OITKristina

The reason that food allergies are increasing - or all allergies are increasing - is complex. The prevailing hypothesis is the hygiene hypothesis, which essentially states that we are too clean. We have indoor plumbing, we use hand sanitizers and wash, we don't live with barn yard animals, so our immune system isn't being challenges. In the absence of this challenge, some people develop allergies. It has to deal with the whole concept of epigenetics - how your genes are interacting with your environment. There's so much more to be said about this subject and there are several theories, but in reality, the only thing you can really do is to introduce the highly allergic foods (like peanut) early on to children. Current recommendations are that: at least 6 months kids should be ingesting these highly allergic food proteins. We probably made it worse in the past when we delayed introduction of the highly allergic foods.

Right now, we don't see this expanding to developing countries. Based on the immunologic mechanisms, I don't foresee that this would expand.

TRANSCRIBED BY: OITKristina

Hello, it's OITKristina here. I can go ahead and answer this one, as I did most of the data analysis for our clinic patients. The doctor can chime in as well. We conducted an analysis of our OIT Peanut patients from July 2016 to July 2019 for peanut allergy. Of ~250 patients, 1 patient (0.42%) had a confirmed diagnosis of EOE after biopsy. It's still unclear whether the patient would have developed EOE without OIT, if OIT hastened the development of EOE, or if OIT caused him to develop EOE. Regardless, it's relatively rare.

EDIT: Typo

Hello there! This was a bit lost in the sauce. The doctor has mentioned the possibility of oral immunotherapy (OIT) to foods. If you'd like to read more about it, there's a link in the original post! This website provides a great resource for learning more. - OITKristina

I'm glad that there are med students interested in allergies! We teach students (mainly PAs at this time) at our clinic and realize that allergic diseases aren't that well-loved in medical school curriculum! Wholeheartedly agree with the advice. -OITKristina

Dr.Carr has answered this in another comment, so I'll re-iterate it here! Allergies can develop at any time. We even have a patient who suddenly developed an allergy to cashew in his 70s! If your wife is concerned about Nickel allergy, she can have allergy testing done via a patch test with an allergist. This can help help to see if she has other chemicals or metals that she is allergic to. Unfortunately, though, the current treatment is avoidance for these chemical/metal allergies.