Category: Allergies & Immunology

Food allergies are not preferences. Let’s start treating them that way.

We’re in a rapidly growing food allergy epidemic. 1 in 13 American children have food allergies—a number that’s only growing. Private insurance claims of anaphylactic food reactions, which are severe and potentially life-threatening, rose 377 percent f…

Is inflammation too much of a good thing?

Inflammation is currently a popular topic, and I must admit that I’ve fallen into the trap of vilifying this natural physiological phenomenon. Simply put, inflammation is our body’s response to infection, injury, or insult. Heat, redness, s…

Unveiling the healing power of compassion [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join us for an insightful podcast episode with guest Kara Wada, a board-certified academic adult and pediatric allergy, immunology, and lifestyle medicine physician. Together, we explore th…

How modern lifestyle changes are disrupting our immune systems

In addition to a steep increase in prevalence, in recent decades, we have seen an evolution in the ways our immune system misbehaves: eosinophilic esophagitis, mast cell disorders, and early onset colon cancer, among many others. This data alone should…

Empathy and awareness: Unveiling the hidden dangers of food allergies [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! Join us for an insightful podcast episode as we discuss the critical issue of food allergies and the recent incidents of food-induced anaphylaxis deaths that have deeply impacted the food a…

Unconventional health care, flawed studies, and biases: Navigating the complexities for optimal well-being

When I speak with my less “crunchy” peers, I encounter a considerable amount of resistance to ideas that have initially gained traction in naturopathic or integrative spaces: food as medicine, making “non-toxic” swaps, meditatio…

Nose-brain connection: The surprising link between allergies and mental health revealed

Artificially separating the body from the mind has been one of the biggest missteps of modern medicine. Over the last few years, we have increasingly read studies confirming the mind-body connection, the gut-brain axis, and now we are learning more abo…

Food allergy tragedies: the reality that haunts us

Food should not kill, but in the last three weeks alone, the food allergy community has grappled with three food-induced anaphylaxis deaths. All were young adults in the prime of their lives; one in middle school, another going to a school dance, and o…

Protecting children from bad medical care

Unfortunately, at least from where I sit, suboptimal medical care seems to abound. And every encounter of my family members with the health care behemoth is an opportunity for them to become a recipient of it. When it comes to shielding them, I have ha…

Food allergies are not a joke [PODCAST]

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Catch up on old episodes! “I was truly gutted when watching the recent Saturday Night Live that joked about nut allergies. My son Joshua, who is 16 years old, has an anaphylactic peanut allergy. I found the se…