How An Egg Allergy Can Be Dangerous

Learning to live with an egg allergy can be a difficult thing. Even more so if you eat out, buy prepackaged foods, or eat fast foods. Eggs are in so many food products these days, that you can be eating eggs without even knowing it.

This is because eggs are an essential ingredient in many process foods these days, including many breakfast cereals, most breads, just about all baked goods, tons of sauces, and frozen foods of all kinds. Much like those who suffer from a peanut allergy, if you have an egg allergy you are going to have to become extremely proficient at reading labels to ensure that you don't have a negative reaction to foods.

The most common scenario where a child has an egg allergy is for him to lose it by the time he enters grade school. But some researchers believe that the process can be hastened by intentionally exposing them to eggs that have been heat treated over a period of months.

In a recently published scientific referenced in the Allergy and Clinical Immunology journal, ninety four kids with some form of egg allergy were gradually exposed to eggs that had been heat treated or mildly cooked. These heat treated eggs were fed to them in the form of baked goods such as cakes and breads. After six months they were then tested with less processed eggs and ninety five percent had no reaction. This strongly indicates that those who suffer from egg allergies can gradually build up their tolerance to eggs through mild exposure to heated egg products over a series of months.

What is an egg allergy exactly? It is an allergy to the protein in the egg. An allergy immune response will usually be triggered by the immune system of the person over reacting to proteins in the egg. Believing that the proteins pose a danger to the body, the person's immune system starts to create antibodies in order to fight off the intruders. The antibodies, in turn, cause the body to release hormones into the body - called histamines. These histamines are the real cause of the reactions that many people immediately begin to experience such as shortness of breath, hives, and stomach aches.

For the most part, an allergy to egg is experienced only by young children. Usually, by the time a child reaches the age of about 5, he has most likely outgrown the allergy. In a very small percentage of cases, however, the child doesn't develop a tolerance for eggs and continues to have allergic reactions into adulthood.

These new studies indicate, however, that it is likely that we can train a kid's immune system to become tolerant of eggs. You do it by slowly but continually exposing her to heat treated eggs over a six months period. The same may be true for adults, but it has not yet been tested.

If you have an allergy to eggs, you will usually notice within minutes after eating an egg product. The symptoms vary, but common ones are the development of  hives and/or extreme redness in the facial area. The reaction can also affect the person's breathing making it difficult to draw breaths. In extreme cases, it can also cause the face to swell up and close the airway passages and possibly trigger an asthma attack. Reactions vary from person to person, but even in the worse cases, the attack is normally completely over in less than twenty four hours.