food allergy expert

When people look for food allergy experts, their core request is never to get a long list of taboos. Our core value is to help you turn allergies from an "obstacle" in your life to a "minor trouble" that can coexist within a safe range. Many people can even completely get rid of the restrictions of allergic foods after standardized intervention.

Last week, I saw a 9-year-old boy. His mother clutched the allergen report from three years ago and said that the child was allergic to milk as a secondary disease. In the past few years, he had not even dared to touch a birthday cake. The child’s eyes trembled when he watched his classmates eating strawberry sundaes. I performed another IgE test and challenge test on him, and found that his allergic antibody concentration had dropped below the safe threshold. I made him drink half a box of warm milk in the clinic area that day, and observed him for half an hour, but nothing happened. His mother was furious on the spot and said that if she had known she would have come earlier, her child would have been greedy for three years.

To be honest, there are two schools of thought in the field of allergies that have been arguing for many years. The old-school doctors insist that "as long as allergies are detected, they should be avoided absolutely." Especially for allergens such as peanuts and tree nuts that can easily induce immediate shock, the first priority is to avoid touching them if possible. Minimizing the risk is the first priority. This is true. Two years ago, I treated a college student who secretly ate half a peanut. When he was delivered, his larynx was swollen and he was almost out of breath. It took him a long time to save him.

However, in recent years, there has been more and more evidence of evidence-based medicine, and many doctors have begun to advocate "gradient introduction to establish immune tolerance" - as long as it is not a severe immediate allergy or the allergy level is below level two, you can start with a very small amount and slowly help the immune system adapt to this food, without touching a bite. Last month, a 24-year-old girl came to me and said she had been allergic to mangoes since she was a child. Her mouth swelled for a long time after eating one bite. However, a few days ago, her boyfriend gave her a mango pancake. She couldn't help but lick a mouthful of cream, but nothing happened. After I evaluated her, I gave her a gradual trial plan. Now she can eat half a mango at a time. Last time she came for a review, she brought me a package of dried mangoes, saying that she had finally achieved mango freedom.

Don’t think that allergies are all innate. I met a 35-year-old brother last year. He had eaten seafood for more than ten years and was fine. Last summer, he drank ice beer and ate thirteen-spice crayfish. He went into anaphylactic shock and was admitted to the ICU. Later, it was found that he had a sudden seafood allergy. Now he is slowly doing tolerance training and can already eat a few mouthfuls of steamed sea bass.

Speaking of which, I have to mention the hotly debated issue on the Internet right now: "Is food intolerance testing an IQ tax?" This is also a point of great controversy in our industry. One school of thought is that food-specific IgG is a normal immune response. A high value only means that you often eat this food, and it is not an allergy at all. Following this taboo is purely nonsense. The most exaggerated patient I have ever seen, based on the IgG report, banned rice and wheat. He only ate quinoa and vegetables every day. He lost 20 pounds in three months, and his aunt stopped. But the other school of thought is also reasonable. Many delayed-onset food intolerances are indeed related to chronic urticaria, long-term diarrhea, and irritable bowel syndrome. The IgG results can be used as a reference, but they must not be directly used as the only basis for taboos. Whether you can eat them depends on symptoms and provocation tests.

We usually joke in the clinic that the list of taboos for allergy patients is thicker than a high school student's college entrance examination wrong question book. In fact, it is really unnecessary. When I make a plan for my patients, I never list a bunch of "don't eats" first. I always ask you what you want to eat most recently. If you want to eat hot pot the most, then we will slowly sift through the base ingredients and shabu-shabu vegetables to see which ones can be put in and which ones can't be touched. Don't completely insulate yourself from hot pot because you are allergic to beef. You can still enjoy eating chicken and mutton.

Allergy intervention is a bit like desensitization training for the immune system. Just like if you are afraid of a dog, first look at it from a distance for two minutes, then come one meter closer next time, and then touch your back next time. Gradually, you will no longer be afraid. However, if you are scared to the point of cardiac arrest and shock when you see a dog, you must not just get close to it. Safety is always the first priority.

Yesterday, a mother sent me a WeChat message saying that her child, who is allergic to eggs, ate steamed eggs with eggs for the first time yesterday. He jumped up and down without any problems after eating. In the video, the child's face was still stained with yellow custard marks, and his eyes narrowed with laughter.

To be honest, what we do in our profession is nothing special. We just help people get back the part of their lives that has been stolen by allergies.