severe food allergy keeps increasing. We are trying to raise awareness about what it's like to live with food allergies and support NIH funding so that, one day, treatment of food allergy will be no more difficult than treatment of dust mite allergy.

David B. Engler, MD

Note: Information contained in this article should not be considered a substitute for consultation with a board-certified allergist to address individual medical needs.