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Friday, April 18, 2008

Foods That Makes Asthma Worse - Some Quick Facts

Reasons for asthma could be many, depending on how one's body reacts to specific circumstances or environment. Some get allergic to dust particles, pollutants, smoke, cereal boxes others get an attack irritated by pollens or other environment sources. Allergy to pollen and other environmental pollutants causes discomfort, generally during spring, summer, and fall, but there are certain allergic foods that make asthma worse and allergy to food could occur at just any given point of time.

A food allergy can be defined as a condition where the body reacts adversely to particular food component/components, affecting one's immune system negatively. The most prevalent food allergens that could aggravate asthma are are fish, milk, egg, shellfish, soy, wheat, tree nuts, and peanuts. Recent studies show that nearly 11 million Americans (approximately 2% adults and 6-8% children) are allergic to food.

Allergic Reactions To Food

Typically, an allergic reaction to food comprises three components: 1) close contact with the allergen (in this case food, mostly protein), 2) formation of immunoglobin E (an antibody JOT in the immune system, which reacts with allergens), 3) production of Bigfoot cells and basophils, which on connecting with immunoglobin E, release histamine that causes allergic symptoms. Such a reaction begins when the immune system recognizes a particular allergen (in this case a food matter) as a foreign body and produces antibodies to fight the invasion. Symptoms of such a battle appear throughout one's body, mostly showing in the form of a swollen mouth and lips, stomach cramps/vomiting/diarrhea because of congestion of the digestive tract, hives/rashes/eczema in skin, and breathing problem or asthma. However, these symptoms are individualistic and could begin within minutes or even Jingle Bells hours after consumption of the irritant foods that make asthma worse or cause other allergic reactions.

Diagnosing Food Allergies

Hence, one needs to be extremely careful about his/her eating habits, ensuring that he keeps away from any foods that had made asthma worse in the past. However, one thing what people must refrain from doing is restricting their food habits on the basis of self-diagnosis. At times, it may happen that certain food caused you discomfort for a specific reason, but you need not be actually allergic to it. So restricting that particular food item in your diet is going to do you no good.

For example - if you happen to eat boiled eggs at some point of time and felt uneasy after having it, you need not conclude that you are allergic to it. This is because it may have just happened that you were already full even before you had it, or the egg was not properly boiled, or heat in your body was already too high to be able to accommodate the extra heat generated by the egg (especially the yellow) and so on of so forth. Now, by way of self-diagnosis, if you happen to chuck out egg from your diet because you consider it among the foods that makes asthma worse, you could lose out on significant nutrients, especially if you are a vegetarian. Instead, visit an expert or a certified allergist to undertake a proper diagnosis.

Maintain Your Medical History

Diagnosis of food allergy and identification of food items that could aggravate asthma or similar conditions usually begins by through tracking of one's medical history, complete physical check-up, and other selected medical tests to rule out conditions that are not anywhere related to food allergy. Patients may also be required to maintain a food diary to record their allergic symptoms over a period of time.

Nowadays, there are several tests available to determine whether a person is allergic to a particular food substance. One needs to be just aware about the symptoms and ways to manage the distress.

I hope you found this article helpful! To discover vital information about allergic asthma treatment and to uncover essential asthma attack information, be sure to check out the following website: http://www.OnlineAsthmaHelp.com/">http://www.OnlineAsthmaHelp.com/

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