National Food Allergy Awareness Month has been taking place throughout May, with a Food Allergy Awareness Week running from the 10th to the 16th.
Now whilst some food allergies only give discomfort or nausea, others can be fatal. Today we do have rulings that ensure certain foods cannot be used without mentioning them on labels and menus, and these are Celery, Crustaceans, Dairy Milk, Eggs,Fish, Gluten, Lupin Beans, .Molluscs, Mustard, ,Nuts (especially Peanuts), Sesame, Soybeans, and Suphur Dioxide.
Our first clue, on Saturday the 23rd of May, was of Patrice Evra, who is allergic to eggs, but never knew it until he signed for the Italian side, Juventus, in 2014. Before that, whilst playing at Manchester United, he had lived with frequent nausea, but egg allergy had never been suspected or tested for.
Eggs are one of the most common allergies, and it is from the protein found in both the whites and the yolks. In addition, it is often present from birth, or young childhood, and it can cause many symptoms, from rashes and nausea, right up to anaphylaxis, which s when it affects breathing and the throat, which is often accompanied by a quick drop in blood pressure, giving dizziness or fainting fits
Our second card, on Sunday the 24th of May, may have been a bit of a red herring, because it related to hay-fever. However if it had not been for hay fever we may never have had a vaccine for any food allergy.
That first so called "desensitisation injection, of pollen, beneath the skin, happened in 1911, by two British doctors, John Freeman and Leonard Noon.
However, in 1986, this treatment was banned in the UK and doctors moved to administering any drugs beneath the tongue, or with quick-dissolving pills
Our card for Monday the 25th of May, brought you milk, and that was the first allergy causing food to be treated with the same "desensitation" technique that had been done with grass pollen for hayfever.
However, the fact that milk had an adverse effect on the body and its functions had been known for many centuries, for ti was one of three foods listed by Moises Maimonides (1135–1204), the personal physician of the Sultan of Egypt, in his “Treatise on Asthma”, written in 1190 A.D..
Milk allergy is much the same as that to eggs, it is a reaction to the protein in the milk. And therefore it also causes the same responses, from a rash to anaphylaxis. And again, it often begins in childhood,usually within the first year of life - indeed it is the most common food allergy in all children under three years old
On which note, as always, and especially this week, if anyone else would like to send us any information or scans from their collection which relates in any way to our theme of the week, please do - simply email us at webmaster@card-world.co.uk - and this is the same for any corrections, or for general cartophilic correspondence and chat.