Food Allergy diagnosis and treatments
Food allergies affect millions of people with reactions ranging from discomfort to the life-threatening events. Let us address you food allergy symptoms, perform food allergy testing and offer solutions in our centers in in Germantown Montgomery County, MD as well as in Manassas, Manassas Park in Northern Virginia.
The prevalence of food allergies has been rising steadily in past decades and they represent significant public health issue. Food allergy is caused by hypersensitivity and reaction to the specific food protein which in health should be tolerated. These reactions can range from mild to severe. The symptoms usually develop rapidly within minutes to an hour upon eating the offending food and typically include itching of the skin, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue, or throat, abdominal pain or bloating, vomiting and sometimes respiratory symptoms such as wheezing and shortness of breath.
The most severe form is anaphylaxis which may rapidly develop into a multisystem failure and lead to death. There is number of food reactions called intolerances which do not have allergic nature and thus, public perception is that food allergies are more common than the truly are. The proper diagnosis of food allergies and their differentiation from food intolerances (including celiac disease – gluten enteropathy) is a task our AACC experts routinely perform starting with a meticulous review of patient's history complemented by multiple diagnostic tools including skin and blood testing.
We are well aware of recent clinic studies pointing at intricate relationship between food allergies and eczema, and higher incidence of environmental allergies and asthma among food allergic patients. Thus, you can be sure that your evaluation in Allergy and Asthma Clinical Centers will be comprehensive assessing all your potential allergic conditions.