Allergy Testing: Why is the media re-flogging that dead horse in honor of FAAW?

Every few months the headlines scream Allergy Diagnosis An Inexact Science or Telling Food Allergies From False Alarms
(believe me, when you witness your child having an anaphylatic reaction, you know it's no false alarm). Back in February I wrote a blog post titled Allergy Testing: Why All The Bad Press? That was just a few short months ago. But it seems that in honor of Food Allergy Awareness Week, the media has pulled out their "allergy testing is flawed" trump card and is parading it around again to counter all of the activism going on right now in the allergy community. At least that's how it appears to me. Why now? Why again? And honestly, tell me something that I don't already know...

I even noted at the bottom of my last blog post "I think it's important that we in the food allergy community make sure that allergy testing isn't demonized. It has a purpose and is a necessary part of helping those with allergies/food allergies pin point what they are allergic to. But it's also important to note that the only true test is a food challenge. Please use this topic and the links above to take this conversation to your own community or blog. All testing, results, treatment plans and food challenges should be discussed with your allergist".

Is allergy testing 100% right, 100% of the time? No, it isn't. And we have a saying in the food allergy community that holds true: "Reaction Trumps Result". If you are reacting to something and the test says you are negative: Avoid It. If you are eating something with no reaction and the test says positive: either continue to eat it, or request an in office challenge to be 100% positive that you are not allergic to it. Sometimes common sense has to prevail.

I have a friend whose little boy had a severe reaction to tree nuts. She took him in for allergy testing and the test also said he was allergic to eggs which he's been eating with no reactions. The allergist said to avoid them from now on. I told her to seek a second opinion. Why avoid something that clearly the child isn't reacting to? Not all doctors graduated top of their class. And not all doctors are up on the latest developments in their fields. And some are just human and make mistakes (just as lawyers, mechanics, and mothers do... no one is perfect). And this also happens in other fields of medicine, not just food allergies.

But I love how the media jumps back on this band wagon during Food Allergy Awareness Week. Does this happen to other conditions during their "awareness weeks"? Does the media dress up old articles that appear negative toward Breast Cancer Research and parade them around during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month? Does the media republish articles with a negative slant during Colo-Rectal Cancer Awareness Month? I have no idea. I never noticed. Maybe they do. But I sure notice all of these articles getting a new shiny coat of paint and pranced around like it's something new that we've never heard about before.

Just makes me wonder...Why all the backlash against food allergies and the food allergic? What doesn't the media want us to know?

Until some better form of testing comes along this is what we have to work with. This is why we are raising awareness this week and this is why we raise money for better testing, more studies and to find a cure.

I'll end this post the same way I ended the last one.