Food Allergies Can Occur At Any Given Point In Life!

Food is an essential need of life. We need to consume food for a living. It is a consumable substance that we intake which provides nourishment to our body. Food provides us with all the essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals and hence it is essential for consumption. It helps an organism to sustain growth and vital processes and to gain energy. Consumption of food that is further absorbed and utilized by the body is fundamental to nutrition and is facilitated by digestion.

Food Allergies Can Occur At Any Given Point In Life!

Over the period of time, we have consumed a variety of food items. Some suit our body, some don’t, and those of which don’t create trouble for us. There are many around the globe suffering from such issues where our body does not react to a particular type of food in a good way. Such a condition of the human body is termed a Food Allergy.

In food allergy, the immune system reacts to certain proteins in food as though they were harmful pathogens or the immune system reaction that occurs soon after eating a certain food.

According to reports almost 8% of children under age 5 and up to 4% of adults suffers from food allergy worldwide. However, to date, there is no proper cure for fold allergies but it may just disappear as one grows. 

In certain people, the allergy may be severe but in many, it just remains mild. The most common food allergy signs and symptoms noticed include:

• Tingling or itching in the mouth
• Hives
• Swelling of parts of the body
• Wheezing, nasal congestion or trouble breathing
• Abdominal pain, diarrhea.
• Nausea or vomiting
• Dizziness, lightheadedness or fainting

We have seen a drastic rise in the number of food allergies over the past decade. In the USA, the number of peanut allergies among children has almost doubled leading to a major cause of worry to many. Food allergy can occur at any age.

One might even have it without knowing or having any symptoms. However, one of the major reactions includes anaphylaxis, which is a life-threatening whole-body allergic reaction that occurs in the human body which can impair your breathing, cause a dramatic fluctuation or drop in your blood pressure and affect your heart rate.

It can sometimes be fatal and when fatal must be treated promptly with an injection of epinephrine or commonly called adrenaline.

As one grows, we never know when we start suffering from food allergies. A condition of food allergy in adults is termed Adult-onset allergies. The age group varies between young adulthood (i.e. 20s) to older age (i.e. 70s or 80s).

One such thing which is highly peculiar about adult-onset allergies is that it is very unpredictable.  There can be many reasons for developing adult-onset allergies such as the Family history of allergies, weren’t exposed to many germs in childhood, Overuse of antibiotics during childhood and the count goes on. 

One of its factors that are highly surprising is that one may have it while not even being aware of it. There may be a variety of food items that may cause allergies. Milk, nuts, soy are some of the common allergenic food items. If you feel that you are facing any kind of food allergy, you must visit a doctor. 

People often get confused between food allergy and food intolerance, not knowing the difference. They are two different issues. While we feel that attaining food allergies at an older age is uncommon but that is not so. Food allergies can occur at any given point in life. In order to treat it, we should be more precautious and avoid eating food items we are allergenic to.