According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, more than 32 million Americans have at least one food allergy — that includes about 6 million children, or about two in every classroom. The number of hospital visits related to food allergies has increased, too.
Jackie Sturm, an allergist with Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Center, told KMOX that while allergies were rare among her classmates when she was a child, she now sees patients on a daily basis with food allergies — and it's not totally clear where these allergies are coming from.
"There's different thoughts, either genetics or environment can play a role. With genetics, if mom and dad both have seasonal allergies or eczema, there could be a risk of food allergies, we're just not sure," Sturm said. "The environment, we think that we're technically too clean so kids are not exposed to the dirt, the allergens when they're little. And therefore they're at an older age getting exposed to allergens, which can cause allergic reactions. But these are just theories overall."
However, there are some treatments that are being developed for some allergies, like oral immunotherapy.
"We take small amounts of the food that you're allergic to tiny amounts in over several weeks to months, keep increasing the dose on a weekly basis so that kids can then tolerate the food," Sturm said. "It's a lengthy process to do food or oral immunotherapy and definitely has risks associated with it. But that's definitely an option that's new."
There are also drugs called biologics that can be used to treat asthma, eczema, chronic hives, and more — though many of them are in development.
Hear more about how food allergies can be combatted from Total Information AM:
Copyright 2022 KMOX (Audacy). All Rights Reserved.
Follow KMOX | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Listen on the free Audacy app.
Tell your smart speaker to play K M O X.
