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Alternative medicine
By Mayo Clinic staffResearch on alternative food allergy treatments is limited. However, many people do try them and claim that certain treatments help.
- Herbal remedies. A few small studies of herbal remedies have showed some benefit in reducing symptoms and preventing anaphylaxis, including some Chinese medicine formulas. However, there's no reliable proof yet these work. In addition, there are concerns about the quality of some herbal preparations from China. If you do take an herbal remedy, be sure to tell your doctor about it. It may affect test results or interact with other medications you take.
- Acupuncture and acupressure. There's little academic research on acupuncture for food allergies, and the studies that do exist don't show a clear benefit from these techniques. However, many of people claim that these treatments help with a number of health conditions, including allergies, and there's little risk in trying them, providing you work with an experienced and certified provider.
- Special diets. In the past, "rotating diets" that have you avoid certain foods at certain times were tried as a food allergy treatment. There's no evidence that this or other such diets are an effective food allergy treatment. The only food strategy proved to work is complete avoidance of the allergy-causing food.
References
- Food allergy: An overview. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodAllergy/PDF/foodallergy.pdf. Accessed Jan. 20, 2009.
- Nowak-Wegrzyn A, et al. Adverse reactions to foods. Medical Clinics of North America. 2006;90:97.
- Keet CA, et al. Food allergy and anaphylaxis. Immunology and Allergy Clinics of North America. 2007;27:193.
- Hoffman A, et al. Pollen food allergy syndrome: Update on the allergens. Current Allergy and Asthma Reports. 2008;8:413.
- Atkins D. Food allergy: Diagnosis and management. Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice. 2008;35:119.
- Lack G. Food allergy. New England Journal of Medicine. 2008;359:1252.
- Li JL (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Jan. 30, 2009.
- Ko J, et al. Use of complementary and alternative medicine by food-allergic patients. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. 2006;97:365.
- Li X. Traditional Chinese herbal remedies for asthma and food allergy. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2007;120:25.
- Teuber SS, et al. Unproved diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to food allergy and intolerance. Current Opinion in Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2003;3:217.
