Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, Nut Hysteria
As an adult with food allergies (certainly a very sympathetic adult but still one that is on the outside of the world of having a child with food allergies), I believe there is a grain of truth in this article by Dr. Nicholas A. Christakis, “This allergies hysteria is just nuts.”
We, as a culture, seem caught in a loop of increasing anxiety about keeping ourselves and our children safe from offending allergens. The question remains: how much safer are we once say peanuts are removed from a classroom or a restaurant or an airline?
From Livescience.com: "Measures to control nuts are instead making things worse in a cycle of over-reaction and increasing sensitization," Christakis writes. He calls the prohibitions part of a "mass psychogenic illness" (what used to be epidemic hysteria) "involving otherwise healthy people in a cascade of anxiety."
However, are we all engaging in or are caught up by mass hysteria? Eh, dunno about that.
Read the article. (Here's the NYTimes spin and FAAN's reply) What do you think?
We, as a culture, seem caught in a loop of increasing anxiety about keeping ourselves and our children safe from offending allergens. The question remains: how much safer are we once say peanuts are removed from a classroom or a restaurant or an airline?
From Livescience.com: "Measures to control nuts are instead making things worse in a cycle of over-reaction and increasing sensitization," Christakis writes. He calls the prohibitions part of a "mass psychogenic illness" (what used to be epidemic hysteria) "involving otherwise healthy people in a cascade of anxiety."
However, are we all engaging in or are caught up by mass hysteria? Eh, dunno about that.
Read the article. (Here's the NYTimes spin and FAAN's reply) What do you think?
Comments
I spend a fair amount of time communicating with other parents of food allergic children around the U.S. and Canada, and I don't hear about such extreme allergy management policies. In fact, more often than not, I hear about about the other extreme, where no effort at all is made to "manage" food allergies in school.
I think it would have been more prudent of Dr. Christakis to weed out extreme examples before making his pronouncement. It is unfortunate that he has made such a public and sweeping generalization on this subject. Reasonable accommodations are made in schools around the U.S. and are not indicative of "mass psychogenic illness".
This topic has always made me think about how we deal with germs in this country. Sure, we want to avoid bacteria that make us sick...but having antibacterial gel & soap & lotion, plus sprays and bleach wipes, etc. just create resistant bacteria when the products are over used.
Allergies are obviously a bit different, but I can't help but worry about something similar happening when we over mandate foods. Some people need to be extra careful. Some people need to be reasonably careful. Most of us just need to educate ourselves.
I really think a lot of the hyperbole exists on the margins. Those with clear cut reactions to allergies are obviously not over-reacting when their throat closes at the hint of a peanut. On the other hand, allergies have so many symptoms, often very subtle symptoms, that it's easy for anyone/everyone to think they have an "allergy". Throw in food "sensitivities" and it becomes a very very hazy picture.
Further research in diagnostics is key imo. In my case, I only became aware of allergies resulting in subtle symptoms after a generally recognized as reliable and definitive test (Immunocap). The test identified moderate levels of allergy to multiple items .... a combination that would have takens years and diligence to figure out on my own. Once the multiples were identified and eliminated, voila' ... the symptoms went away.
Unfortunately, many of the other tests are not reliable leaving folks with false positives and their own devices to figure out problems. And as is human nature, many overshoot.
What am I supposed to do? Hiding my head in the sand and pretending it isn't so isn't going to change the fact that exposure and ingestion of nuts is something I must help my daughter strictly avoid.
The people who are outraged that they can't trade treats or that they have to spend 2 minutes reading a label should walk a mile in my shoes--and my daughter's little shoes.
I don't know--I find this Dr. very discouraging. Guess I'm just "hysterical."