Applying Food Allergy Science to Your Food Allergy Life

Last Saturday, I was honored to present for the joint Seattle Food Allergy Consortium (SEAFAC) and Washington Food Allergy Eczema Asthma Support Team (WA FEAST) conference in Seattle, Washington. A huge shout-out to Kelly Morgan for doing an amazing job at organizing the afternoon sessions!

I have posted my presentation slides from the conference through Slide Share. Feel free to take a look!  http://www.slideshare.net/JessicaMartin25/2015-1114-wafeast-applying-food-allergy-science-to-life

I hope to update with more soon. I learned about several research studies currently recruiting participants in the Pacific Northwest. This could very much apply to my local crowd in Oregon!

Perhaps one of the most thought-provoking sessions pertained to anxiety and food allergies. It isn't an easy discussion by any means, but very necessary given its prevalence. My gut feeling is that this issue has been ignored for far too long and very much needs to be raised to the forefront. Stay tuned!

Food Allergy Conference in Seattle Nov. 14 - I'm Going!

For those of you in the Pacific Northwest, a wonderful conference is happening this weekend in Seattle! It is a joint event between the Seattle Food Allergy Consortium (SEAFAC) in the morning and Washington's food allergy support group - Food Allergy Eczema Asthma Support Team (FEAST) - in the afternoon. It isn't too late to register.

For my part, I'm excited to present for FEAST on how you can apply food allergy science to your food allergy life! My hope is that everyone (from newly diagnosed to dealing with food allergies for years) can come away with a better understanding of the science, its presentation in various media outlets, and practical tools for evaluating and applying science to everyday life. Sure to make a cameo are various studies from LEAP to your dishwasher's role (or not?) in allergy. I'll also mention how science can be used to advocate for yourself or your child and beyond.

More details on the joint conference:

SEAFAC is a group of world-class food allergy physicians and researchers in Seattle. I'm excited to hear the latest research findings and also hear about clinical studies happening locally! My talk in the afternoon should dovetail nicely with SEAFAC's presentations. 

Details on their morning symposium.

WAFEAST is a great local support group for those who are dealing with any of a triad of allergic disorders, which includes food allergy. I'm looking forward to meeting new friends to the north! The agenda features a stellar line-up of individuals, and I'm truly honored to be a part of this group. I know that I will learn a lot this weekend and I hope that you do, too! Huge thanks to Kelly Morgan and all other volunteers making this happen.

PS - Huge shout-out to all going to the Food Allergy Blogger's Conference in Denver this weekend. I will miss you!

Food Allergy Blogger's Conference 2014!

I'm thrilled to attend the Food Allergy Blogger's Conference (#FABlogCon) for the 2nd year in a row! Last year was truly a life-changing event for me, catalyzing many lasting, meaningful relationships across our food allergy community. The mutual understanding, support, and camaraderie of virtual friends meeting face-to-face was overwhelming in the best way possible for an introvert like me!

Look for me on Saturday morning at the break-out session on evidence-based blogging with Veronica LaFemina and Anna Luke from Food Allergy Research and Education (aka, FARE) and Henry Ehrlich, editor of Asthma Allergies Children and author of Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Western Science, and a Search for a Cure.

We hope to give lots of great advice and useful tips on blogging with integrity about food allergy science and discovery! I'll be leading the discussion on honest headlines and examining your personal bias. After all, how many times have you been frustrated by a misleading headline when it comes to food allergy research?!

If you can't make it, then please, please, please find me later and introduce yourself. I'm looking forward to meeting friends new and old (I'll be sure to give you one of my "business" post cards straight from Oregon!).

AND, if you can't make it to the conference, please follow along virtually on Twitter using the hashtag #FABlogCon. Selena at Amazing and Atopic did a wonderful job of explaining and providing a view of the Twitter feed, no Twitter account required!

See you soon!

My post on FABlogCon 2013

Meet Me in Chicago - FARE-bound!

The bags are mostly packed. The itinerary set and in less than 24 hours I can't wait to descend upon that most spectacular city skyline - Chicago!

The biggest non-profit for food allergies, Food Allergy Research and Education (aka - FARE), is hosting their annual conference this weekend. It promises to be a highly educational and inspirational event. If you happen to be there, don't be a stranger. I'm excited to meet a few old friends and a lot of new friends who are all part of this food allergy journey. If you happen to live in and around Chicago, it's still not too late to attend. You can buy tickets at the door.

If you're there from 3pm-4pm on Saturday, please stop by to hear me speak about Making Sense of the Science Behind Food Allergies (although if you miss it, I completely understand. There are so many great options to choose from at the same time!).

Hope to meet you soon! I'll be the science geek wearing the DNA double helix earrings!

Food Allergy Bloggers Conference Wrap-up: Genius Loves Company

It has been over 4 days since I returned from warm, sunny Las Vegas and the first ever Food Allergy Bloggers Conference, belovedly going by #FABlogCon on Twitter.  Last Friday, I assumed that I would publish a wrap-up post on the blog by Wednesday.  Boy was I wrong!  I've been grappling for days now, how to put this event into the words that even begins to give it the justice it deserves.

Exciting times - guest post and food allergy bloggers conference!

So much exciting news to share:

Yesterday, a piece that I authored was published on the ever so resourceful, insightful, and evidence-based website, Asthma Allergies Children with editor in chief, Henry Ehrlich.  I am honored and humbled to be included among the distinguished individuals in the allergy community contributing to this website.  Go check it out!  It just may make you think twice about the long arduous process of science and what "negative" results in science mean.  I also want to thank Dr. Xiu-Min Li, a highly talented, passionate, and extremely caring food allergy scientist/clinician for taking the time to make this piece possible!

In other news: What happens in Vegas, won't stay in Vegas!



I will be attending the first ever Food Allergy Blogger Conference in Las Vegas (Nov. 2 - Nov. 4)!  This was a labor of love by two food allergy bloggers themselves, Jenny at Multiple Food Allergy Help and Homa at Oh Mah Deeness.  The list of speakers and attendees is extraordinary, and I wish that everyone out there could be in attendance.  Since this isn't the case, why not use modern technology to "be there."  I will be using Twitter (along with many other bloggers!) to live tweet conference details.  Selena at Amazing and Atopic wrote a fabulous, visual post explaining how you can get updates from all the bloggers tweeting the conference.  In addition, it contains all of those tweets embedded in a post that is live updating on her blog.  If you aren't a fan of twitter, you can check out her blog throughout the conference and see the live tweets!

If you are not familiar with Twitter but would consider getting an account, it involves all those #(insert favorite word/phrase here) pervading our culture (thank you Justin Timberlake and Jimmy Fallon).  In this case, #FABlogCon will be used!  You can search for #FABlogCon or click on it at any time, and you will see all tweets from anyone using this "hashtag" even if you do not follow them on Twitter!  I signed up for Twitter last winter (against every fiber of my being) because of live tweets from the #AAAAI conference - @FdAllergySleuth.  It really was cool to see all the live tweets of cutting edge scientific findings coming from conference attendees.  I was finally convinced that , yes, Twitter does have a purpose after all! 

Oh and last, but not least - a huge shout out to my family and amazing husband/partner in crime for making this possible.  Traveling or leaving family behind while dealing with life-threatening food allergies (and two small children!) can be stressful to say the least. 

See you all soon - whether you are in Vegas or on Twitter!