food allergy clinic

The food allergy clinic is a specialized diagnosis and treatment unit specifically for food-mediated allergic diseases. Its core value is to solve food-related allergy problems that are easily missed or misdiagnosed by general internal medicine and general medicine departments. By accurately identifying allergens and formulating personalized avoidance and emergency plans, it can help more than 90% of food allergy patients reduce the frequency of attacks and avoid the risk of severe allergies.

I encountered a typical case during a consultation last Wednesday: a mother and her son came in. The 10-year-old boy coughed so hard that his shoulders were shaking and his face was a little swollen. The mother clutched a thick stack of examination sheets and said that she had gone to the respiratory departments of three hospitals, had lung CT, lung function, and mycoplasma tests done, and prescribed a lot of anti-inflammatory drugs and nebulizers. The cough was not getting better after almost three months. Finally, the community doctor asked him "should I go to the allergy department for a checkup?" I looked through the previous report and found that the inflammation indicators were all within the normal range. Then I asked about the diet. The child drank a glass of fresh milk every morning and evening. He had not changed brands in the past six months. I did a food-specific IgE test. As expected, the α-lactalbumin indicator was 6 times higher than the normal value. I asked her to stop all fresh milk and milk-containing snacks and drinks for the child, and prescribed some mild anti-allergic auxiliary drugs. After a follow-up visit two weeks later, the child stopped coughing and the swelling on his face had completely disappeared.

Believe it or not, many people’s impression of food allergy is still limited to the immediate reaction of “rash immediately after eating and being out of breath.” In fact, the manifestations of slow-onset allergies can be so biased that you would never think of the connection: recurring chronic urticaria, unexplained diarrhea and abdominal pain, children always rubbing their eyes and noses, difficulty concentrating, and even migraines that adults have long-term unexplained, may be linked to food allergies. General outpatient clinics receive too many visits, and doctors often don’t have the energy to carefully examine the correlation between your onset time and diet. Most of them prescribe medication based on symptoms, treating the symptoms rather than the root cause. This is also the core meaning of the existence of food allergy clinics.

When it comes to testing, there is indeed a lot of controversy in the industry. Some doctors believe that food-specific IgG testing has no clinical reference value and is an IQ tax. Only IgE-mediated immediate reactions are true food allergies. ； However, many doctors who have been on the frontline of clinical practice for a long time believe that although IgG-mediated chronic allergy has a delayed onset and atypical symptoms, it is the culprit of many chronic discomforts and should be included in the reference category. Based on my practical experience in the past few years, there is really no need to be black and white - I will never conclude that "food must be avoided" by just taking a test report. I must make a comprehensive judgment based on the results of the food diary and oral provocation test. A college student came for a physical examination before, and the test report showed that the IgG value for eggs was ridiculously high, but he said that he ate two fried eggs every morning and didn't feel any discomfort at all. I told him directly that he didn't need to eat anything. ； There is also a girl in her 20s who tested negative for IgE to mangoes, but said that her lips swelled and her throat became tight every time she ate mangoes. So even if the report was normal, I would repeatedly tell her to avoid it as much as possible.

Many people come to see a doctor without any preparation. They just open their mouths and say, "Doctor, I might be allergic, please prescribe a full set of tests for me." To be honest, a full set of tests costs several hundred dollars, and is really not as useful as keeping a 3-7 days food diary in advance. There is no need to remember how neatly, I just write down what I eat every day, how much I eat, and whether I feel any discomfort within 24 hours or even 72 hours after eating. Even minor problems such as "a little tired" or "a little headache" are written down. I look at the diary and ask, which can save a lot of time and avoid a lot of unnecessary tests.

In the past two months, I met a very unfortunate girl. She searched for some information about food allergies on the Internet, and then she gave herself a blind diet. She stopped eating eggs, milk, seafood, soy products, and wheat. She only ate some white rice and boiled vegetables every day. When she came to the doctor, her face was sallow, and she was already moderately anemic after a blood test. After a full set of tests, it was found that she was only allergic to wormwood pollen in summer and autumn, and it had nothing to do with food. She was simply suffering from the taboo for more than half a year.

To be honest, many people think that food allergies are just "making a fuss" and "spoiled", but I have actually seen patients who went into the emergency room for anaphylactic shock after eating a bite of peanuts. This kind of severe immediate allergy can really kill people. To put it bluntly, what the food allergy clinic does is to help you clearly mark the "minefields" of your body: which things are really untouchable, what medicines should be used in emergencies, and which are unnecessary taboos posted on the Internet. This not only helps you avoid fatal risks, but also does not have to torture your mouth for no reason - after all, there are so many delicious foods, there is no need to sacrifice yourself for unwarranted taboos, right?