Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffFood allergy risk factors include:
- Family history. You're at increased risk of food allergies if asthma, eczema, hives or allergies, such as hay fever, are common in your family.
- A past food allergy. Children may outgrow a food allergy, but in some cases it returns later in life.
- Other allergies. If you're already allergic to one food, you may be at increased risk of becoming allergic to another. Likewise, having another type of allergy, such as hay fever, increases your risk of having a food allergy.
- Age. Food allergies are most common in children, especially toddlers and infants. As you grow older, your digestive system matures and your body is less likely to absorb food or food components that trigger allergies. Fortunately, children typically outgrow allergies to milk, soy, wheat and eggs. Severe allergies and allergies to nuts and shellfish are more likely to be lifelong.
References
- Food allergy: An overview. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodAllergy/PDF/foodallergy.pdf. Accessed Jan. 20, 2009.
- Nowak-Wegrzyn A, et al. Adverse reactions to foods. Medical Clinics of North America. 2006;90:97.
- Keet CA, et al. Food allergy and anaphylaxis. Immunology and Allergy Clinics of North America. 2007;27:193.
- Hoffman A, et al. Pollen food allergy syndrome: Update on the allergens. Current Allergy and Asthma Reports. 2008;8:413.
- Atkins D. Food allergy: Diagnosis and management. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice. 2008;35:119.
- Lack G. Food allergy. New England Journal of Medicine. 2008;359:1252.
- Li JL (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Jan. 30, 2009.
- Ko J, et al. Use of complementary and alternative medicine by food-allergic patients. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. 2006;97:365.
- Li X. Traditional Chinese herbal remedies for asthma and food allergy. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2007;120:25.
- Teuber SS, et al. Unproved diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to food allergy and intolerance. Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2003;3:217.
