Your food allergy increases your risk for an asthma attack
What do kids, men and African-Americans have in common? Well, they are the segments of the American population who are highly susceptible to food allergies.
Recent estimates by an NIH-funded research show that 7.6 million Americans – that’s 2.5% of the country’s population – have food allergies. And of these over 7 million people, the majority are children, non-Hispanic blacks and males.
In order to estimate the prevalence of food allergies, the study used a nationally representative sample and analyzed specific immunoglobulin E (IgE) or antibody levels to measure sensitivity to common food items including peanuts, milk, eggs and shrimps.
According to NIH News:
The study was very comprehensive and covered all age groups and took into account, ethnicity, gender, and medical history.
The actual food allergy prevalence measured by the study is:
- children 1 to 5 years – 4.2% (highest)
- adults over 60 (lowest)
In terms of types of food allergies:
- peanut, 1.3%
- milk, 0.4%
- egg, 0.2%
- shrimp, 1.0%
In addition, food allergies seem to worsen asthma. People with asthma and food allergies have to be extra careful because they have almost a 7-fold chance of having severe asthma attack compared to those with asthma only. According to lead author Dr. Andrew Liu of the National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver:
The study results are very invaluable since “the national prevalence and patterns of food allergy (FA) in the United States are not well understood”, according to the authors. Dr. Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS):
