Do you love ice cream as much as Sam does? Sam gets nausea and stomach aches after eating ice cream — does that mean she is allergic or lactose intolerant? Atomic Hands’ Board Secretary Sam Forshay explains how to identify if you are allergic or intolerant in this third video of the allergies video series! #STEMvee #Allergies #Antibodies #ImmuneSystem #IceCream
ID: Sam is wearing a black shirt, standing in front of an ice cream freezer. Later, she sits at a table with white walls and a painted pink wall bottom. There is an artwork of cars/trucks on the wall behind her, and a backpack placed on a chair. Closing video shows white background with blue text: Enjoyed this video? Black text: Please consider donating; your support will help keep our content & resources FREE! Green button with black text: atomichands.com/donate. Image of an iPhone with Atomic Hands’ menu webpage shows with menu options: ASL STEM Storybooks, ASL STEM Videos, ASL STEM Resources, ASL STEM Dictionaries, ASL STEM News, ASL STEM Events, and Deaf STEMist Network. Next clip shows: This video is sponsored by RIT National Technical Institute for the Deaf Regional STEM Center.
Transcript: I love ice cream! But I always get stomach aches and nausea afterward. Am I allergic? Or is my body intolerant to dairy products? What’s the difference? Follow me! A true food allergy causes the body’s immune system to react to the digested product. The immune system thinks the body is being harmed. The reaction can be mild or very serious. Sometimes it might be rashes or hives, or it might cause problems breathing or swelling of body parts such as the arms and face. Sometimes you might need to carry an Epipen for more severe reactions to help save your life. An intolerance or sensitivity to food products usually happen from missing enzymes needed to dissolve food in the digestive system, which can often cause the digestive system to ache, swelling, cramping, diarrhea, and constipation. An allergy and a sensitivity to food are NOT the same. Allergies are the immune system reacting to protect the body while intolerance happens from food failing to digest (break down) completely in the digestive system. For example, lactose intolerance and dairy allergy are two different things! People who are lactose intolerant do not have an enzyme that breaks down lactose, a type of sugar which means the sugar in milk does not break down completely. Those with a dairy allergy will have an immune response that can lead to breathing problems and swelling of the throat. You can find out if you’re allergic to certain foods by contacting your doctor and setting up an appointment to do an allergy test with your blood. This can be done with a prick test or with drawing blood and doing a series of lab tests on the sample. If there is an allergic reaction, then it’s an allergy! If there is no reaction, then it might be an intolerance! There are also medications you can take to reduce your symptoms for food intolerance. Whew! I might not eat a lot of dairy ice cream, but at least I can enjoy them once in a while!
