New evidence suggests that people who suffer from nut allergies might not actually be allergic to all nuts.
I want to preface this article by saying that I am in no way, shape or form suggesting that people with nut allergies should go out and start sampling nuts just to see if they break out in hives, itchy lips, and random swelling. Allergies can be life-threatening, so you should always take that threat seriously, and err on the side of caution.
Still, a recent study has found that being diagnosed with a nut allergy doesn’t always mean you are actually allergic to it. The study was published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology, and it found that sometimes people who are actually diagnosed with nut allergies do not show allergic symptoms to all kind of nuts. It also found that almost everyone who were diagnosed with peanut allergies could safely eat tree nuts like almonds and walnuts, even when tests showed they were allergic.
The study looked at 109 people who had been tested positive via blood or skin for a tree nut allergy, even though they had never eaten one before. So if you were diagnosed with an almond allergy but had never eaten one, they would feed you small amounts of almonds every 15 minutes to see if there was a reaction (while doctors were standing beside them with medicine, of course). The study found that 50% of people showed no reaction, even if they tested positive for an allergy.
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Some people did show symptoms, but enough people in the study were able to safely eat tree nuts to validate the results.
So if you have been diagnosed with a nut allergy, but aren’t sure whether you are actually allergic, you should see your doctor and look a little deeper into the problem. After all, nut allergies can be a huge inconvenience to your life, so its important to know whether or not you actually have a problem.
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