In the past 20 years, with the accelerated industrialization and the improvement of material life, there is a growing trend of allergic diseases in children, causing a lot of trouble for parents. Parents of allergic babies are always eager to ask: What can I do to prevent my baby from becoming an allergic child? Allergic diseases are relatively complex and there are many ways to avoid them, including drug prevention, avoiding exposure to allergens, avoiding air pollution and dietary contraindications. However, the prevention of food allergy is relatively simple, that is, avoid eating allergic foods. As the child’s digestive function improves and the intestinal tract matures, food allergy will be significantly reduced. The following focuses on the occurrence and various symptoms of food allergies.
Allergies are complicated because allergic diseases are so extensive, including various cytokines and antibodies. The combination of IgE and antigen can directly activate eosinophils, basophils and mast cells, releasing inflammatory mediators and causing edema and acute inflammation of the skin and mucous membranes, which is a rapid-onset allergic reaction, and symptoms usually appear within half an hour or two hours of encountering the allergen. For example, itchy eyes caused by pollen in spring and autumn: allergic conjunctivitis; sneezing and runny nose: allergic rhinitis; coughing and shortness of breath caused by dust, mites or animal fur: asthma. These problems have a great regularity and repetitiveness and are easily detected and prevented by patients and doctors. IgG antibodies, on the other hand, are much more complicated. Since IgG antibodies are a factor in the body’s resistance to various infectious diseases, and the human body contains a lot of them, many doctors tend to ignore them, thinking that specific IgG is meaningless, especially some veteran specialists.
Let’s look at how antibodies are formed from the evolution of antibodies. Antibodies are natural immune products formed during human development to combat foreign invasion. When a foreign object invades, antibodies combine with the foreign substance (which we call an antigen) to make the foreign object more prominent and easily identifiable, and then the foreign object is killed by various resistance factors in the body, which include phagocytes and natural killer cells (the body’s police force, small in number and highly mobile).
IgE antibodies, which we call useless antibodies, were first produced to fight parasites. Thousands of years ago, human ancestors lived mainly in the wild, on a raw diet, and lived only about 30 years, and their main disease was parasitic infection. As living and living conditions improved, parasitic diseases became less and less common. The instinctive combat ability of human beings has not degenerated and has been strengthened with the increase of living standard. IgE antibodies firstly resist some harmless inhaled things as foreign objects and a strong exclusion reaction occurs, which is what we call allergic reaction. PM2.5 is relatively small and can enter and exit the respiratory tract freely with breathing or even directly reach the fine bronchi, directly causing damage to the respiratory mucosa, but because of its small size, IgE antibodies do not consider it a harmful invasion, so it is not very related to allergy. Since IgE antibodies are relatively large and mainly free in the mucosal layer, it fights mainly against inhaled allergens and some food allergens that pass through the intestinal mucosa, so the symptoms manifested are mainly in the mucosa, such as: itchy eyes, itchy nose, sneezing, coughing, and in the gastrointestinal mucosa, tummy ache and diarrhea. That’s why we say IgE is a trap for human evolution, it’s practically useless!
IgG antibodies are the main human factor in the fight against various diseases, so numerous and powerful that they are the equivalent of the human army and together with white blood cells they form the defense system. The vaccines we inject are designed to produce specific IgG to fight various serious infectious diseases. In fact, IgG are also militants, monitoring various changes in the body at all times to guard against enemy invasion. If this guard is overly strong, a good thing can become a bad thing. This is the case with food allergies. Various proteins have to be broken down into amino acids or short peptides composed of several amino acids through the body’s digestive system and absorbed into the body in order to be absorbed and used. However, due to the imperfect development of children’s digestive system and immature enzyme development, proteins cannot be completely digested and decomposed into amino acids or short peptides, and a considerable part of them are polypeptides (more than 10 amino acids), and children’s intestinal barrier development is also immature, so these polypeptides will be absorbed into the blood. The human body instinctively recognizes amino acids and short peptides, but not peptides, and considers peptides as foreign invaders, thus the body produces IgG antibodies for labeling and binding, thus killing and excluding such peptide substances, and this is how food allergy occurs. This exclusion and defense is not a gentle but a fierce battle, and the result is a mess of chicken.
IgG antibodies are smaller in molecular weight and after binding to antigens cannot be destroyed in situ by phagocytes, the police force, but can reach all parts of the body with the blood, where complement is involved in a more complex immune response that occurs not in a rapid but in a late fashion. Therefore, unlike IgE-mediated mucosal-based manifestations, IgG-mediated allergic reactions are systemic reactions, and late onset allergic reactions can have the following symptoms.
1. digestive tract: abdominal pain, diarrhea, constipation, mouth ulcers, flatulence, etc.
2. skin: eczema, urticaria, dryness, hyperkeratosis, acne, etc.
3, Nervous: dizziness, migraine, sleep disorders, febrile convulsions, epilepsy, etc.
4, mental: anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, inattentiveness, irritability, etc.
5, respiratory: asthma, chronic cough, chronic rhinitis, sinusitis, snoring, etc.
6, musculoskeletal: arthritis, joint pain, etc.
7, genitourinary: urinary frequency, urinary urgency, vaginal itching, etc.
8, cardiovascular: chest pain, hypertension, arrhythmia, etc.
The main food allergy is protein allergy, especially some proteins with large molecular weight, such as egg protein and casein of milk, these proteins have large molecules, it is difficult to be completely digested and decomposed into amino acids and short peptides, it is easy to be allergic, when the peptides absorbed into the blood are eliminated from the body, the body will have a relative protein deficiency, thus some other some symptoms. For example, dry hair, no luster, dry skin, dark skin, slow growth and development, there is also a decrease in resistance.
The human body’s resistance includes white blood cells, antibodies and various biological factors, the human body itself is a bacterial state, the vast majority of bacteria are harmless bacteria, no harm to the human body. There are also a small number of harmful bacteria, but they can not make waves, because the body has these defenders and is in a state of balance. When the number of harmful bacteria invasion increases, the body will automatically mobilize more resistance to participate in the battle. This state requires the body to have a reserve of weapons, or raw materials, which can be supplied when the organism needs them.
The main component of white blood cells, antibodies and biological factors is protein, which basically needs to be replaced once every 3-7 days, and the body needs to have good quality protein to protect it. When the allergic child consumes eggs and milk (considered as high quality protein), some of the protein will be combined with antibodies in the body, which the body cannot use and excrete through the kidneys, resulting in a relative lack of protein. The body is unable to create more weapons, resulting in a relative lack of resistance.
The best way to prevent food allergies is to avoid eating allergic foods and to check food allergens in a timely manner, including rapid-onset allergies and late-onset allergies, especially for the next child who is the focus of the check: 1.
1. Those who have had 2 bouts of pneumonia or bronchitis before 6 months of age, those with severe eczema or recurrent eczema, and those who have had 3 bouts of bronchitis or pneumonia before one year of age
2.Jaw trembling, whole body or part of the body does not automatically tremble, or there is no febrile convulsion around one year old.
3.Repeated burping, farting, crying, diarrhea or constipation
4.Sleeping with open mouth or snoring before the age of 2 years.
5.Persons with febrile convulsions before the age of 3.