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or getting it on their skin.

After a person is exposed,

a series of events create

what we think of as

an allergic reaction.

Number one, the body

starts to produce

a specific type of antibodies.

Number two, the antibodies

then attach to specific types

of white blood cells

and tissue cells.

This causes these cells to

release a variety of chemicals.

Histamine, the main

chemical released,

causes most of the

symptoms of what

you think of as an

allergic reaction.

This is why a lot of

over-the-counter medication

is called an antihistamine.

It prevents the body's

natural reaction

to foreign substances by

preventing or blocking histamines.

It's somewhere between

50 and 70 million Americans

that have allergies

of some sort,

and then you pile on top of that

the people that have asthma,

most of that's

caused by allergy.

Sinusitis, it's

usually some kind of

a mold sensitivity

in the sinuses.

And you layer on those numbers,

it's a huge, huge number of

people that would benefit

from addressing the

cause of their allergies.

I was like one

of one or two kids

who was allergic to peanuts

and had all these allergies,

and now it's totally different.

Think of it as

a growing issue.

It may be a littleoverstated

on how much it's grown.

I mean, I think it's

grown significantly

in the last probably 50 years.

I'm not sure it's

been just 10 years.

I think a lot of this has to

do with survey and awareness

and the way we're looking at it.

Eight, seven, six,

five, four, three, two, one.

Alright, let's start

walking, good job, guys.

Thousands of people every

year are newly diagnosed

and we're just trying

to raise some funds

to give support to our

community and letting people

really understand what

a food allergy means.

It's not just that you

have to avoid the food.

If you don't avoid the

food, you could die.

I can tell you that the

incidence of food allergies

in young children has

grown exponentially

since I've been in practice.

When I think back to

just the rare child

that I had with

life-threatening food allergies

to now, every single

day, I'm seeing children

with not just one food

allergy, but several.

What usually surprises

people is that allergies are

a disease that mainly affects

the developed countries,

the economically powerful

western countries

that are cleaner,

we have a different

food system than

other countries.

It's those, it's the powerhouses

that end up suffering

from allergies the most.

My own feeling

is over the last

three and a half decades

or so that I've seen

more people with food

sensitivities than I used to,

and none of us as allergists

are absolutely sure why that is.

I don't remember anyone

when I was growing up

having food allergies,

and now, for example,

in my son's class, there's

him and another girl.

We probably have 20 other

people at the same school

that have a food allergy, so

it's just much more common

than I remember it ever

being when I was growing up.

There are several research

studies that they are funding

that both deal with

trying to find a cure

and also until a cure is found,

dealing with treating symptoms

and things that we have now

that we know we're

living with now,

so yeah, they're

working on both fronts.

- There are a number of factors.

A big one is cigarette smoking.

Then you go into other

areas like climate change.

Well, when it comes

to the CO2 levels,

we know that weeds

love and thrive

on higher CO2 environments.

Our immune system is

losing its direction.

This is just to put

it in a nutshell.

Longer pollen seasons,

sedentary lifestyle, obesity.

Diesel particulates

have been shown

to increase the

incidence of asthma.

And in certain areas, we're

getting a lot more moisture.

So in general, those kind

of things have a factor.

There is some discussion

about what's going on

with changes that we've

made in our food supply.

We certainly see patients

here that are sensitive

to food additives,

dyes, things like that.

We know that processing

of food has altered it

to some degree, and for

sensitive individuals,

they're having

problems with that.

Probably the most common

thing you'll hear about

is one called a hygiene theory,

where our western lifestyle

predisposes individuals

to develop allergy or asthma,

and that's kind of a

good and a bad situation

'cause if you're aware that

around the turn of the century,

last century, we had a

50% infant mortality rate

from a lot of the bad

things like poor hygiene,

poor food handling, you

know, things like that.

And the fact that we've improved

those public health measures,

that's what really the westernized

lifestyle is all about.

So you've taken

out off the table

kids dying from measles and

strep and things like that

and so now they don't have

that immune response going on.

They may be more predisposed

to develop the allergy

immune response.

One of our concerns,

of course, is the issue

of the altered microbial

environment in the intestine

and with the advent of

antibiotics and the frequent use,

I think that that can

potentially amplify

the development of

food sensitivities.

There's this one study from

the University of Chicago

that shows a link between

using antibacterial soap

and medicine when you're little

to children who get allergies.

What their theory is that

because you're getting rid of

all of the germs

when you're little,

you're also getting rid

of the good bacteria,

so it means that you can

also get allergic to things

that are not actually bad because

you're cleaning it all off

and your body's not

gonna be used to it

when it comes into contact

with it in normal life.

So we may be using too much

medication when we're little

or washing our hands too often.

Sometimes, children

or young adults

will have an allergy condition

that manifests principally

with recurring infections,

and this may be chronic

throat infections,

chronic ear infections,

and by necessity,

the children are given

antibiotics to use.

Now, like anything

else, if it's once

in a infrequent interval,

it's probably not a big thing,

but it's not uncommon for

us to see children in here

who have been on five, eight,

10 courses of

antibiotics in a year.

Now it would make sense

that their intestinal flora

has been altered under

those conditions,

and we know that

proper intestinal flora

helps to maintain

immunologic balance.

So one of our concerns

as a profession is

we may be needing to

intervene at an early stage.

Typical treatment would be

avoidance, trying to stay away

from those things that

you're allergic to

and/or pharmacotherapy,

taking medications.

And again, if you

do the latter two,

you're just addressing

the symptoms

and you're really doing

nothing about the cause.

So not having something to change

the course of the disease,

I think people just said, you

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