Allergy Matters

In Western societies, the incidence and prevalence of respiratory and food-related allergies have increased rapidly over the past decades. Changes in life style, e.g. in hygiene, child vaccination, housing insulation, food consumption patterns, etc. are thought to be involved in this increase. Direct and indirect costs related to allergy are expected to rise rapidly, especially in the Central and Eastern European countries that recently joined the European Union. Major concerns relate to the significant decrease of the quality of life of patients and their relatives.

This book, written by renowned experts, reflects the current ideas for future possibilities of allergy prevention, using integrated and multidisciplinary strategies and covering the entire knowledge framework from comprehensive fundamental research to implementation into society. It describes approaches from the following main topics: The medical and molecular context, The food production chain and novel foods, The living and occupational environment, People and society.

Preface: Introduction: 1. Future developments in allergy prevention: a matter of integrating medical, natural and social sciences.- The medical and molecular context: 2. Induction and regulation of allergen-specific IgE .-3.Preventive vaccination against allergy: paternal allergen immunization protects offspring.- 4.Controlling processing in complex food systems: a potential route to food-allergy prevention.- 5.Plant protein families as a basis for predicting the allergenicity of food proteins.- 6.Can cross-reactivity studies enable generic allergy prevention? .- The food production chain and novel foods: 7.The food production chain and novel foods: introduction .- 8.Novel foods and novel processing techniques as threats and challenges to a hypersensitive world.-9.Tracking and tracing for allergen-free food production chains .- 10.Prediction of the potential allergenicity of novel proteins.-11.Production of hypoallergenic plant foods by selection, breeding and genetic modification.- 12.In silico prediction of potential allergenicity of proteins according to the FAO/WHO guidelines with the help of Allermatch™.- The living and occupational environment: 13.Low-pollen-allergen ryegrasses: towards a continent free of hay fever?.- 14.Strategies for prevention and mitigation of hay fever.- 5.Prevention of occupational allergies .-People and society:16.Allergy between the ears? .-17.Economic impact of allergy prevention.- 18.Communication needs and food allergy: an analysis of stakeholder views.- 19.Allergy prevention: consumer perspectives.- 20. The patient's voice in allergy prevention.