Report: Up to 1 in 10 Americans May Suffer From Food Allergies

/PRNewswire/ -- A review published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and reported in the New York Times underscores the need for additional research on the prevalence, diagnosis, and treatment of food allergy. One of the most important points suggested by the JAMA study as well as a New York Times article on the subject is that as many as 1 in 10 people may have food allergy.

A May 11 New York Times article regarding JAMA's review states that "true incidence of food allergies is only about 8 percent for children and less than 5 percent for adults."

Between 2 and less than 10 percent of the population has food allergy, according to the JAMA review, "Diagnosing and Managing Common Food Allergies." This figure clearly illustrates the need to increase government commitment to research, testing, and education of a growing problem.

"The systematic review of the food allergy literature published in JAMA is helpful in crystallizing the fact that food allergy is common, affecting millions of Americans, but also points out that we need much more research to better understand the exact prevalence, and how to prevent, more easily diagnose, and treat this life-changing medical problem," said Scott H. Sicherer, M.D., professor of pediatrics, clinician, and clinical researcher at Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported an 18 percent increase in food allergy among children from 1997-2007 and a 3.5-fold increase in hospital admissions related to food allergy among children between the period from 1998-2000 to 2004-2006. The CDC also estimates about 4 percent of U.S. children under the age of 18 have a food allergy.

However, despite these statistics, just $26 million was appropriated last year for research on food allergy, a potentially life-threatening medical condition. The National Institutes of Health last year allocated $175 million for autism funding, which is estimated to affect 1 in 100 children.

JAMA's review was conducted in conjunction with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is drafting national Guidelines to the Diagnosis and Management of Food Allergies. The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) and The Food Allergy Initiative (FAI), which have long focused on the need for clinical studies dedicated to food allergy, applaud the government for undertaking these guidelines.

The New York Times article also states that many people who think they have a food allergy actually do not. There is no dispute that many individuals are misdiagnosed with food allergies. Better diagnostic tools are needed. The gold standard for food allergy diagnosis, a double-blinded, placebo-controlled food challenge, is not typically used by allergists because they are not being fully reimbursed for this time-consuming, expensive and potentially dangerous procedure. Funding of this procedure should be addressed by insurance companies.

While improved data on prevalence is necessary, the potential severity of a food allergy reaction is such that individuals should err on the side of caution and assume they have a food allergy and practice avoidance until they are properly diagnosed.

Researchers throughout the world are working diligently to find treatments and a cure for food allergy. FAAN and FAI call upon the federal government to help find a cure for food allergy by providing the necessary funding for quality research.

ABOUT FAAN

Founded in 1991 by Anne Munoz-Furlong, the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) is the world leader in information about food allergy, a potentially life-threatening medical condition that afflicts approximately 12 million Americans, or one out of every 25. A nonprofit organization based in Fairfax, Va., FAAN has approximately 25,000 members in the U.S., Canada, and 58 other countries. It is dedicated to increasing public awareness of food allergy and its consequences, to educating people about the condition, and to advancing research on behalf of all those affected by it. FAAN provides information and educational resources about food allergy to patients, their families, schools, health professionals, pharmaceutical companies, the food industry, and government officials. For more information, please visit FAAN at www.foodallergy.org.

ABOUT FAI

The Food Allergy Initiative (FAI) is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that funds research seeking a cure for food allergies. FAI was founded in 1998 by concerned parents and grandparents to support basic and clinical research worldwide; public policies to make the world safer for those afflicted; and educational programs to make the hospitality industry, schools, day care centers, and camps safer. The largest private source of funding for food allergy research in the United States, FAI has contributed more than $65 million toward the fulfillment of its mission. For more information, visit www.faiusa.org, call 212-207-1974, or e-mail info@faiusa.org.

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JAMA Revisits Classic Hopkins Blue Baby Study That Revolutionized Cardiovascular Medicine

A Johns Hopkins study published 63 years ago will make an encore appearance in the July 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) as part of a year-long retrospective celebrating JAMA's 125th anniversary by revisiting papers that changed the course of modern-day medicine. Full text of the original paper is available online.

The now-classic "blue baby" report by pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig (1898-1986) and surgeon Alfred Blalock (1899-1964) first appeared in JAMA on May 19, 1945. In their paper, Taussig and Blalock described for the first time the physiology of tetralogy of Fallot, one of the most common congenital malformations of the heart that was poorly understood at the time, considered inoperable and ultimately fatal. The malformation causes inadequate blood flow from the heart to the lungs and profound lack of oxygen in the blood, giving an infant's skin its hallmark bluish hue, hence "blue baby."

In addition, the paper described the first three operations in medical history designed to alleviate the defect using a special "shunt" technique that increased blood flow from the heart to the lungs. Children undergoing the surgery experienced an immediate and dramatic improvement while still in the operating room. When their oxygen-starved bodies were finally flushed with oxygen-rich blood, their bluish complexions turned a healthy pink color, an observation that prompted Blalock to exclaim famously after surgery number three, "The boy's a lovely color now."

At the time, Taussig and Blalock almost certainly knew their work would dramatically change treatment of heart disease, and records at Johns Hopkins show that hundreds and hundreds of parents sought help for their children in the months that followed. The study also revolutionized pediatric cardiology, a then nascent field, and ushered in a new era of cardiac surgery. In hindsight, it also altered the course of academic medicine, according to Johns Hopkins Children's Center cardiac specialists writing in a July 16 JAMA commentary accompanying the reprint summary of the original paper.

Historians, filmmakers and journalists have widely told the story of the research and eventual surgical solution, which began with an idea from Taussig, who took it to Blalock, who first sketched a surgical approach to the repair. But it was Vivien Thomas (1910-1985), a black surgical technician, at the time working as a lab and office assistant with Blalock, who was instrumental in developing the necessary procedure and instrumentation in dogs.

This mélange of disciplines as disparate as pediatric cardiology, surgery and anesthesiology working toward treatment of a single disorder became and to date remains the model for progress and innovation in medicine.

"Not only did the team's unprecedented collaboration in effect give birth to pediatric cardiology and led to the first successful treatment of this fatal heart defect, but it later became the prototype of the bench-to-bedside approach, a staple in academic medicine today," says Anne Murphy, M.D., an author on the commentary and a pediatric cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

In the decades that followed, the teamwork by Taussig, Blalock and Thomas also foreshadowed Johns Hopkins' efforts to eliminate racial and gender inequalities in academic medicine. In the 1940s, at Johns Hopkins, the venerable citadel of medicine, Taussig, a woman, and Thomas, an African-American, teamed up with Blalock, a white male surgeon -- a diverse and brilliant crew whose combined talent and expertise pioneered a surgery that has saved millions of lives worldwide.

Taussig went on to achieve the status of a full professor at Johns Hopkins -- one of the first women to do so -- but Thomas' role was not fully acknowledged until much later, the JAMA commentators point out, and the original paper did not credit Thomas' contributions.

"The collaboration awakened everyone to the fact that talented people like Thomas, who would have clearly been a superb surgeon, were marginalized, and medicine suffered for it," says commentary co-author Duke Cameron, M.D., head of pediatric cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins. "It was a realization that drove much of Hopkins' subsequent efforts toward equality and diversity."

In 1976, Hopkins gave Thomas an honorary doctoral degree and appointed him instructor in surgery. Today, one of the four advisory colleges for medical students at Hopkins is named for Thomas. Every entering class learns about Thomas' story and his contributions to modern medicine.

Four out of 1,000 U.S. babies are born with heart defects, such as tetralogy of Fallot. Worldwide, nearly 1 million babies are born with heart defects, researchers estimate.