One of the curses of working shift work is that you can find yourself watching the dreaded "Daytime TV". At the moment the TV is on GMTV. One of their regular slots is all about 'food allergies'. Now for me (as a medical professional) and allergy is a severe reaction to a stimulus. What these people on the TV are talking about is a sensitivity.

So, as I'm a bit bored, I decided to take their online test to see if I have any food allergies.

"It’s pretty much guaranteed that you have an allergy"

Why is this so? Because I'm often tired (Duh! I work shifts), that I sometimes feel bloated and sleepy after eating (Isn't that the point), I sometimes get aches and pains (who doesn't? I'm carrying people all day), and that while I sometimes feel depressed I often feel better when I go on holiday (How many people don't feel better during a holiday?).

This seems like a fine example of quackery. An allergy/intolerance is diagnosed after a skin tolerance test, not from fourteen yes/no questions. People who take this questionnaire might think that a more serious condition is likely to be a 'food allergy'.

Black Triangle is excellent at shining a light on these sorts of things and is one of my daily required readings (When I'm not stuck on 12 hour shifts that is...)

He's also posted a reasoned post about the recent critical illness of participants in a clinical drug trial. I would add to his post that the drugs that doctors are using to try and save the participant's lives would all have gone through the same clinical trials as the test drug that may have caused this reaction.