Friday, September 01, 2006

Overblown?

Maybe I can breathe easy now. It's all a load of nonsense, according to a Professor Colver, from Newcastle today.

According to Professor Colver, in the British Medical Journal, most people with food allergies are in little danger and far too many people are being issued with adrenaline injectors (the Epipen).

He is referring to children (and over-anxious parents) but claims there were only eight deaths between 1990 and 2000.

At least one other professor, a Professor Hourihane, disagrees and I don't suppose the people who did the other research, showing the problem on the increase, would agree either.

Well, it's been fun having an injector all summer and quite handy for explaining why I seem to be nit-picking food sometimes. Two sticks of celery and two cherry tomatoes was quite a hard lunch to explain. My problem is I have no idea how bad things could have got - although one or two encounters with insects proved quite scary. Did the anti-histamines make a difference or did the diet or have I just been at the mercy of seasonal pollen?

No comments: