Read the THREE (3) articles on food allergies. Based on the articles provided, write ONE (1) synthesis essay. Your synthesis essay should be about 600 words.

“I'm sorry, I am allergic to egg yolks”, “Sorry, seafood will give me rashes”. These sentences coming out from the mouth of our friends or family are prevalent, and it definitely ruins the vibe of the meal but little do we know, it is tough for them as well, as they were born for this. Instead, some of us still insist to force them to eat where they have already rejected the request. Upon that, this explains the lack of knowledge on people in this century on food allergy as many people now don’t realise the consequences that the victims would be facing. According to CDC, the prevalence of food allergies has increased approximately 50% between 1997 to 2011. [3] As such, to have a better comprehension of food allergy, we could simply evaluate the possible symptoms, causes, and treatments. First of all, one of the most important factors to be conscious of about food allergy is the symptoms involved. Food allergies vary a wide variety of symptoms, a few of the most typical ones are rashes, headaches, and fever. In a matter of fact, each victim carries a different type of symptoms respectively and it depends on their health condition and it is mainly caused due to the intake of the foods that they are allergic to, while an alternate name to name those foods are allergens. Likewise, the symptoms are potentially life-threatening as it ranges from mild to severe. [1] An example of a severe allergic reaction is named anaphylaxis, whereby it forms several symptoms such as breathing difficulty, dizziness, and racing heart rates. [1, 3] With that, we should be able to identify the symptoms if it occurs on people around us and we could send them for immediate medical assistance. As mentioned, food allergies are caused due to allergens intake which will develop allergic reactions in our body and forms symptoms. This is because our body contains a microorganism named immunoglobin E (IgE) [2], where it is an antibody that triggers our immune system via detecting the allergens and binds with them, and triggers an immune response. By then, this is where the first symptoms develop. Despite that, several theories have been developed by scientists due to the lack of resources on how to conquer this problem. One of which is the “hygiene hypothesis” where states children who live in urban areas aren’t frequently exposed to mother nature due to overly protective parents and wouldn’t want their children to be exposed to microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. [3] Children at a young age should be exposed to the environment to achieve passive immunity so that they are resistant to any type of health conditions but not mainly just food allergies. Nonetheless, these parents tend to feed their children with an excessive number of vitamins and antibiotics [3] which could potentially increase their risk of developing more health conditions such as coronary heart disease and indigestion. Hence, it's crucial for one and another to note that what causes the allergic reactions so that we could succour the victims. Furthermore, with the great advancement of biotechnology, prohibiting eating allergens isn’t the only option. Notwithstanding, more approaches can be considered. One of the most effective treatment is called oral immunotherapy where it is a process which requires the patient to eat allergy-causing food in a small amount to allow the body to gradually adapt to the reactions. This approach’s efficacy has reached around a quarter third of the children who underwent the experiment are safely eating peanuts. In otherwise, another treatment that works as the same concept like oral immunotherapy is allergy vaccination but instead of eating it is through injection with a small dosage to reformulate the immune system towards the particular food that they are allergic to. Besides that, allergen immunotherapy is an option as well. It works in a way that requires the cooperation of anti-IgE drugs which functions by prohibiting the binding of the antibody to the receptor of the allergen. [1-2] Above all, several treatments including oral immunotherapy, allergy vaccination, and allergen immunotherapy are ways that we could prevent ourselves from suffering from any more allergy reactions. All in all, to enhance the understanding of food allergy, several factors such as the symptoms, causes, and treatments are vital to know. Food allergies aren’t a condition where people shouldn’t normalise but to take the precaution of as even though the death rate of this particular condition isn’t as high as other diseases, it is life-threatening too. Hence, it isn’t late to raise awareness of this issue and start making the first move starting from ourselves.