You might think that gastroenterologists like me are conversant with food allergies. You would be wrong. Here is a second misunderstanding you likely harbor. Most individuals who believe or suspect that they are suffering from a food allergy have no allergic condition at all. A true allergic reaction involves the firing off of one’s immune system in response to an external stimulant resulting in a rash, wheezing and other characteristic allergic responses. Poison ivy, for example, is an allergic reaction. Nausea resulting from an antibiotic is not an allergic reaction. Physicians, of course, appreciate this distinction. This is why when you tell us you are ‘allergic’ to a medication, we will ask you specifically what the reaction was. In my experience, most of these ‘allergic reactions’ are routine non-allergic side effects. Often enough, a patient will claim to have a penicillin allergy, for example, but has no clue what the reaction might have been.
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