Do you experience itching in your mouth whenever you eat a banana? When you eat an apple, does your stomach fill with gas? Do raw peaches make your throat swell? And when you eat raw or canned pineapple does your throat burn or do you break out in hives?
If you suffer from any of these symptoms, you may have what medical professional call Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS) or Pollen Food Syndrome.
In the majority of cases, Oral Allergy Syndrome is linked with allergies to pollens such as ragweed, birch, plantain, and other grasses. The immune system mistakes the food proteins for the pollen proteins and causes an allergic reaction.
The sufferer may experience additional allergy reactions such as itching in the eyes or nostrils that are stuffed up. Or the person may experience redness of the lips, tongue, gums, and palate. The most severe reactions can trigger asthma or anaphylaxis shock.
Fruits and nuts are the primary culprits for OAS but other foods can cause these symptoms as well. This disease can be especially discomforting for strict vegetarians who want to eat raw fruits and vegetables.
for the most part, OAS is connected with eating uncooked foods. This means that if you cook the foods, you will probably not have an OAS reaction. The reason for this is that the proteins in these foods are sensitive to temperatures. When you heat them, this normally makes them far less allergenic because they change the basic nature of the protein to one that the immune system does not recognize.
This is not always true, however. In some cases the symptoms will simply migrate to the intestinal area where you’ll experience gas, bloating, nausea, diarrhea, or other gastrointestinal distress.
Most of the time OAS is not a life-threatening condition. In addition, in most cases the uncomfortableness will only last for a couple of minutes. For others, however, the reactions can be very severe and a doctor may have to be called.
A typical treatment for Oral Allergy Syndrome are allergy shots which are usually given as a treatment for allergies such as cats, dogs, and pollen. These shots work by gradually building up a person’s resistance to allergens until he is no longer affected by them.
Those with asthma or hay fever allergies are the ones who are most at risk for OAS . And the symptoms will usually show up immediately. If you experience symptoms such as your throat passages narrowing or vomiting, you should contact your physician immediately.
Al Jeffries is an author and researcher for a1-allergies.com . Please visit his website for more allergy related articles such as pollen allergy, dog skin allergy, and seasonal allergy treatment.