Can you recommend any well-grounded books or articles about allergies?

April 16, 2013 6:40 AM

I'd like to read some intelligent, well-sourced and scientifically informed books and articles on allergies (including food allergies) and whether the incidence of allergies and food allergies is on the rise. I'm an educated layperson. Can you recommend anything? To provide a bit more context, I feel like I've heard and read a lot about allergies in recent years from news sources and friends and acquaintances, but much of the information seems suspect. To give an example, I've had people pass on information about allergies they got from chiropractors or new-agey sources. I think allergies are a real thing, but it seems like there may be lots of mis-information out there about them. I'd like read about this issue and become more well-informed, but I don't know where to start.
posted by Area Man to Science & Nature (6 answers total)

I'd love to hear answers too -- but for the record, here's one visualization of trends in pollen counts in Australia, which supports the notion that there are more allergans of some kinds in the environmen.
posted by acm at 6:51 AM on April 16, 2013

I have a few go-to sources that I refer people to for health information that are generally reliable and often link to information for professionals that can get as detailed as you want. The Mayo Clinic has good information, but their allergy section isn't loading for me right now so I linked to the front page. The CDC doesn't have much on allergies in general, but a lot on specific topics ("allergy" encompasses a variety of things, from asthma to anaphylaxis to food allergies to latex allergies and so on). The NIH also has a lot on the subject. The American Academy of Family Physicians has some information for patients that is pretty basic, if you are just getting started. All of these resources have links to to other sources as well.
posted by TedW at 7:02 AM on April 16, 2013

Since you seem interested in trends, here is a CDC page with some info.
posted by TedW at 7:04 AM on April 16, 2013

Sandra Beasley's memoir Don't Kill the Birthday Girl was my Food Allergies 101. The author is severely allergic to a bunch of foods, and the book is a mix of the author's personal experiences and the history of allergy identification and treatment. You can skip around if you're mostly interested in the science (there's plenty), but I found it an overall good read.
posted by Cue the Strings at 8:41 AM on April 16, 2013

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease is a good resource, and has articles for educated laypeople as well as professionals. Here's a page on food allergy. Here's their alphabetical index.
posted by Knowyournuts at 10:04 AM on April 16, 2013

You might be interested in this recent interview on Fresh Air with Dr. Kari Nadeau, from the Stanford Alliance for Food Allergy Research, SAFAR, at Stanford University School of Medicine.
posted by Lutoslawski at 10:43 AM on April 16, 2013 [1 favorite]