WHEN: Saturday, February 27, 2010
WHERE: Hilton Hotel, Knoxville, Tn
PARK: free at Market Square, Locust Street, and State Street garages

COST: children 5 and under – free
others, $1.00
TIME: 11am-3pm

The word “idiopathic” refers to an anaphylactic reaction without any discovered cause.  These cases are frustrating for allergists as well as patients.  It is very unsatisfying for us to shake our heads and say “we don’t know why this happened” and always leaves me with the sense that there are other allergens we have not identified.

The paradigm we use to explain allergic reactions states that proteins in foods are the “allergic” part, and other parts of foods such as fats and carbohydrates are innocent.  New research however has determined another allergic target:  Cross reactive carbohydrate determinants (CCD’s)

It is known that allergy antibodies to these targets exist, but they had not been confirmed to cause reactions until recently.  It appears that the specific molecule galactose alpha 1,3 galactose (alpha-gal for short) has a role in delayed anaphylaxis to beef.  Most cases of anaphylaxis occur within 2 hours of ingestion of a food.  However, a syndrome with beef allergy has been found where symptoms occur from 3-6 hours after ingestion.  Alpha-gal seems to be the actual allergen, and appears in beef, pork and lamb.

Maybe some of these previously labelled “idiopathic” cases are related to this syndrome.

http://www.wbir.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=109940

This story discusses some of the difficulties people with food allergies face regarding socializing and dining out.  Should you have problems with the link; go to www.wbir.com and search on food allergies.  Name of story:  “Food Allergy Sufferers Find Socializing Tricky”.