Self-diagnosed perceptions of food allergy are greater than the rates of true food allergy because people confuse non-allergic intolerance with allergy, and also attribute non-allergy symptoms to an allergic response. Conversely, healthcare professionals treating allergic reactions on an out-patient or even hospitalized basis may not report all cases. Recent increases in reported cases may reflect a real change in incidence or an increased awareness on the part of healthcare professionals. Social impact
Food fear has a significant impact on quality of life. For children with allergies, their quality of life is also affected by the actions of their peers. An increased occurrence of bullying has been observed, which can include threats or deliberate acts of forcing allergic children to contact foods that they must avoid or intentional contamination of allergen-free food. Portrayal in media
Media portrayals of food allergy in television and film are not accurate, often used for comedic effect or underplaying the potential severity of an allergic reaction. These tropes missinform the public and also contribute to how entertainment media will continue to wrongly portray food allergies in the future. Types of tropes: 1) characters have food allergies, providing a weakness that can be used to sabotage them. In the movie Parasite a housekeeper is displaced by taking advantage of her peach allergy. In the animated film Peter Rabbit, the farm owner is attacked by being pelted with blackberries, causing an anaphylactic reaction requiring emergency treatment with epinephrine. After many public protests, Sony Pictures and the Peter Rabbit director apologized for making light of food allergies.
These are congregations of proteins and lipids (including sphingolipids and cholesterol) that float within the cell membrane, and play a role in the regulation of membrane function. Lipid rafts are more ordered or rigid than the membrane bilayer surrounding them. Their involvement in regulation stems mostly from their association with proteins; upon binding substrates, some proteins have a higher affinity for attaching to lipid rafts. This brings them in close proximity with other proteins, allowing them to affect signaling pathways. Cholesterol specifically acts as a spacer and a glue for lipid rafts; absence of cholesterol leads to the dissociation of proteins.Given its prevalence in cell membranes, cholesterol is highly involved in certain transport processes. It may influence the function of ion channels and other membrane transporters. For example, cholesterol is necessary for the ligand binding activity of the serotonin receptor. In addition, it appears to be very important in exocytosis. Cholesterol modulates the properties of the membrane (such as membrane curvature), and may regulate the fusion of vesicles with the cell membrane. It may also facilitate the recruitment of complexes necessary for exocytosis. Given that neurons rely heavily on exocytosis for the transmission of impulses, cholesterol is a very important part of the nervous system. One particularly relevant pathway in which cholesterol takes place is the Hedgehog signaling pathway. This pathway is very important during embryonic development, and involved in deciding the fate of cells (i.e., which tissue they need to migrate to).