A 15-year-old girl was taken to hospital and died after kissing her boyfriend at 3 a.m. because she was allergic to peanuts and her boyfriend had eaten peanut butter.
At the party after the high school graduation ceremony, the newly graduated girl was taken to the hospital by ambulance because of a cocktail with milk, just a little bit [15th or 16th on the ingredient list].
The following stories about allergy are really like stories in a parallel world to people who are troubled by allergic rhinitis.
Since the 1980s, the number of food allergens among American children has soared, and the number of allergens has also increased.
The situation is similar in China, where the rate of allergic diseases among children is increasing day by day, including allergic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma and food allergy. Several epidemiological surveys in Beijing, Guangdong and other places show that the rate of food allergy among children is between 4% and 8%.
How do these people who fear milk and eggs grow up, travel and get married? Even raising children independently. How can schools, parents and society protect these allergic children?
Don’t kill my birthday girl
Before the birthday cake, the [friendly version] dessert is served first: sometimes margarine crispy rice cakes, sometimes applesauce cinnamon raisin cakes.
After taking your share, there will be real cakes, brownies or pies for others to enjoy. After singing birthday songs, blowing birthday candles, opening birthday gifts, and everyone has eaten and drunk, someone will say:
[Now, don’t kill my birthday girl.]
Sandra is the author of “Allergic Life”. After the birthday cake session every year, her friends who have stained their hands, lips or any skirt with cream cake must [not kiss, hug, touch their hands or lips] and [anyone who touches me may bring her urticaria or other worse things].
[Don’t kill my birthday girl] This is really not a joke. Substances that will make Sandra seriously allergic include eggs, butter, peanuts, wheat…
If you eat it by mistake, you will have serious allergic reactions. These reactions are initially manifested as numbness of lips, edema of larynx, laborious swallowing of air, cramps, and even death.
At the party after the high school graduation ceremony, the newly graduated girl was taken to the hospital by ambulance because of a cocktail with milk derivatives, just a little bit [at 15th or 16th on the ingredient list].
Good food becomes an allergen when the body regards it as an enemy. The immune system produces special antibodies to identify each allergen. The newly produced antibodies circulate through the blood to the surface of mast cells. If the affected mast cells are located on the skin, lips and eyelids, you will develop urticaria. If they are located in the throat, you will suffer from laryngeal edema and choking to vomiting. If they are located in the lungs, you will suffer from asthma…
More than 12 million Americans are troubled by Sandra’s fear of food allergy.
There is no epidemiological survey on this aspect in China, but the known fact is that the rate of allergic diseases among children is increasing day by day, including allergic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, allergic asthma and food allergy. Several epidemiological surveys in Beijing, Guangdong and other places show that the rate of food allergy among children is between 4% and 8%.
The most common allergic foods include milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, peanuts, soybeans, nuts and wheat, and more than 90% of allergic reactions come from these foods.
A survey of children’s food allergens in Beijing shows that the most frequently reported food allergens by parents are fruits (mainly mangoes, peaches and pineapples), fish and shrimp, milk and eggs.
This is very painful. Although you can carefully avoid which delicious fruits, what about the ubiquitous milk, eggs, soybeans and peanuts, which are the most commonly used ingredients for various foods?
Raising you is a full-time job.
[Raising you is a full-time job,] Sandra’s mother told Sandra more than once. However, when children grow up, they need to face complicated problems such as travel, marriage and raising children independently. [These data cover multiple dimensions that no one can take into account].
A Chinese chef opened an allergy restaurant for his allergic son, In this restaurant, the menu clearly lists all the ingredients from the main ingredients to the ingredients. The water boiled with cheese balls cannot be used repeatedly to cook macaroni. The chopping board cut with cheese bread cannot continue to be used. The grill for roasting chicken is separated from the grill for roasting beef to prevent anyone from being allergic to beef.
In 2005, A 15-year-old girl in Canada died after being sent to a hospital. The cause of death was an allergic reaction to peanuts, The reason for the problem was that at 3 a.m., A passionate kiss from her boyfriend, who ate peanut butter. For the same reason, Sandra often has to seriously consider whether to break up with her milk-bound boyfriend Adam-one tired afternoon, when she comes home and kisses him, she suddenly feels a tingling lip and snaps, you just drank what, [Hua Tian…]
The number of allergens and allergens is increasing year by year, so that developed countries like the United States already have a series of relatively mature methods to deal with allergic people.
What protects Sandra’s growth is mainly Article 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the so-called “504 Plan”. According to this act, there will be a separate medical insurance that will pass the evaluation and list all allergic foods and attack symptoms of the child, as well as safe food substitutes.
To put up [allergic food warning] leaflets throughout the school, And confirm whether school bus drivers have been instructed not to eat on the way to school-snack sharing on the road is an important cause of children’s severe food allergy. In addition, The school must have three employees trained to use epinephrine pens or syringes, In case of an emergency. From the day of school, Sandra was stuck in a black lady’s dry bag, full of epinephrine pens, inhalers, facial tissues and six benazines-most of which ended in expiration, but they must be readily available. Who knows when you need such a bag to save your life?
Under such tight protection, Sandra went to college, With a master’s degree, After a while as a literary editor, He became a poet who took writing as his profession. Set up prose columns in various mainstream media. Looking back, She began to examine the protection she had received and the process of waking up to the awareness of peanut allergy in public places. Eventually, the school stopped serving peanut butter bread and butter, while a Massachusetts school bus evacuated students because it found a peanut on the floor.
Compared with the United States, if you are a severe food allergy person living in China, your life may be much more difficult.
The < < General Standard for Food Labeling > > published on April 20, 2011 is the first regulation in China that requires allergens. According to this regulation, when gluten-containing grains, crustaceans, fish, eggs, peanuts, soybeans, milk and nuts are used as ingredients, prompts are needed.
However, this regulation is only a recommended instruction and does not require labeling of allergens.
According to a 2016 article published in Food Science, only a few domestic food companies have added allergen tips to food packaging. Among the exported foods, China has been recalled many times because there is no allergen label on the food packaging, causing huge economic losses.
A disease that is too poor to love the rich.
As a mysterious disease that is too poor to love the rich, the more developed the economy and the higher the urbanization, the more serious the problem of allergy. According to WHO data, the incidence rate of allergic rhinitis is 10%-40% in western countries and about 10% in China.
In the medical field, everyone wants to know the answer to a question: Why is the incidence of food allergy increasing at such an alarming rate? One of the most influential answers is the Hygiene Hypothesis, which means that children today are over-protected and more delicate than the untidy clay dolls they used to be. A study in Shandong, China, also shows that the higher the family income, the higher the mother’s educational level, and the higher the incidence of allergic diseases in children.
Another hypothesis points to the fact that women’s intake during pregnancy is also counted. In the 1980s, the prevalence of folic acid supplements and the rise of children’s allergy occurred at the same time. However, correlation is not equal to causality. Folic acid and allergy, so far no one has been able to find any clues showing causality other than correlation.
There are also views that vitamin D deficiency is also potentially related to the soaring incidence of asthma, dermatitis and allergy. However, it is still a difficult problem whether allergy reduces outdoor activities and vitamin D deficiency caused by less sun exposure, or whether the latter leads to the former.
In the world of allergists, there is no definite conclusion on [why] this problem will happen in a short period of time, but this does not affect [treatment]. Most doctors believe that desensitization is the key to treatment.
Oral immune desensitization therapy by taking diluted allergens with gradually increasing concentrations is now the mainstream of desensitization [therapy]. With this method, Some people have raised the peanut allergy threshold for children from 315 milligrams (less than one peanut) to 5000 milligrams (equivalent to about 15 peanuts). However, is this therapy really enough to achieve [Mom doesn’t have to worry about my lunch anymore]? Sandra went to consult doctors at the heart of the study and learned about their caution. The crux of the problem lies in [the gap between desensitization and tolerance]. There are ways to induce desensitization. Allergic people can no longer react through stable and continuous contact tests. However, what happens when oral immunotherapy is over? Will children become sensitive again? Do you need to take some supplements like vitamin tablets to ensure exposure to allergens?
In a Duke University study, 12 children who reached desensitization were tested four weeks after stopping treatment. Nine had no allergic reaction, but three, or 25%, returned to the past.
[Perhaps, from this generation onwards, food allergies will be “curable” and “chronic”.] Sandra wrote. At present, she has almost stopped looking for the possibility of desensitizing herself. She wants to be a gourmet, a gourmet with food allergies. She mentioned her favorite cooking show sensation, who would say: “If you don’t drink milk, use this; If you can’t eat peanuts, use that…] She mentioned expanding her recipe, learning to ask olive oil as a dressing in restaurants, falling in love with sushi, [there is no random honey, and there is no self-righteous salad dressing]. She even wrote a food column, writing that mangoes are related to cashew nuts, cashew nuts are related to pistachios, and she can’t eat these.
Sandra said that as an allergic person, she wanted to focus on how to seek safety in the world, but never assumed that the world would operate around [making me safe].