According to a recent study that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, nearly one in three Americans believes that they have at least one food allergy. In reality, the same study found, less than one in twenty has a food allergy. This disparity is due, in large part, to the difficult nature of determining if one actually has a food allergy.
Standard allergy tests involve placing a small amount of allergen under a person's skin and monitoring the site for any redness, irritation, or itching. While effective for determining if a reaction has occurred, it does not guarantee that the reaction is an allergic reaction. The other method for testing for food allergies is to have a person simply stop eating the item they believe they are allergic to for a few weeks. If they get better, then it is a sign that the removed food item is an allergen.
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Lees verder: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/0...tm_campaign=rss
Bron: Ars technica
Wetenschappelijk artikel:
Lab on a Chip, 2010. DOI: 10.1039/b926849a (About DOIs).
