I’m about to out myself as a huge geek, but here goes: when I was a kid, I used to drive my mother crazy by reading a book called Take Care of Yourself (basically a low-tech

The most fascinating part of the book to me wasn’t the nifty flowcharts about when to go to the emergency room or apply home treatment (although as long as I’m in a full-throttle geek-outing, I may as well mention that I do love a good flowchart), but some of the weird tidbits about different diseases that seemed to make no sense. Things like impetigo being connected to kidney disease, or the literal translations of Latin names for conditions.

I always thought the weirdest and most interesting parts of the book, though, were some of the tidbits about who developed diseases. Some conditions, even though they’re not connected to gender-specific parts of the body, are much more (or much less) frequent in men; others are common in children or rare before adolescence.

As it turns out, food allergies are among the conditions with a clear gender split — one that changes over time. Boys are diagnosed with food allergies more frequently, but only until adolescence. Thereafter, women develop food allergies at a much higher rate. There isn’t, at this time, a clear answer as to why, but researchers have speculated that there may be a connection with estrogen receptors on mast cells (which are involved in allergic reactions), or that some of the changes that occur in the body during and after pregnancy may play a role.

Women also predominate by a two-to-one in diagnosed cases of celiac disease, meaning that if you know an adult with a food allergy or major food restriction, there’s a very good chance it’s a woman.

Which can be troublesome for men and adolescent boys who do have food allergies. There’s no reason at this time to believe that boys and men who have food allergies are at any lower risk whatsoever. But there are reasons to believe that, as a population, they may cope differently than women with food allergies, especially as teenagers:

Adolescent girls with asthma or diabetes were prepared to inform others and treat themselves in public. Boys tended to play down their illness particularly in public.

(From “Differences Between Men and Women: ‘Sexy’ Research on Food Allergy.”) Add to this the fact that simple demographics mean that when people think of an adult with food allergies, many of them probably imagine a woman just based on simple demographics. Does that mean it’s harder for men with food allergies to be taken seriously in restaurants, workplaces, other situations where they may be relying on others to respect their dietary needs? That’s a thornier question and one I’m not remotely sure about the answer to. Any thoughts?

• Risk Factors for Food Allergies
• First Steps for Adult Food Allergies

_Sources:

Jensen-Jarolim, E. and Untersmayr, E. “Gender-Medicine Aspects in Allergology.” Allergy. May 2008. 63(5): 610-15. 9 June 2008.