Nut Allergy

Although nut is an ingredient in recipes enjoyed by many, it is unfortunate that there are a number of people, particularly children, who have a nut allergy. Avoiding nuts is not an easy task, as good food usually has nuts included in its recipe. Hence, information regarding this particular allergy is necessary to educate those who have yet to know.

To start things off, an allergy is developed when the immune system mistakenly considers a harmless product consumed or taken by the person as harmful. The body reacts to the product by releasing immunoglobulin E (IgE), which triggers chemicals to be released in the body. The chemicals would then cause the allergic responses, most commonly nausea, headache, and wheezing.

In the case of nuts, aside from the aforementioned reactions, the allergic person may experience more severe symptoms including anaphylaxis. This particular bodily disorder causes narrowed airways, lowered blood levels, and worse, death. Therefore, once the symptoms have manifested themselves to the person, he must immediately consult a doctor for diagnosis, or may suffer the consequences

During the diagnosis, the doctor can perform two methods in order to determine the level of allergy to nuts. The first is through skin testing, which is basically exposing a portion of the skin and using different allergens that could trigger the reactions. The other is by testing the blood, measuring the IgE response to the allergens. Skin testing is much more common due to its ease and convenience, but blood testing is performed used when the person has a skin disorder, such as eczema.

Treatment for nut allergy varies, depending on the level of reaction to the nuts. Regular medication would advise the person to take anti-allergy drugs to control the reactions. However, particular drugs such as antidepressants and cold medications are not to be used while taking anti-allergy drugs. On the other hand, severe nut allergy would require the person to receive epinephrine shots to mediate and control serious symptoms such as difficulty of breathing and swelling of the mouth.

Altogether, to avoid the reactions caused by the consumption of nut products, the only solution is to keep off from products that contain nuts and its derivatives. Presently, there are no cures for nut allergy, so people would simply have to stay away from them, or find nut alternatives that do not share the same content of nut products in order to prevent the awful reactions.