Sesame allergy more common than previously recognized: study

CHICAGO. KAZINFORM Sesame allergy affects more than 1 million children and adults in the United States, more than previously known, according to a study of Northwestern Medicine.

Studyinvestigators administered a survey via telephone and web to more than 50,000U.S. households, asking detailed information about any suspected foodallergies, including specific allergic reaction symptoms, details aboutclinical diagnosis of food allergies as well as demographic information. Theyobtained responses for a nationally representative sample of approximately80,000 children and adults, Xinhua reports.

The studyfound that more than 1.5 million or 0.49 percent of the population in theUnited States report a current sesame allergy, and over 1.1 million or 0.34percent of the population report either a physician-diagnosed sesame allergy ora history of sesame-allergic reaction symptoms.

The dataalso indicate many individuals who report sesame allergies and experiencepotentially severe allergic reactions are not obtaining clinical diagnosis oftheir allergies.

«Ourstudy shows sesame allergy is prevalent in the United States in both adults andchildren and can cause severe allergic reactions,» said lead study authorRuchi Gupta, a professor of pediatrics and of medicine at NorthwesternUniversity (NU) Feinberg School of Medicine.

Sesamelabeling is currently not required by law as are the other top eight allergenslike peanut and milk. This increases the risk of accidental ingestion. «Itis important to advocate for labeling sesame in packaged food. Sesame is in alot of foods as hidden ingredients. It is very hard to avoid,» said Gupta.

Unlikeallergies such as milk or egg, which often develop early in life and areoutgrown by adolescence, sesame allergy affects children and adults to asimilar degree. In addition, four in five patients with sesame allergy have atleast one other food allergy; more than half have a peanut allergy; a third aretree-nut allergic; a quarter are egg-allergic and one in five are allergic tocow's milk.

The studywas published on Friday in JAMA Network Open.

NorthwesternMedicine is the collaboration between Northwestern Memorial Healthcare andNorthwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, which includes research,teaching and patient care.