What Doctors Don't Tell YouKissing is a perilous business. It can lead to any number of pickles, such as marriage, families and food allergies. Yes, those clever people in white coats (doctors, not cricket umpires) have discovered that a kiss can trigger a serious reaction if the person you’re kissing has just eaten the food to which you’re allergic.
And it doesn’t end there. Other doctors have discovered that you can also suffer a severe reaction if the person you’re kissing has just taken a prescription drug. In fact, it happened to a 45-year-old woman who suffered severe angioedema after she kissed her husband who, two hours earlier, had taken the drug bacampicillin.
That reminds me, says a third entering the debate, about cases of anaphylactic shock. Were they, in fact, all a result of kissing? (N Engl J Med, 2002; 347: 1210).
Honest, we’re not making this up.
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
