Scientists do not clearly understand why the immune system of people allergic to wheat considers certain food proteins harmful to the body. The immune system can develop a number of defense mechanisms against proteins that are considered harmful or foreign. Symptoms can range from very mild to life-threatening depending on the severity of your wheat allergies. They usually appear within a few minutes to a few hours after eating or inhaling wheat.
If you are allergic to wheat, then you suffer from type 1 allergy, the so-called contact allergy. An allergic reaction to wheat intolerance is caused by one or more of the 4 main groups of proteins found in wheat. These 4 groups of proteins consist of: water-soluble, salt soluble, alcohol soluble and alcohol insoluble. There is a different proportion of protein in wheat depending on the type of wheat tested.
Scientists do not clearly understand why the immune system of people allergic to wheat considers certain food proteins harmful to the body. The immune system can develop a number of defense mechanisms against proteins that are considered harmful or foreign. Symptoms can range from very mild to life-threatening depending on the severity of your wheat allergies. They usually appear within a few minutes to a few hours after eating or inhaling wheat. In layman's terms, a wheat allergy refers to an adverse reaction involving your immune system to one or more of the protein elements in wheat.
Wheat contains many elements in its overall composition. You already know them because they give bread dough and bread itself many of its properties. Elasticity and stickiness, for example, for dough and fragility for a cake and a beautifully crispy crust for a loaf of French bread. They have names like albumin and gluten. Without them, the dough would have the consistency of modeling clay and the muffin would look like a hockey puck after baking. The good news is that wheat allergy is considered very uncommon.
For people who work with or are in constant contact with wheat flour, statistics have shown that they may be at a higher risk of occupational asthma caused by inhaling wheat flour. Wheat flour has been shown to be a significant contributor to the cause of occupational asthma in people working in the baking industry. However, for the public, consumption of wheat-based food products appears to pose very little risk. Many processed and snack foods contain wheat derivatives, such as gluten and albumin. Most people allergic to wheat are allergic to albumin and globulin in wheat.
The most common allergic reactions are stomach cramps and vomiting after eating food containing a wheat product. It usually appears within minutes, but can take up to several hours to manifest. Other common reactions are skin rash and eczema. Allergic reactions to inhaling wheat flour or flour containing wheat derivatives can be life-threatening. It can cause heart complications and extreme breathing problems if it occurs during exercise. In rare cases, these complications have been life-threatening. Because wheat and other grain products are so common in our diets, wheat allergies can be difficult to diagnose. If a person suspected of having a wheat allergy eats them occasionally, it may make the diagnosis a little easier. If they become ill after occasions when a person eats food containing wheat, then this is a very strong indicator.
For a person who regularly consumes wheat as part of their daily diet and is constantly sick, it may be more difficult to resolve the cause. The elimination-challenge test is the most reliable method of allergy diagnosis. The first step in treating a wheat allergy is to remove it from the diet or environment if the allergy is caused by breathing in dust or flour. This can be difficult to follow because wheat and wheat products are so common in our diets. It can be especially difficult for children because it is included in many snacks. Albumin and gluten can even be found in candies. Children often lack the ability to read and understand food and snack labels. Alternative food products such as soy-based foods and snacks are available in health food stores.
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