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Yes, Adults Have Food Allergies Too — More Than Previously Thought

by Kelson Vibber, 2019-05-13

Discussion of food allergies tends to focus on children (for a lot of reasons), but a recent study found a much higher rate of food allergies among adults than expected. They found that 10.8 percent of American adults – that extrapolates to 26 million people! — reported a convincing food allergy (based on actual symptoms reported – another 9% reported allergies, but their symptoms didn’t match the diagnosis – presumably at least some of the rest are genuine intolerances). That’s actually higher than the rate among children found by another recent study, which came up with 7.6%.

Allergic Living: Study Finds Doubling of Adult Food Allergy: 5 Important Takeaways

Allergic Living: Allergy to Peanut, Milk and Shellfish the Most Common in American Kids

Now, my first thought on reading this was: Of course! Kids with food allergies who were counted 10, 20, 30 years ago have grown up, and we’re adults now! But it’s more than that: There’s a lot more adult-onset allergies than anyone expected to find.

The JAMA article goes into the numbers. Of those who had a convincing allergy:

JAMA: Prevalence and Severity of Food Allergies Among US Adults

More than a quarter of adults with food allergies didn’t have them as children. That’s a surprise! And it raises questions: Is there a different mechanism that triggers childhood-onset allergies vs. adult-onset? (Other than tick bites, of course.) What about those of us who had allergies already and added more? Is there some sort of saturation threshold?

Yes, tick bites!

There are still a lot of unknowns about food allergies. But we do know that they can be deadly serious, and they affect a lot of people.

Life

Allergies

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