You thought you’d “grown out” of your allergies? Well, think again

New research is showing that as an adult you can become allergic to foods or pollens and so on – even if you never displayed allergy-type symptoms like hayfever or eczema as a child.

Allergy reactions can be fatal as a severe inflammatory reaction may occur. This can block your airways so you can’t breathe. Be aware of any sudden onset extreme reactions like breathing difficulty, severe abdominal pain or massive skin rash. This type of reaction is called anaphylaxis and requires immediate medical attention with ideally an Epipen being used while awaiting help.

Professor Clare Collins from Newcastle Uni, NSW explains all the data on Life Matters Radio National (June 2024).

She says that some possible reasons for having adult onset allergies can be related to genetics, ‘too clean’ an environment, lack of animals in your life and Vit D deficiency.

She also noticed a group of people presenting with severe allergic reactions to meat after vigorous exercise like going for a long run, then attending a BBQ. This has been traced to a condition called MMA – Mammalian Meat Allergy. These people can sometimes also have an allergy to other animal products such as dairy and gelatine.

MMA occurs after someone has been bitten by a tick and so becomeS sensitised to new allergens. The allergy can present at any time after a tick bite, even months or years after the initial bite. Australia has the highest prevalence of MMA in the world (113 people out of 100,000).

MMA is also called ‘Alpha-gal syndrome’ which relates to a sugar called ‘alpha galactose’ which is present in the meat from most mammals. People affected need to avoid any animal products with hair – pork, beef, venison and other mammalian meat. They also need to avoid products made from these – both foods like lard, butter, milk AND any medication or supplements containing gelatine. Even some seaweeds contain Alpha-gal.

I had a MMA patient recently for whom we did lots of research to find appropriate non-allergy containing supplements to help with her other health issues. It was a fascinating exercise in “health detectiving”.

As a Naturopath I can help mainly through herbal medicines and lifestyle changes. Naturopathic support is vital for maintaining a well balanced immune system and reduce the probability of such severe anaphylactic responses.

So if you would like to ‘tune up’ your immune and nervous systems – and need specific products to help prevent life threatening allergic responses, then please seek Naturopathic support.

As a Naturopath I will assess you as a whole person including your gut health and help you refine your lifestyle choices to maximize your well being at all levels.