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Friday, December 14, 2007

Longer Expiry Date on Milk Allergy?

It seems that this was the week of the question mark, as just about every post title this week ended with said punctuation. I posted regarding human rights in Ontario, the possible role of RGS13 protein in the suppression of anaphylaxis and the mystery of vaccine-related anaphylaxis.

In each case the news provided as many questions as it did answers. This is nothing new to those dealing with severe food allergy and anaphylaxis. There are many questions yet to be answered, and likely many questions that we have not even thought to ask.

That theme continues tonight.

I read an article about a recent study that seems to refute the old adage that 75% of children with milk allergy outgrow their allergy by the time they turn 3. In this study, only 20% of children outgrew their milk allergy by age 4 and it took until the age of 16 for 75% of children to outgrow the allergy.

Could it really be that it is now taking 13 years longer to outgrow milk allergy?

There were concerns about the integrity of the results in that the population studied was highly atopic, however the study's co-author Dr. Robert A. Wood noted that "it may also be that the character of milk allergy has changed over time".

It was already difficult to study food allergy given limited budgets and a demanding time frame. If the 'target' now begins to move that research only becomes more difficult.

1 comment:

Alisa said...

To be honest, I think milk allergies were just not given much attention in years past.

I was born with a milk allergy (casein) and have never outgrown it (lab tested). However, they assumed I did, because well, doesn't everyone? What made diagnosis even more difficult, was that allergy symptoms often morph. Those problems that plagued me when I was little have taken on new forms.

I am coming across more and more adults who were thought to have a milk allergy as a child (it wasn't well tested until recently), and are now finding decades later that they are actually testing positive for a milk allergy.