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nut lovers rejoice
"Ericka Kammerer" wrote in message ... Amy wrote: I've often wondered about the logic to this. IMO, allergies are inherited and genetic and if you're going to get them you will, if you won't you won't My mother ate peanuts through all her pregnancies and breastfed us all. None of us have food allergies. Two out of three suffered asthma, as did our parents, and one has a rare allergy to cold but that's it...I don't see how The tendency to atopic disease is inherited, but the manner in which that tendency is *expressed* (allergies, asthma, eczema, etc.), if at all, is partly determined by exposure. You take a child with a tendency to atopic disease and expose him or her to highly allergenic foods before the immune system is fully developed, and you may get food allergies where you might not have otherwise. Some would argue that exposure in small, controlled amounts may help protect against the development of allergies, but research is still very equivocal on this point. I have wondered this before. Somewhere I read (or saw) a study that idicated the increase in asthma and hayfever was liked to the immune system being underworked and turning on things eg. pollen which aren't actually a threat. Perhaps the total avoidance of all potentially allergenic foods could contribute, that's total speculation BTW I have absolutely no backup! For some reason I haven't been able to get onto the lancet or NEJM websites (which is where I probably saw the study) so I can't give you a ref. for the underworked immune system theory. Judy Anyway, the point is that it is *not* the case that you inherit a nut allergy and there's nothing you can do about it at all. You may be able to avoid it by delaying the introduction. The reason that there has been discussion of avoiding exposure during pregnancy and nursing is that there have been cases where babies have reacted to their very first exposure to peanuts. Since they know you *can't* react on your first exposure (you have to have been sensitized through a prior exposure), they theorized that the children might have been exposed during pregnancy or breastfeeding and subsequently found that nut proteins can pass intact over the placenta or through breastmilk. Best wishes, Ericka |
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