Transcript
A (0:00)
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B (0:24)
When I was growing up, I was allergic to dairy. If I had a pizza or a bowl of cereal or ice cream, my nose would get totally stuffed up. In the scheme of things, though, it was just a mild allergy.
C (0:35)
There are other people that will describe like a sense of doom almost that kind of comes over them.
B (0:40)
This is Wahida Samdy, the director of clinical research at Northwestern University's center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research.
C (0:48)
Like the throat closing can definitely feel like they're breathing out of a straw. They can't take a deep breath. And then the itching and the swelling kind of comes on very immediately. Nausea and vomiting are very common in all age groups as well. Just because it's like your body's trying to purge something that did not stay well with it. So it is a very wide range of experiences. But I think those who have extreme reactions describe it as just kind of like a whole body takeover.
B (1:13)
People can be allergic to all sorts of things, from bee stings to medicines. But Waheeda's specialty is food allergies, and their prevalence is exploding.
C (1:24)
We call it an epidemic because it really has risen dramatically over the last few decades. So before the 1990s, the rate of food allergies in the US amongst everyone was below 3%, maybe 2, 2.5%. And just in children alone. Research studies have found a dramatic increase over that time. Now we look at 1 in 13 children have a food allergy.
B (1:48)
That means allergy rates have basically doubled. But the strange thing is this rise in allergies is not happening equally across the globe.
C (1:58)
The rise has definitely occurred in America, Western Europe, Australia, and then parts of Asia and Africa. But no, there are definitely still places in the world where no one has a food allergy. No one's heard of food allergies. It's a very different experience. Yeah. And you know, interestingly enough, what people are allergic to is also very different. So that varies globally. Globally as well. But no, food allergies are definitely on the rise in certain countries, but not others.