"Given the life-threatening nature of some food allergies, you’d think there would be no room for myths or pseudoscience. You’d be wrong. Confusion and misinformation abounds. There is the unfortunate tendency to label any sort of negative reaction to any substance as being an “allergy”. I see this frequently when speaking with patients about their medical history, who rhyme off a long list of drug “allergies”, which more frequently describe intolerance, like diarrhea to antibiotics, or nausea and drowsiness from narcotics. Then there are “allergies” pulled out of thin air. The current fad food “allergy” is gluten, a self-diagnosed condition in which gluten is believed to be some sort of dietary toxin – which must be distinguished from (1) the person with the documented anaphylactic wheat allergy and (2) those with celiac disease, an auto-immune response to gluten that requires absolute avoidance (but does not cause anaphylaxis if ingested). Capitalizing on the confusion about allergies and intolerances are alternative medicine providers, who offer their own definitions of allergies, and (conveniently) their own cures.” sciencebasedmedicine.org/food-allergies-facts-myths-and-pseudoscience/
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 13:46:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015