A Swell in Food Allergies

From the Associated Press, my AHCJ colleague Mike Stobbe wrote about childhood allergies.

Some highlights and excerpts...

Food Allergies increasing in US kids, study says

• The CDC says 3 million kids are affected: 1 in 26 last year compared to 1 in 19 in 1997.
• This is an 18% increase.
• This is the first federal study of the problem.
• The data come from a door-to-door survey of 9500 households with 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, [the lead author] Amy Branum said."

• There was no breakdown of what foods triggered the "allergies."
• Milk, eggs, shellfish, peanuts are common allergies noted in other research.
• Children with allergies were more likely to have asthma, eczema, and respiratory problems.
• More children are being hospitalized with allergies: 2600/year in the 1990s to more than 9500/year now.

(Read the whole article at http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gfXABjmk64bm5Q5O2DJTEBt2_2BAD93VMF4O0)

No one knows for sure why there's an increase in allergies. The numbers may be up because parents are more aware and are quicker to have their kids checked out by a doctor.

Also the interpretation of "allergy" could be contributing to the rise. Hives represent an immune reaction, a true allergy...whereas nausea is less likely to be an allergy, per se, but rather an intolerance.

There's a lot of news about various ailments being "on the rise." Some of it is better awareness or more widespread testing...but there also may be a component of a real increase.

Do you think the media spotlight of various health conditions fuels the increase through greater awareness? Do you think this awareness is a good thing? Do you think such attention makes people feel sicker than they actually are?