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When I was growing up, I was allergic to dairy.

If I had a pizza or a bowl of cereal or ice cream, my nose would get totally stuffed up.

In the scheme of things though, it was just a mild allergy.

There are other people that will describe like a sense of doom, almost that kind of comes

over them.

This is Wahita Samadhi, the director of clinical research at Northwestern University's Center

for Food Allergy and Asma Research.

Like the throat closing can definitely feel like they're breathing out of a straw.

They can't take a deep breath, and then the itching and the swelling kind of comes on

very immediately.

Nausea and vomiting are very common in all age groups as well, just because it's like

your body's trying to purge something that did not stay well with it.

So it is a very wide range of experiences, but I think those who have extreme reactions

just describe it as just kind of like a whole body takeover.

People can be allergic to all sorts of things, from bee stings to medicines.

But Wahita specialty is food allergies, and their prevalence is exploding.

We call it an epidemic because it really has risen dramatically over the last few decades.

So before the 1990s, the rate of food allergies in the U.S. amongst everyone was below 3%,

maybe 2, 2.5%.

And just in children alone, research studies have found a dramatic increase over that time.

Now we look at one in 13 children have a food allergy.

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