小児の食物アレルギーの実態と食生活

Allergies rarely developed in Japan immediately after the Second World War, but have been remarkablely increased in the current two decades with the change of the life and dietary habits as like western. To date, it is deduced that recent progressive increase of allergic diseases in Japan may be caused by multi-factors rather than one major factor on the basis of the current life and dietary habits. The disadvantage reaction caused by taking food is called “adverse reaction to food”, which is divided into two categories ; one is food allergy caused by immunological reactions and the other is food intolerance caused by enzyme effects, pharmacological effects, or toxic properties. Food allergy causes in some persons, especially in infants, by eating food most of foods have possibility to cause allergy. In infants hen’s egg and cow’s milk are frequently identified as major food allergens. These foods are well inducible for toleration as they grow. On the contray, soba and peanuts that are known as food allergens but cause sometimes systemic anaphylaxis without toleration against them. The gold standard for preventing allergic symptoms in patients with food allergy is the elimination of the identified foods as allergens from diets. It is not only safe therapy but also prevents the development of other types of allergy.