Tag: PSA

Clearing Up Some Misconceptions About Corn Allergy

When you google “corn allergy”, the top links you get back seem to convey a picture of corn avoidance that is far less complicated than what I experience, and what the folks in my support groups and who contact me directly through my blog experience. Now, I’m not trying to bum anybody out here, but I am trying to keep everybody safe. Which does seem to bum people out a lot. But hey, I like being alive so I’m not bummed at all to know things that keep me that way.

Here are some of the things I see a lot of the most popular google hits on corn allergy get wrong. I’ve included references where I can, but in a lot of cases research on these kinds of things just haven’t been funded. So for some items all I really have is my own experiences, my own critical thinking, and reports from the patient community to go on. I would much prefer solid statistics and rigorous studies. If you would like to explore some of these topics in that manner, let me know and I will help you find volunteers to participate.

In the meantime, this is what I know, based on as much peer-reviewed research as I can find, the reports of 8,000 members in a support group, and many dozens of direct messages between myself and members of the corn allergy community:

Misconceptions about Corn Allergies
  1. Corn allergy reactions are only to the protein.
  2. If you have to avoid derivatives and traces of corn, you can do so by reading labels.
  3. If you have to avoid derivatives and traces of corn, you can do so by calling or emailing manufacturers and asking them if their product “contains corn”.
  4. Airborne reactivity to corn is impossible or at least incredibly rare.
  5. Coping with a corn allergy only involves avoiding foods that contain corn.
  6. The symptoms of a food allergy are limited to hives, hay-fever type symptoms, severe facial swelling, or throat closing.
  7. Food intolerances cannot cause serious reactions.

Incorrect: Corn allergy reactions are only to the protein. Starches, sugars, alcohols or other items synthesized using corn products as a starting material cannot cause an allergic reaction.

Actually:

Allergens can be more than just proteins.

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