How much of a food allergen is required to trigger a reaction


People ask me about the quantity of food necessary to trigger an allergy. A better real question is "How much of the particular meals are necessary to trigger my allergy?" The purpose here's that everyone's different. Each individual who includes a food allergy includes a specific threshold - a particular dose of the food that sets the allergic attack in motion.

For many people that dose can be quite small, for instance 1/1000 of the peanut, but below that amount no reaction may occur. For other people the threshold dose is very large, for instance 5 or 6 whole peanuts. Several factors further complicate the entire process of creating a concrete answer that covers every case:

The dose that leads to a reaction may change with time. In short, you might be more or less responsive to a food a few months or years in the future. If you are lucky, your sensitivity tapers off completely and also you outgrow your allergy. If you are not too lucky, your sensitivity can increase with time (unfortunately a typical occurrence with a few allergies), and then you might respond to lower minimizing doses and your reactions may increase in severity.

You might be more sensitive when your immune system is excited. A current food reaction or perhaps a bad pollen season, for instance, can lower your threshold. Your tolerance level can fluctuate. You might be in a position to tolerate confirmed quantity of food very intermittently, but while you expose you to ultimately it more regularly, you start to respond to it.

Some evidence suggests that in many people, contact with a little bit of food, although the exposure doesn't cause a clear reaction, causes it to be harder to outgrow the allergy. The concept here's that these small exposures ramp up the immune system and prolong the allergy, often even making the allergy stronger and more dangerous.

Patients who are able to tolerate small quantities of a known allergen with an occasional basis will benefit from the rotation diet. For instance, if you have milk allergy and also the bread you like contains tiny levels of milk, you might be okay eating that bread once per week.

Do not attempt this on your own; consult your doctor first. Exposing you to ultimately a bit of the offending food could result in a serious reaction, as well as whether it doesn't, the exposure could compromise your likelihood of outgrowing your allergy.

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Note: This article was sent to us by: Tyler Brooks at 10182011

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