A SHENZHEN man who has been bothered by eczema and coughing for many years found out recently that he was allergic to rice, the Shenzhen Economic Daily reported yesterday.

    The man, surnamed Li, had tried many medicines after seeing doctors at several hospitals in Shenzhen, but none of them could cure his nonstop eczema and coughing.

    After collecting a blood sample and doing a food allergen test before the Spring Festival this year, doctors discovered that Li was allergic to rice. Li had to stop eating rice, which he had been eating since he was a child. Instead, he now eats wheat, potatoes and corn as staple foods.

    A food allergy reaction occurs when a patient’s immune system overreacts to a food or a substance in a food, identifying it as a danger and triggering a protective response.

    Symptoms of a food allergy reaction may involve the skin, the gastrointestinal tract, the cardiovascular system or the respiratory tract. A patient can be allergic to several kinds of food at the same time, while different people might show different symptoms of an allergy reaction to the same food.

    While any food can cause an adverse reaction, eight types of food account for about 90 percent of all reactions, including eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy. Some common foods, such as rice, corn, meat and tomatoes, have also been found to be food allergy triggers, according to the report. (Zhang Yang)