Allergies, especially allergies to our own food, have been growing markedly in the past few decades.
A new Canadian documentary travelled to several countries to look into the research trying to unravel the reasons behind this increase, and also at new treatments to mitigate the sometimes extremely dangerous and even fatal reactions.
The film is called “The Allergy Fix”, written and directed by Bruce Mohun, an award winning filmmaker with the Vancouver-based production company, Dreamfilm.
ListenThe film will make its debut this Thursday evening on Canada’s national public broadcaster, CBC-TV on the science programme, The Nature of Things.
Peanuts, eggs, milk, seafood, pets etc. there are so many things that children are now becoming allergic to, foods and other things that in the recent past generally posed no problem or risk at all..
It should be noted there is a difference between intolerance to certain foods, which result in things like gastric upset, and an actual allergy which can be quite dramatic and even life-threatening in its consequences.
Nevertheless about 30% of North American children now are affected by actual allergies. Epi-pens are now becoming common items for children to carry with them.
The film, The Allergy Fix explores research into the causes and some solutions, at least one of which is-surprising- to say the least.
While no “cures” are in sight, new solutions are being explored to mitigate reactions with some success,
“De-sensitizing” therapy is showing that in many cases parents can now send their children out in public with less fear of an encounter with a substance likely to cause a drastic allergic reaction.
While the film airs this week in Canada, Dreamfilm is working on deals for later US broadcast and elsewhere.
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