Wednesday Open Thread

Welcome to the Wednesday edition of your open thread. Do you have thoughts or ideas to share? Share them below.

Food allergies aren’t as common as people think they are, according to a new study.

While there is no doubt that people can be allergic to certain foods, with reproducible responses ranging from a rash to a severe life-threatening reaction, the true incidence of food allergies is only about 8 percent for children and less than 5 percent for adults, said Dr. Marc Riedl, an author of the new paper and an allergist and immunologist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Yet about 30 percent of the population believe they have food allergies. And, Dr. Riedl said, about half the patients coming to his clinic because they had been told they had a food allergy did not really have one.

…

Part of the confusion is over what is a food allergy and what is a food intolerance, Dr. Fenton said. Allergies involve the immune system, while intolerances generally do not. For example, a headache from sulfites in wine is not a food allergy. It is an intolerance. The same is true for lactose intolerance, caused by the lack of an enzyme needed to digest sugar in milk.

And other medical conditions can make people think they have food allergies, Dr. Fenton said. For example, people sometimes interpret acid reflux symptoms after eating a particular food as an allergy.

Are we a nation of hypochondriacs?

This ad really has to be seen to be believed. In Alabama, one Republican candidate is being criticized for supporting the teaching of evolution.

Of course, Byrne is outraged that someone dare say that he has a brain or independent thought:

Byrne responds to this “despicable attack” with a statement: “I have never wavered in my belief that this world and everything in it is a masterpiece created by the hands of God… I fought to ensure the teaching of creationism in our school text books.”