Health hotline about food allergies

IKK Südwest health hotline on food allergies on June 21 - 66 percent of those affected are women

17/06/2011

The number of therapies prescribed to patients due to food allergies or intolerances is increasing. This is confirmed by current evaluations of IKK Südwest. While five years ago, only every one of the 114th insured members of IKK had to be treated on an outpatient basis, today, every 38th member is already insured. 66 percent of them are women (2006: 64 percent). The largest proportion of women sufferers is the group of 20 to 40-year-olds with 28.8 percent (2006: 26.2 percent), followed by the over 41-year-olds with 22.7 percent (2006: 21, 4 percent). The least affected are the 13 to 19-year-old girls (6.3 percent).

„Almost every third German already suffers from an allergy, the proportion of food allergies and intolerances is getting bigger“, says Marie-Louise Conen, IKK Health Consultant and Graduate Engineer (FH) in Nutrition and Home Appliances. „The most common diagnoses are lactose or histamine intolerance, celiac disease (gluten intolerance) and fructose malabsorption (fructose intolerance)“.

On the occasion of the German Food Allergy Day on June 21, 2011, IKK Südwest offers a telephone hotline for people suffering from food allergies or intolerance or having questions about this topic. Between 10 and 14 o'clock the IKK health advisors Marie-Louise Conen and Eva-Maria Haas answer questions of affected persons under the free IKK health hotline 0800/0 119 000.

If the body is hypersensitive to certain foods, it should first be clarified whether it is an allergy or an intolerance. Chicken eggs, fish, milk, fruits and legumes are the most common triggers. „In a food allergy, a test detects antibodies in the blood“, explains Marie-Louise Conen, „but in the case of incompatibilities, diagnosis is often pure detective work.“ The reactions to an allergy usually occur within 30 to 60 minutes. „This facilitates the narrowing down of the triggers in question“, says Conen. With an intolerance, however, this can take a few minutes, but also a few days. In addition, the symptoms vary widely and range from gastrointestinal complaints, headaches and colds to low blood pressure.

„Not only are we seeing a greater number of therapies, but we also see that interest in this topic is increasing, and as a result, the number of inquiries we receive is increasing significantly“, says Marie-Louise Conen. „Many people have become more sensitive to the subject of nutrition, especially under the impact of current events such as dioxin scandal, rotten meat affair or, most recently, EHEC pathogens.“ Currently, IKK manages more than 680,000 insured persons and more than 100,000 companies in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland. The IKK Südwest can be reached 24 hours a day, seven days a week, via the free IKK service hotline 0800/0 119 119. (Pm)

Picture: Peter von Bechen