FaceBook Post by Dr. Palevsky




http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-closer-food-allergies-20101227,0,6697404.story

The problem with the conclusions in this articles stem from the fact that the medical profession only recognizes IgE mediated responses in the body as a sign of true allergy. The truth is, besides an IgE reaction, the medical textbooks describe more than a dozen immune and nervous system pathways that can be triggered when we are exposed to food antigens that we might be allergic or sensitive to, that instigate the onset of many clinical symptoms of allergy and sensitivity. The conventional medical community ignores the presence of all of these other pathways, so that if a child tests IgE negative to a food, the parents are told that the child is not allergic. This is unfortunate. We are finding that there are many more chemical and neurological responses in our bodies that are kicked up when we are exposed to things we are allergic to, that bring on sometimes more subtle signs of an allergy or sensitivity. These sensitivities will often manifest in a much more surprising way in the clinical exam of a child, different than what the classic signs of allergy are known to be. The more subtle and delayed sensitivity reactions to foods will be missed if we simply rely on doing a food challenge in the pediatric office, especially if the children's immune reactions to these foods are not IgE mediated. Yes, signs of true allergy can be seen when children have symptoms in their gastrointestinal tract, the pulmonary system, and the skin, but many of the insidious behavioral challenges that we see in children, i.e., inattentiveness, poor focus, speech & language deficits, restlessness, easy distractibility, insomnia, hyperactivity, learning difficulties, poor eye contact, visual and auditory processing disorders, and even bedwetting, can all be signs of allergy or sensitivity to foods and/or food products that won't be due to your ordinary IgE sensitivity reaction, or positive skin test. Many of these more subtle and delayed immune reactions are IgG mediated, (which are not recognized as valid by the conventional medical community) but even with measuring these antibodies, we can still be missing the other chemical and nervous system pathways that are being triggered and affect the health of our children when they are adversely reacting to foods. We have much more work to do to learn how to better evaluate food allergies and sensitivities in our children.