Food allergies are on the rise, and are currently the fifth leading chronic illness in the United States. Scientists estimate that approximately 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies and the problem is getting worse. Here are the Top 5 Ways to Allergy-Proof Your Day  from award-winning expert Mireille Schwartz:

1. PREVENTION
Studies are inconclusive about whether food allergies can be prevented. Parents should become familiar with the early signs of allergic disease such as eczema, hives, repeated diarrhea and/or vomiting in reaction to formulas, wheezing, and talk to a doctor about those symptoms. At this time, no medication can be taken to prevent food allergies so strict avoidance of the allergy-causing food is the only way to prevent a reaction. Medications are administered to control symptoms after a reaction occurs.

2. CARRY YOUR RESCUE MEDICATIONS
Epinephrine, also called adrenaline, is the medication of choice for controlling a severe reaction. It is available by prescription as a self-injectable device (EpiPen® or Twinject®). Carry it with you at all times.

3. MAKE YOUR HOME A CULINARY SANCTUARY
Once it’s confirmed you or your loved one has a food allergy, you should immediately clear every allergenic item from your pantry, refrigerator and freezer. It’s also a good idea to thoroughly clean and sanitize your cooking utensils, oven, stovetop and cookware. Why? Keeping unsafe items out of your food storage and preparation areas will reduce opportunities for cross-contamination.

4. KEEP A KEEN EYE OUT FOR CROSS-CONTAMINATION
Cross-contamination is the cooking or serving of different foods with the same utensils and surfaces. Food allergens can be transferred via unwashed hands or utensils, preparation surfaces, fryer vats and even garnishes.

5. DE-STRESS
Research shows that stress can aggravate allergic reactions, even a full day after an anxiety-producing event. That might be because as stress hormones in your body rise, so do levels of cytokines — proteins we produce as part of the allergic response, according to research from Ohio State University. So keep an even keel, soothe yourself by breathing deeply, spend time with dear friends & family, listen to tunes you love and enjoy your life!

In Fall 2010 two student designers from California College for the Arts, Maria Pitallano and Erin Fong, contacted Mireille Schwartz and the Bay Area Allergy Advisory Board to seek mentoring and learn more about how families cope with life-threatening food allergies. Mireille offered her expert knowledge and provided invaluable feedback during the concept evaluation phase that led Maria and Erin to focus on both an easy to carry personal treatment device and a public based device that they soon hope will be as ubiquitous as the defibrillator at gyms and airports.

Epi Inject is a new type of treatment delivery system for people who have life-threatening allergies. This family of devices addresses the issues surrounding those with allergies and their reluctance to carry the current Epi Pen — specifically its bulky size, the stigma attached to carrying a medical device, and dislike/fear of the physical force required to administer treatment. At 2″ x 3″, the Epi Inject for Personal Use has a clean, non-medical design and is small enough to fit in your back pocket or secured to your bag. The Epi Inject for Public Use is designed for easy administration by anyone, and would be installed in schools, restaurants, and other public spaces. Both injectors use a spring loaded trigger, eliminating the jabbing motion and providing a kinder, easier way to administer treatment. Epi Inject received the Spark International Concept Design Award.

WHAT IS NEEDED:
Because medical devices can be tricky to develop, Maria & Erin are currently are hoping to partner with a pharmaceutical company to further develop it and produce it. In order to present this to a company, they are in the process of patenting their two injector products.
You can help by clicking here:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/epi-inject-make-it-easy-to-administer-life-saving-treatment-for-food-allergies

QUOTES:

“I’m not comfortable submerging [the epipen] in me by myself. If it’s
severe, I just go to the hospital.” Janet

“There was no time to call the paramedics. I couldn’t breathe, I
couldn’t walk, I was turning blue. It’s scary.” David

“My kids with peanut allergies never remember to carry their epipens.” Gayle

“I have three children with life threatening egg and peanut allergies.
We home schooled them because they were so bad and there was such a
lack of understanding. Now they are all old enough to self carry and
self administer…but the packs are bulky and the straps have failed
numerous times. We do not leave the house without an arsenal of epi
pens. This is way over due. Get it done!!! Fast!!” Joannie

“My daughter is 16 years old and all these small clutches and iphone
cases won’t hold an Epipen so this would be so helpful.  I showed my
daughter the Ep Inject and she literally said ‘Yeah!!’”
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A new study shows significant improvement in peanut allergy tolerance following a long course of under-the-tongue allergy drops.

Known as Sublingual Immunotherapy, or SLIT, this treatment works by having study subjects take tiny, daily doses of an allergen – in this case, peanut – in steadily increasing amounts over an extended period of time.

The new study, published in the January edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, involved 40 peanut-allergic patients between the ages of 12 and 37 in five U.S. cities. The subjects were randomly divided in half, with one group taking liquid drops containing peanut powder under the tongue and the other taking drops with a placebo.

After 44 weeks of the daily doses, 70 percent of those getting the peanut powder could tolerate at least 10 times more peanut in an oral food challenge before showing symptoms than they could have at the outset of the study. In a follow-up challenge at 68 weeks, they could tolerate about twice as much again. Patients were then to be retested at 88 weeks.

This suggests that longer treatment could lead to even better results. The end goal is to slowly build up tolerance until the individual is no longer sensitized to the allergen.

Dr. Wesley Burks is the lead author of the study and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at The University of North Carolina. Dr. Burks is quick to acknowledge the hurdles that remain. First, the treatment was not effective for 30 percent of the subjects. He believes this has to do with finding the proper dosage for those individuals, which could be related to their specific immune and gastrointestinal systems.

He says it shows that more and larger studies are required before this type of treatment – currently only done with strict medical supervision – becomes widely available.

The second issue is that, after 44 weeks, the average amount of peanut one of the responding allergic patients could consume was still fairly small: 496 milligrams. That equates to about two peanuts (a single peanut typically contains 250 to 300 mg of protein).

Even if SLIT’s results are being measured in incremental successes, that is still significant and promising, especially when compared to the only, current allergy strategy: the strict avoidance of peanuts.

Our tried & true, best allergy safe party tips for season’s eatings!

1) Hosts: please keep food labels for everything used to prepare a festive homemade Holiday meal so an allergic guest may double-check the ingredient list.

2) Hosts: if there’s someone with a food allergy and guests want to contribute to the party, suggest flowers, wine, or Holiday-themed napkins & plates instead of food items.
Guests: Frey Vineyards in Mendocino is historically America’s FIRST organic & biodynamic winery free of chemicals. An elegant & affordable way to enhance the celebration, plus it’s safe for sulfite allergies.

3) Don’t overlook Tom Turkey! Some basted turkeys contain soy, wheat and dairy. Instead look for turkeys labeled “Natural”, which by law must be minimally processed. Fatted Calf Charcuterie in Hayes Valley (320 Fell Street, San Francisco) is carrying both Early Bird Ranch (local) as well as Good Shepard Farms (from Kansas) fresh turkeys this year free of antibiotics, hormones, and allergens.

4) Avoid cross-contamination of utensils and surfaces when preparing foods. Rinsing a knife that chopped walnuts is insufficient: thoroughly scrub all utensils and surfaces with soap & water, and wipe clean. Even trace amounts of a food can cause a reaction for highly allergic people.

5) Ambitious home chefs: how about trying color-coded cooking utensils this year? A bright red silicone spatula or a nifty lime green serving spoon is sure to alert food allergic guests. Lower Haight’s kitchen supply store, COOKIN’ (339 Divisadero Street, San Francisco) offers up an unusual array of high end packed-to-the-gills vintage & new housewares.

6)  If a guest brings a food item that contains allergens and there’s an allergic diner at the table, if it’s well-sealed you could accept it and donate it later to a friend or a soup kitchen. Food Runners in San Francisco is a volunteer organization dedicated to alleviating hunger. With a free phone call, their volunteers deliver over 10 tons of food a week to agencies feeding people in need and can pick up a donation.

7) Guests: if you’re allergic and flying to visit friends or family, make some simple allergy-free foods that travel well and ship them to your host home a week or so in advance.

#8 is for Guests:  if your HOST has food allergies you can always bring a gift of unpeeled fruit or a prepackaged food with ingredient lists that your host says is a-ok. The Ferry Building Marketplace on the Embarcadero at Market Street, SF has a wide range of seasonal “safe” food for you to gift your Host.

9) Guests: if you’re food allergic even if it’s not a potluck why not offer to bring a safe dish or two so there’s definitely something on the table you can eat, and your host doesn’t have to prepare separate food items. Here is our BAAAB recipe for “Charlotte Jude’s Favorite Nut-Free Zucchini Bread” featured on RedTricycle.com. Share dishes that are allergen-free and a delight for everyone attending!

10) Guests: if you are allergic always let your host (or restaurant where you’re celebrating) know in advance – don’t assume they will know or remember. And always bring your own medication (an up-to-date auto injector) just in case of emergency. Festive Holiday favorites for groups include Spruce Restaurant (3640 Sacramento Street, SF) and the Crown Room at Nob Hill’s Fairmont Hotel (950 Mason Street, SF). If you feel like an affordable and down-home casual Holiday eve, owner Michael Richardson of Da ‘Pitt (formerly Brother-in-Laws) on Divisadero Street in SF has completely allergy-free spice rubs for all their meats including tri tip, beef brisket, and baby back ribs.

Campus Explorer has a series of food allergy stories by reporter Caroline Shannon-Karasik, featuring BAAAB CEO Mireille Schwartz on a national panel of experts, with a vital how-to guide to coping with food allergies on the college campus.

Helpful guidelines links here:

Fish Allergies on Campus

Soy Allergies in College

College Tips Managing Peanut and Tree Nut Allergies

These years are important for all students to gain independence in the “real” world, and while these food allergy challenges are scary at times, college life is feasible with careful planning and a Can-Do attitude.

The 2012 results are in! The Bay Area Allergy Advisory Board has tested (and nibbled!) to find the most popular, top ten best allergy safe Halloween candies free of peanuts and tree nuts, and many are free of all other Big 8 allergens! Here is our Top Ten spooktacular “Best” Halloween Candy list for food allergic individuals.

REMEMBER: Check the labels and the websites, and call manufacturers to find out if they are safe for your child BECAUSE ingredients change without notice; different sizes of the same brand candy can have different ingredients, and different versions of the same candy always have different ingredients.
So: read each & every label every single time.
“When in doubt, call the manufacturer or do without.”  Happy Halloween!

Drumroll, please! Here are our allergy safe top ten Halloween candies in alphabetical order:

1)      Airheads www.airheads.com

2)      Divvies  www.divvies.com

3)      Dum Dums  www.dumdumpops.com

4)      Fun Dip www.wonka.com

5)      Life Savers (hard candies & gummies) www.life-savers.com

6)      Nerds www.wonka.com

7)      Skittles www.skittles.com

8)      Smarties www.smarties.com

9)      Sour Patch Kids  www.sourpatch.com

10)  Starburst www.starburst.com

Click here for our COMPLETE list of all peanut free & tree nut free Halloween Candy for 2012:
PEANUT AND TREE NUT FREE CANDY LINK

 Our BAAAB-tested Annual Halloween Safe Candy & Snacks Lists are back by popular demand!

Click here for our complete allergy safe, peanut free & tree nut free, even casein free and gluten free Halloween candy:
BAAAB Safe Candy Lists

With food allergies still on the rise and no clear answer about their causes, parents of allergic children anxiously await the development of an effective treatment to prevent life-threatening reactions.

Researchers are making progress with a method for helping children with food allergies develop a tolerance for foods they otherwise couldn’t eat.  The technique is called immunotherapy.  The basic idea is to give an allergic child extremely small quantities of the allergen and increase the dosage over time.

A new study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, is particularly exciting because it followed children with an egg allergy for one year after they stopped receiving immunotherapy treatment and found some success in that group.  But more than half of the children did not show this immunity and doctors still don’t know why.

“It really does give us great hope that there can be a treatment developed in the future,” said Dr. Wesley Burks of Duke University, chairman of the department of pediatrics at UNC School of Medicine.

About 4% to 6% of children in the United States have food allergies, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  Some will outgrow their allergies, but others – especially children who are allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish – will likely have to avoid certain foods for life.  If they don’t, they risk reactions ranging from mild itching and hives to airway blockages and even death.

The immunotherapy approach has already been tried with peanuts and milk in small trials.

In this new study, researchers examined 55 children between ages 5 and 11 who were allergic to eggs.  Forty of them received immunotherapy (controlled doses of egg white powder) and 15 of them received a placebo treatment.

By 22 months of treatment, 75% of kids who got the immunotherapy were considered “desensitized” to eggs.

Researchers found that 10 kids who had undergone the immunotherapy were eating eggs on their own a year after the treatment ended, without symptoms.  This was out of an initial group of 30 who took the treatment and could pass a food challenge (eating egg without incident) after 22 months of therapy.

It’s important to note, however, that about 15% of kids receiving the immunotherapy treatment dropped out of the trial – mostly because of allergic reactions, according to the study.  Before this method could become the standard of care, doctors must further investigate what are the risks of undergoing treatment compared with just trying to live with the allergy and avoiding the offending food, the authors wrote.   And the study authors can’t totally rule out the possibility that some children were in the process of naturally outgrowing their egg allergies.

This is the largest blind, multisite trial of this kind, and the first to look at what happens after the treatment is over for such a significant period of time, Burkes said.

Ruslan Medzhitov, professor of immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, called this study a “very important investment” because it’s moving toward a treatment.  He believes it could become a standard of care if researchers figure out why some children respond perfectly to immunotherapy and others don’t, and whether the outcome is truly a long-term immune tolerance of allergens.

It’ll be another five to 10 years before this kind of thing could be widely available, Burkes says.

In the meantime, don’t try this at home.  This procedure was done in a medical setting under tightly controlled conditions; parents should not attempt to inoculate their own allergic children against potentially deadly foods.

Eggs can be hidden in all sorts of food products, which is why parents of children with this allergy need to be extremely cautious because even a single bite of a cooked egg can trigger a severe allergic reaction in some children.

“It’s a huge strain on a family’s quality of life because there’s always this worry, no matter where you are or what you’re doing: I hope my child is safe,” says Dr. Ruchi Gupta, assistant professor of pediatrics and health services researcher at Northwestern University and Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Gupta’s 6-year-old daughter is allergic to tree nuts and peanuts. There’s always a fear that she might accidentally ingest a problematic food when she’s at camp or school, Gupta said.

“Having something like immunotherapy, where I feel like she could start on small doses and gradually work her way up, would be amazing,” Gupta said.

Elizabeth Landau
CNN Health

Are you sure you know what’s in that cocktail or that specialty brew? For adults managing food allergies, food is far from the only concern. Food allergens such as milk, soy and tree nuts are found in many cocktails. Wheat is prevalent in most beers. Aside from being vigilant about the ingredients in beverages, adults managing food allergies must also take care to use caution with alcoholic beverages to ensure that their judgment is not negatively affected and that their ability to make decisions, recognize a reaction, and administer medication is not impaired. Alcohol can influence how quickly a food allergen is absorbed into the body, resulting in symptoms occurring at a faster pace.

Here are some examples of major food allergens in alcohol:

• Tree nuts in some specialty beers (particularly seasonal ales)
• Hazelnuts in Frangelico
• Milk in Irish cream
• Egg used to create “froth” on top of some beverages
• Almonds in amaretto
• Milk in white chocolate liqueurs
• Almonds in some brands of gin

If you’re planning on drinking alcohol at a bar or at a party with a bar, also be mindful of cross-contamination potential with cocktail shakers. Those avoiding certain allergens should also be vigilant when garnishes are used for cocktails.

If you are a celicac sufferer, here are some gluten-free beers to enjoy:

♦  Anheuser-Busch Redbridge

♦  Bard’s Tale Beer

♦  Greens

♦  Hambleton Ales Gluten Free Ale & Hambleton Ales Gluten Free Lager

♦  Lakefront Brewery’s New Grist

♦  St. Peter’s Sorghum Beer

♦  New Planet Tread Lightly Pale Ale

♦  Schnitzer Bräu Gluten-Free Organic Millet Beers

♦  Woodchuck Draft Cider

Knowledge = power! So now you can responsibly enjoy a drink…and remain safe.

In food allergy-savvy classrooms throughout the nation, elementary school teachers and room parents are planning Valentine’s Day parties for their students. Students are looking forward to the annual tradition of exchanging Valentines, while we parents of students with food allergies are keeping their guard up due to the potential for reactions at these classroom parties. Here are some helpful reminders as this holiday approaches:

• Call the room parent or teacher (whoever is taking the lead on organizing the party) to remind them about your child’s food allergies and discuss how your child can participate in the event equally alongside his/her classmates.
• Reinforce safety rules with your child about not accepting foods that have not been cleared by you or another designated adult.
• Remind your child not to open any Valentine’s Day candies from classmates.
• If it’s not too late, perhaps suggest some games and easy crafts that can be done during the party in lieu of eating food in the classroom.
• Work out a plan with your child’s teacher to have students wash their hands and/or use wipes after handling food. Send in extra wipes for the teacher to have on hand for students to use if they eat foods that contain your child’s allergen.