Writing

Read carefully the following text. Once you have read it, complete the questions below. After that, write a short paragraph (about eight lines) in which you write about "a” or “b" or "c" situations. Include as many vocabulary terms about Health Issues as possible, from the ones that have been presented on this blog and covered during previous lessons:

a. Describe an illness or disease and its symptoms, and provide suggestions for its treatment or recommendations about what can be done to be healthy again. 

b. Write a short anecdote about one illness, disease, allergic reaction or pain you or somebody you know have had.

c. Write a  paragraph in which you refer to the text on the Reading Tab named "What's That Smell?".

**To check out the pronunciation of the words, click here on pronunciation and look for the words you need**

FOOD ALLERGIES

"Hey, do you want some?" your friend asks as he offers you a mouthwatering homemade brownie. You're tempted by the delicious dessert, but then you see the crushed peanuts on top. Darn! You're allergic to peanuts. Maybe just one little bite? Nope. If you have a food allergy, even a very tiny bit of that food can make you sick. It's better to say "no, thanks" to the brownie and have a nut-free dessert.

Lots of people have food allergies.
These foods cause the most food allergies:

• peanuts and other nuts 
• seafood, such as shrimp
• milk, particularly cow's milk
• eggs
• soy
• wheat

What Is a Food Allergy?

Food allergies occur when your immune system makes a mistake. Normally, your immune system protects you from germs and disease. It does this by making antibodies that help you fight off bacteria, viruses, and other tiny organisms that can make you sick. But if you have a food allergy, your immune system mistakenly treats something in a certain food as if it's really dangerous to you.
The same sort of thing happens with any allergy, whether it's a medicine (like penicillin), pollen in the air (from flowers and trees), or a food, like peanuts. So the thing itself isn't harmful, but the way your body reacts to it is.
Some of the first signs that a person may be having an allergic reaction could be a runny nose, an itchy skin rash such as hives, or a tingling in the tongue or lips. Other signs include:

• tightness in the throat
• hoarse voice
• wheezing
• cough
• nausea
• vomiting
• stomach pain
• diarrhea

In the most serious cases, a food allergy can cause anaphylaxis. This is a sudden, severe allergic reaction in which several problems occur all at once and can involve the skin, breathing, digestion, the heart, and blood vessels. A person's blood pressure can drop, breathing tubes can narrow, and the tongue can swell.
People at risk for this kind of a reaction have to be very careful and need a plan for handling emergencies, when they might need to get special medicine to stop these symptoms from getting worse.
Many people outgrow allergies to milk and eggs as they grow older. But severe allergies to foods like peanuts, certain kinds of fish, and shrimp often last a lifetime.

How Do You Know if You Have One?

Sometimes it's easy to figure out that a person has a food allergy. Most foods have more than one ingredient, so if a person has shrimp with peanut sauce, what's causing the allergy: the peanut sauce or the shrimp?

Doctors believe that allergies could be hereditary, which means if your parent or another close relative has certain allergies like hay fever, you're more likely to develop the allergies. Some kids are born allergic to certain foods, whereas others develop food allergies over time. This may be due to someone's surroundings or changes in the body as they grow older.

Taken from: http://kidshealth.org/kid/ill_injure/sick/food_allergies.html#cat114 

If you have further doubts regarding definitions, please follow this web page link MedlinePlus to look for more medical terms or if you need to know any other word click on this Dictionary Macmillan.

According to the reading, answer the following questions:

1. What aliments can cause allergies?
2. Explain with your own words what a food allergy is.
3. What are the symptoms of an allergic reaction?

Personal information:

1. Are you allergic to something?
2. Have you eaten something that has caused you any allergic reaction?
3. What have you done when you have had an allergic reaction?

Write your eight line paragraph (see the instructions on the top of the page):
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Remember, before posting your answers, first write down your full name and then type your comment and click on post.