One in three Britons suffers from an allergy, and it's got gradually worse over the past 10 years.
Fast facts:
- One in three Britons has an allergy.
- A child goes to hospital with asthma every 19 minutes.
- 40,000 children born each year have a nut allergy.
- Hospital admissions for anaphylaxis have risen fivefold since 1990.
- Between 1990 and 2003, 49,000 people were admitted to hospital with severe allergic reactions.
- There are 15 million hayfever sufferers in UK.
- There are 20 confirmed cases of Aquagenic Urticaria (severe allergy to water) in the UK.
- There are 100 confirmed cases of Human Seminal Plasma Hypersensitivity (allergy to sperm).
- Eight foods account for 90% of allergic reactions. They are: peanuts, tree nuts (including walnuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios and pecans), fish, shellfish, eggs, milk, wheat and soy.
- An estimated 10% of people in the UK suffer from some degree of Polymorphic Light Eruption (allergy to the sun).
These figures are worrying, but allergies can be controlled. Through diet, awareness of food labels and some general common sense, allergies don’t have to rule your life.
It's important to know the difference between a food allergy and a food sensitivity (a bigger difference than you may think), how to treat your own or your child’s eczema, and the various types of allergy tests you can undergo.
