A food allergy occurs when someone’s immune system reacts adversely to a particular type of food. When this happens it causes inflammation in certain bodily tissues and can even be life threatening. A food allergy should not be confused with food intolerance because, although in both situations the body can react to even a very small amount of food, food intolerance is not caused by an individual’s immune system; rather, it’s the digestive system.

Although actual food allergies are very rare and tend to run in the family, some people avoid consuming specific foods because they are under the mistaken assumption that they’re allergic to them. On average, only one in hundred adults and three in a hundred infants have food allergies. An individual would be more at risk if they or their family suffer from any allergic conditions such as asthma, eczema or hay fever. Only a medical professional will be able to diagnose somebody as having a food allergy.

Food Allergies

In principle, people could be allergic to any type of food, but the most common ones appear to be the following: milk, fish, shellfish, eggs, wheat, soya beans, peanuts and certain fruit and veg.

Food allergies are usually diagnosed by blood or skin tests, or a going through a food elimination program.

Down syndrome is a genetic disorder otherwise known as trisomy and it is where an individual has inherited an additional or extra copy of a particular chromosome. In the case of Down’s syndrome, the affected individuals have three copies rather than two of chromosome 21. The consequence of this additional copy is that it changes the balance of the body resulting in characteristic intellectual and physical features.

Down Syndrome

There are three kinds of Down’s syndrome: regular trisomy 21 which is where all the cells in the body have an extra chromosome 21 and is the most common type of the condition with nearly 94% affected with Down’s having it; translocation, which is where extra chromosome 21 material attaches to another chromosome, and four percent have this type; and mosaic, which is where only some of the cells have additional chromosome 21. This usually has milder features than the other two types and only two percent of affected individuals have mosaic.

Down syndrome sufferers look different to normal people and usually have a flat type of facial profile with eyes slanting upwards. Smaller ears, protruding tongue and a flat back of the head are other features. Individuals affected tend to be shorter than normal, have poor muscle tone and have broad, short hands. Half the affected individuals have a heart defect, which can be treated in some, but not others. Some have problems with their gut, making it difficult to eat while increasing the risk of constipation and thyroid problems.

There is no cure for Down syndrome but there are treatments available for the accompanying symptoms as well as support for the learning difficulties.

First of all we should try and explain what influenza (flu) is. There are three main types: A, B and C, with B and C only infecting humans and influenza A being able to infect humans, animals and birds. The surface of each influenza A virus contains two types of protein, neuraminidase (N), of which there are nine types, and haemagglutinin (H), of which there are sixteen types. Consequently, there are lots of sub-strains of the influenza A virus and they are given names depending on the type of proteins found on the surface. Examples of these sub-strains could be H1N1, H1N2 and H2N3.

Another characteristic of the A strain is that it has the ability to produce new strains – in other words, mutate. It is as these new strains occur that new types of flu are discovered.

Bird flu is a strain of influenza A that affects birds, of which all species can be affected. Whereas wild birds can carry the disease when they migrate, they don’t usually become ill with it whereas poultry birds like turkeys and chickens do become ill. The virus spreads easily between these birds.

Bird Flu

It is the H5N1 virus that is causing all the problems with humans at the moment. This strain has affected birds for almost half a century, but it mutated back in 1997 in the Far East and spread to humans. As of yet this strain of the virus cannot be transferred from human to human, only from bird to bird or sometime bird to human.