Severe Angio Odema
If immediate/severe allergy is suspected, it is safer
to test immunoglobulin-E’s in blood samples. If such allergy is
suspected, like with seafood or peanuts, skin prick tests are best avoided,
as they carry a risk of potentially severe reactions.
Whilst skin prick tests are widely accepted by the
medical profession as accurate and reliable, they are flawed by the fact
that they frequently "miss" delayed allergies to foods/”intolerance”,
salicylates in various foods and candida (in the absence of accurate laboratory
tests, these diagnoses currently remain outside the repertory of day-to-day
medicine).
Instead we recommend a number of practical dietary
changes and intra-cutaneous tests. Foods, salicylates and some fungi can
also be tested this way. Read more....
Key points about urticaria/angio-oedema:
a) Life threatening allergies are uncommon but on the
increase – it is important they are properly investigated
b) It is possible to identify one or more causes of these symptoms –
this process involves skin tests, simple dietary changes or blood tests
for immunoglobulin E
c) In most cases, the allergenic agent(s) can be avoided or use preventative
measures
d) If the offending items are too many, as occasionally is the case with
food intolerance, or too difficult to avoid as with pollen allergy, safe,
low-dose methods of desensitization can be used to enhance a better immunity
against these items
Audit: over 80% of patients
investigated for urticaria and/or angio-oedema between 2001-2005, succeeded
in identifying relevant triggers and cleared their symptoms with basic
dietary changes or avoidance. The majority did not have immediate/Type
A allergy (although they believed they did) and were able to discontinue
their antihistamines without recurrence of their symptoms.
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