Sicherer - Food allergies: a complete guide for eating when your life depends on it

PRAISE FOR

Food Allergies: A Complete Guide for Eating When Your Life Depends on It

An indispensable book for anyone who has food allergies or any parent of a child with food allergies. As an allergist treating food-allergic patients every day, I keep this book within easy reach, on my bookshelf. Its a unique source of knowledge for those of us who treat such patients.

PHIL LIEBERMAN, MD

Division of Allergy and Immunology,
University of Tennessee College of Medicine

A must-read for teens and adults with food allergies, and for anyone living with or caring for someone with food allergies. Here they will find answers to many of their questions as well as interesting case histories and essential principles of diagnosis and treatment, including a realistic overview of future approaches.

F. ESTELLE R. SIMONS, MD

World Allergy Organization
Special Committee on Anaphylaxis

Dr. Sicherer draws on his years of experience as a master clinician, researcher, author, and thought leader in this field to provide practical advice and countless insights that are sure to provide the reader with the knowledge needed to understand and manage food allergies. The question-and-answer format makes this comprehensive book highly accessible to people with food allergies and parents of children with food allergies, while the extensive insights and depth of detail make it an important resource for health care providers as well. Dr. Sicherer describes in detail how to integrate food allergies into a family lifestyle. A familys ability to anticipate a food reaction and then treat the symptoms if they happenand not expect a reaction to happen all the timehelps a family cope thoughtfully with food allergies in a child.

A. WESLEY BURKS, MD

American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology

In this definitive guide to food allergies, Scott Sicherer offers his readers a complete food allergy education. He demystifies everything from science to symptoms to label reading, and offers encouragement for living life to its fullestin spite of food allergies. Destined to be the go-to resource for patients and parents striving to live well with food allergies.

GWEN SMITH

Editor, Allergic Living magazine

Dr. Sicherer answers all the questions parents and others have about food allergies. From practical considerations, to emotional issues, to the latest in the search for a cureits all here. The easy-to-read question-and-answer format will make this a reference book you reach for time and again. I wholeheartedly recommend it!

ANNE MUOZ-FURLONG

The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network

Food Allergies is required reading for patients, parents, and physicians who want to help patients who have food allergiesyoung or old. Parents should keep a copy of this book next to Understanding and Managing Your Childs Food Allergies (also by Dr. Sicherer) so they can better understand food allergies, obtain better medical care, and ultimately enjoy a better quality of life. As a parent of children with life-threatening food allergies, these are my essential reference books.

AMIE RAPPOPORT MCKENNA

mother of children with severe food allergies

FOOD ALLERGIES

A Johns Hopkins Press Health Book

Note to the Reader: This book is not meant to substitute for medical care and treatment should not be based solely on its contents. Instead, treatment must be developed in a dialogue between the individual and his or her physician. Our book has been written to help with that dialogue.

Drug dosage: The author and publisher have made reasonable efforts to determine that the selection of drugs discussed in this text conform to the practices of the general medical community. The medications described do not necessarily have specific approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in the diseases for which they are recommended. In view of ongoing research, changes in governmental regulation, and the constant flow of information relating to drug therapy and drug reactions, the reader is urged to check the package insert of each drug for any change in indications and dosage and for warnings and precautions. This is particularly important when the recommended agent is a new and/or infrequently used drug.

Copyright 2013, 2017 Scott H. Sicherer, MD
All rights reserved. Published 2017

Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu

Library of Congress cataloging data is available.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-2337-1 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-4214-2337-5 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-2338-8 (paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-4214-2338-3 (paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-2339-5 (electronic)
ISBN-10: 1-4214-2339-1 (electronic)

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

The Allergy and Anaphylaxis Emergency Plan is reprinted with permission from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or specialsales@press.jhu.edu.

Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste, whenever possible.

, by Hugh A. Sampson, MD

Chapter 1
What Are the BASIC FACTS about Food Allergy?

Chapter 2
What Do I Need to Tell the Doctor to Help Get a FOOD ALLERGY DIAGNOSIS?

Chapter 3
These Food ALLERGY TESTS Are Confusing! What Do They Mean?

Chapter 4
What Is ANAPHYLAXIS and How Do I Treat It?

Chapter 5
What CHRONIC HEALTH PROBLEMS Are Caused by Food Allergy?

Chapter 6
How Do I AVOID ALLERGIC REACTIONS to Foods?

Chapter 7
How Do I Manage a Food Allergy While Living a Normal and Healthy LIFESTYLE, with ADEQUATE NUTRITION?

Chapter 8
Will These Food Allergies Ever GO AWAY?

Chapter 9
Is There Any Way to PREVENT Food Allergies?

Chapter 10
Will There Be a CURE or BETTER TREATMENT of Food Allergy?

Chapter 11
How Do I Get MORE HELP and INFORMATION to Manage Food Allergies?

This book is dedicated to people with food allergies and those who care for them. It is the result of thousands of questions I have been asked by adults and children with food allergies, parents of children with food allergies, as well as allergists, medical students, physicians in training, pediatricians, the media, government officials, researchers, teachers, school nurses, and others. Your questions have led me at times to seek answers from you as well as from others, from research, and through trial-and-error experiences. It is my pleasure and privilege to present this book, which is designed to give you what you have asked for: a place to find accurate, timely, detailed, and helpful answers to questions on every aspect of food allergies.

In the years since the publication of the first edition of this book, there have been amazing strides in diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of food allergies. We now have tests that are better at determining a true allergy. Incredibly, we have proof that peanut allergy can be prevented, and new approaches may help prevent other food allergies as well. For the first time, food allergy treatments are in the final stages of clinical study prior to approval for widespread use, and an array of more options for therapy are under study. In this second edition, I have updated every chapter to include these and other amazing advances and new insights. I have also included new Chapter Lessons in Action to illustrate important points and applications of the new advances.