Food allergies guidelines released by U.S. health agency

Food allergies guidelines released by U.S. health agency

Food allergies affect many Americans and a new set of guidelines released by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAD) may be helpful for doctors and patients to identify them more easily. The new list recommends that physicians document an exhaustive medical history of the patient to detect food allergies. Additionally, the NIAD offers a variety of tests for doctors to refer to in order to identify allergies in a patient. Health officials estimate that 10-12 million Americans, including one in ten children, have some form of allergy to foods like eggs, milk products and peanuts. These and many other foods are ingredients in many items of the average American shopping cart and their family diets. But the actual number of food allergies is unknown.

“Many of us feel the number is probably in the neighborhood of 3 to 4 percent,” said co-author Dr. Hugh A. Sampson during a news conference announcing the new guidelines on Friday. “There is a lot of concern about food allergy being overdiagnosed, which we believe does happen.”

Dr. Sampson said that many kids outgrow egg and milk allergies. But food allergies to less common foods such as fish, peanuts, and shellfish do not easily go away, with only about 20 percent of kids with these more pesky allergies eventually outgrowing them. The NIAD collaborated with over 30 medical organizations, government agencies and health advocacy groups in coming up with the 43 recommendations included in the new guidelines for dealing with food allergies.

Posted by George Daniels on Tuesday December 07 2010, 1:58 AM EST. Ref: Health Day. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0