> Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2008 10:50:10 -0400
> From: MB <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Allergy testing

> Not all children who are truely allergic( anaphylactic) to milk outgrow a 
> milk protein allergy. According to our allergist/pulminologist as they get 
> older they usually "tolerate" milk broken down such as "whey" in a baked 
> good and by the time they are adults will not react anaphylactically any 
> longer to parts of milk that the protein has been broken down such as 
"whey" 
> . But even if not anaphylactic(medical emergency) they would still be 
> considered allergic and the symptoms will/can manifest themselves 
> differently i.e. stomach upset, congestion, eczema etc..... 

Of course not all children grow out of allergies, but most do. You have to 
remember that people on this list are a non-representative sampling. They or 
their families all have serious dairy allergies that were not outgrown. That's 
why both sides of the "if" have to be taken into consideration.

I think the MB has misunderstood what the doctor said. There are two protein 
families in milk, the casein family and the whey family. Casein allergies are 
more common than whey allergies but you can be allergic to either family or to 
both. 

I'm not quite sure what milk broken down to whey might mean. The whey portion 
of milk is what is left over when the curds, which are mostly casein, are 
removed during cheesemaking. Commercial whey products are usually dried to take 
the water out for shipping, and consist of a powder that is partially whey 
protein and partially lactose. The casein content would be small, but probably 
non-zero. No one with a truly serious dairy allergy should be eating products 
with whey in them. Those with a hypersensitivity might well do so.

There are also two types of reactions to proteins. True allergies are 
mediated by the IgE antibody. Those are the reactions that can be anaphylactic and 
normally - but again not always - affect the skin and respiratory systems. Other 
reactions are mediated by other antibody systems. Those are often referred to 
as hypersensitivities to distinguish them. These arise later and affect 
different systems from IgE reactions. I have a longer explanation and a chart on my 
website at:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/stevecarper/livallg.htm

It's important to know the differences between the types of protein and the 
types of reaction. They also react differently to testing, which is the source 
of much confusion. Removing dairy is a good step, but it is a crude test and 
doesn't return as much information as you need in the long term.

Steve Carper


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