Mike Carruthers

But what would be the difference in the treatment?

It seems like you would take, you know, Claritin or Flonase or something regardless of which one it was.

Is there a sense as to, because so many people complain of those symptoms, as to how many people have allergies versus how many people have the non-allergy version?

So you just mentioned medications.

People say, well, I'm allergic to penicillin.

Is that really an allergy to penicillin, or is that some sort of intolerance to penicillin?

When I was growing up, I don't remember hearing

people talk about food allergies that, you know, little Johnny could, could die if he's exposed to a peanut.

I mean, I just, I'd never ever heard that.

We're taking an important look at allergies, and my guest is Dr. Zachary Rubin.

He's a double board certified pediatrician and allergist immunologist and author of the book All About Allergies, Everything You Need to Know About Asthma, Food Allergies, Hay Fever, and More.

So, Dr. Rubin, my sense of allergies used to be that they were something very treatable, not benign, but not life-threatening.

But now you hear about peanut allergies or nut allergies and people dying, and I don't understand that.

How do you die from an allergy?

I know a lot of people, I don't know, I actually don't know that a lot of people, but it seems like a lot of people have seafood allergies, shellfish allergies.

And generally, what are the symptoms of a seafood allergy?

Is there a good understanding of how you acquire an allergy?

You had mentioned peanut allergies.

Maybe it's because you weren't exposed to peanuts.

But what about other allergies?