Can You Get Food Allergies Later in Life?
Most of the time it is assumed that if you have an allergy, especially a food allergy, it will develop or manifest itself when you are still a child, that is early on in your life. While this may be true most of the time, with there being cases where some food allergies are shed as one grows old, there are cases however when food allergies appear randomly when one is an adult and so to answer the answer the question posed by the headline of this article, the simple answer is yes, you can develop food allergies later in life. Sometimes one can outgrow a certain food allergy as mentioned above, only to have the same allergy reappear later when you are an adult. Worse still, you can develop an allergy to certain foods that you have been eating all your life without any problem out of the blue, keeping in mind that we are talking food allergies not food intolerances. This is because while food intolerances only cause discomfort, food allergies can lead to severe reactions that can be life-threatening, with more on the differences between both covered in detail over at frontlineer.com.
Some of the most common food allergies that develop later in life include allergies to foods such as shrimp, lobster, peanuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds, fish among others. As you can notice the above examples fall into three categories; fish, shellfish and tree nuts, which are the most common foods adults develop allergies to as per subject matter experts over at frontlineer.com. While it has proven difficult to pinpoint exact reasons why one can develop an allergy to something they have eaten all their lives without problems, experts have been able to isolate a certain group of people who are more likely to develop food allergies later I life. This high-risk group include folks with asthma, eczema, and seasonal allergies like those who get allergies during the ragweed pollen season among other seasons. The fact that the people in this group already have conditions that may lead to symptoms affecting their skin or breathing may be one of the reasons why they are more prone to getting food allergies later on in their lives. It is therefore important for the aforementioned people to take any reactions they may encounter after taking a certain food seriously regardless of how mild it was as in most cases subsequent reactions are usually more serious.
Another reason that has been put forward by experts, including those over at frontlineer.com, to try and explain why people may develop food allergies later on in life is the fact that many foods may have cross-reacting antigens that may lead to one developing food allergies. Some of these cross-reacting antigens include tree pollen that one may inhale and hence trigger an allergic reaction. This may go some way explaining why tree nuts are top of the list of the foods which most adults develop allergies from. This is especially true for people who have tree allergies especially allergies involving pollen. It has also been put forward that environmental factors that lead to changes in our microbiome may be another reason why someone may develop a food allergy as an adult. These changes can be triggered by misuse of antibiotics, with drug misuse being prevalent today, as well as poor dietary practices that greatly alters the makeup of bacteria in our body, especially in our guts. Studies involving the microbiome and bacteria in our bodies have shown that the absence of certain bacteria greatly increases chances of one developing food allergies.
Allergic reaction symptoms due to food allergies are not minor like those caused by food intolerances which most of the time include a bloated stomach or gas. Food allergies can lead to difficulty breathing, swelling of tongue and lips, hives, rashes, vomiting among others, all of which can lead to anaphylactic shock which, as covered over at frontlineer.com, can be life-threatening. It is therefore advised that if you start experiencing symptoms of allergic reactions, you should head over to an emergency room as soon as possible. After getting the symptoms under control, you should proceed to make a list of all the food items you may have eaten prior to the allergic reaction, without leaving anything out and then head over to an allergy expert so that they can tell you what may be causing the allergic reaction. Once you find out, then the next step is to ensure you avoid ingesting the food causing the allergic reaction or any product containing the same. You should also ensure you carry an EpiPen with you just in case you ingest the food by mistake and have a reaction. While all this may be hard to keep up with at first as an adult, it is all completely necessary for you own safety and health.
From the discussion above, it is clear that one may definitely develop a food allergy later in life, with much more on this topic and others to be found over at frontlineer.com.
