Aside from being an inconvenience, or a disappointing restriction that affects daily life, living with a food allergy can be akin to living with a life-threatening condition. It’s not surprising then, to find that the mothers of children that have a food allergy experience significantly higher blood pressure than mothers of children that don’t have a food allergy. To top it off, 40% of children in primary school have been bullied about their food allergy, further compounding the stress for everyone involved. On today’s episode, Dr. Richard Wasserman discusses oral immunotherapy (OIT) as a treatment for food allergy. In essence, OIT is a process that entails feeding an allergen to a person who is allergic, and gradually increasing the amount of allergen over the course of months in order to promote desensitization. On today’s episode, you will discover:

• Under what circumstances food allergy testing is of no value or misleading, and why it shouldn’t be done unless there is a history of an immediate allergic reaction
• Why the gradual increase in amount of allergen works to treat food allergies and extremely rarely causes an allergic reaction
• What exactly is going on when an allergic response occurs

Dr. Richard Wasserman has a medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and completed a pediatric residency and fellowship training in bone marrow transplant recovery and immunology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. For more information on food allergies, visit foodallergy.org.

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