Foods That Trigger Asthma

If you do surveys, somewhere up to 70% of people with asthma believe that some foods can trigger their asthma. But if you test BLINDFOLDED adults with disguised food, so that even the people running the test don’t know what’s in the food until the end of the test (so-called double-blind testing), then less than […]

Severe Food Allergy And The Overseas School Trip

Travelling to Asian countries with a severe food allergy is a real challenge. Exotic soups, stir-fries, the use of shellfish stock, lack of labelling, reduced awareness of the importance of allergies, geographic remoteness…the challenge can become a nightmare. But it’s possible. Here is a story that shows you how.   This is a true story. […]

Breastfeeding And Introduction Of Solid Foods: Does One Size Fit All?

Medicine is all about statistics. There are no absolutes unless the statistics are absolute, which rarely, if ever, happens. Let’s look at two scenarios. Scenario #1: In Melbourne, Australia, the prevalence of severe food allergy in children is 10%. If both parents are allergic, there is an 80% chance that any child will develop some […]

Itchy Skin

Nothing drives a person to distraction more than itchy skin! Sometimes the skin looks normal but it is incredibly itchy. Sometimes there is a rash that is itchy. And, quite commonly, scratching causes a rash – usually wheals and whelts like mosquito bites – where you have scratched. There are only three causes for an […]