Introducing Food Allergy Expert, Dr. Janice Joneja

by Russell A. Faust, PhD, MD

Content Curation in Healthcare

I am ambivalent about the internet as a resource for healthcare information.

On the one hand, it is great to be empowered, to have the ability to find information for yourself about your condition, or for your child or family member.

On the other hand, there is just SO MUCH trash and mis-information out there. How is a person to know what is accurate, valuable information?

As a physician, I see it as one of my primary responsibilities to help provide accurate healthcare information. To filter out the trash, to collect the good stuff, to translate it into plain English if necessary, and to present it for my readers in a form that is useful for them.

The term for this is “curation,” or content curation.

Just like a museum curator collects the “good stuff” to exhibit in the museum, one of the ways to provide useful information for my readers is to curate existing information for them. Based on my years of training and experience – my expertise – I regularly scan the internet for articles and information, filter out the trash, and collect the information that is evidence-based and useful.

Scoop.it Content

As part of this effort, I have been “curating” some articles from the internet on this free site: http://www.scoop.it/t/the-health-of-your-unified-airway Please take a look at that curated content, and let me know how I am doing.

Interviews, Articles, and Podcasts, Oh My …

In addition, I have been interviewing experts in various fields (such as my interview of Dr. Robert Tolan, about “brain-eating amoeba” and neti pot use), or inviting articles from experts (such as the article by Dr. Kirstin Chiasson, about Misconceptions About Infant Hearing; or the articles on Using Acupuncture as a Remedy for Childhood Asthma, by Robin Green, MTCM, L. Ac).

My latest attempt to provide valuable, useful information is to interview experts, and present those chats as recording – as podcasts. My first recorded interview is with Dr. Janice Joneja, whom I am introducing here:

Introducing Dr. Janice Joneja 

Image: Dr. Janice Joneja: renowned expert in Food Allergies

It is my privilege to introduce Dr. Janice Joneja to my readers.

I am so happy that she agreed to be interviewed for a couple pod-casts for this medical education blog, boogordoctor.com.

History

Let’s start by placing her experience in historical context:

Think about the current climate in medicine with regard to the notion of food allergies.

Now think about what it must have been like 30 years (or more) ago, when she suggested this topic to her pediatric specialists. Try to imagine what it must have been like for her. Try to empathize with that experience of a young mother, and a deathly ill child, and a medical establishment that dismissed her.

One word comes to mind when I think about what it must have been like to present the notion of food allergy 30 years ago: hostility.

Fortunately, with more scientific evidence supporting the notion of food allergies and intolerance, this is less common today. Even so, there are well-meaning, well-educated physicians who scoff at the notion of food allergies even today. Imagine what it must have been like for a young mother, making these observations about her severely ill child.

Times were different then.

I can see it in my mind’s eye: as she described her observations of the link between her child’s diet and his asthma exacerbations, the doctors are rolling their eyes, telling her that she must be mistaken. They dismiss her as an anxious mother, or worse, as a wacko.

Imagine having a young child with severe allergies to pork, beef, milk proteins, and anaphylactic to peanuts!

To raise such a child, provide a healthy and nutritious diet, would be a challenge. That’s putting it mildly. It was a huge undertaking. But, as only a loving mother could, Dr. Joneja prevailed.

Visit her site to read more of her personal story: http://www.allergynutrition.com/pages/p3/my_personal_story.php

I will be posting interviews with Dr. Joneja over the next few weeks or months.

Let’s all learn from her experience through these interviews.

I am excited to introduce her, for many reasons:

• First, she has impeccable credentials in a rather “fuzzy” area of medicine – food allergy. Like me, she is first, a scientist, having earned her PhD in Microbiology and Immunology before developing a personal interest in nutrition and allergy.
• Second, she has a cogent personal interest in the topics of nutrition and allergy: she had a child with severe asthma and food allergies.
• Dr. Joneja was inspired by her observations to further her education into nutrition, and became a Registered Dietician. Then, she methodically, systematically, identified the things that her son was responding to, and eliminated them from his life.
• Dr. Joneja is a researcher, an educator, an author, and a clinical counselor, with over 30 years of experience in the area of biochemical and immunological reactions involved in food allergy and food intolerance. She is a member of the academic faculty of the University of British Columbia and other universities, and is an honorary research fellow in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham, England.
• She is the author of 6 well-reviewed books, including two that focus on food allergies.
• I urge readers / listeners to visit her website as an un-matched resource for those with allergies, or children with allergies, including food allergies, eczema, and asthma.
• Dr. Joneja is a popular speaker on television and radio interviews, and in person. Once you hear her level of expertise, and her mellifluous voice, you will understand why.

Obviously, I have great admiration and affection for Dr. Joneja. Without gushing any further, let me simply say that my interview with her will be posted next week in this space. Tell your friends.

This is the inaugural – the first – podcast from interviews of various experts on this blog. I spoke with Dr. Joneja nearly a year ago (yes, embarrassing; life gets in the way) about her experience raising a child with anaphylactic allergies and asthma.

Next week I will post both the MP3 podcast of that first interview, as well as the transcript of our chat.

Until then, please visit Dr. Joneja’s website.

It is an incredible resource of her lectures (many available as  powerpoint presentations for free download), as well as her guidelines for various allergies, her excellent books, and her speaking schedule.

Take a look at her guides and handouts on various allergies: http://www.allergynutrition.com/faq.php

Take a look at her most recent books on food allergies:

• Dealing with Food Allergies: A Practical Guide to Detecting Culprit Foods and Eating Healthy, Enjoyable Diet, by Janice Vickerstaff Joneja, PhD, RD
• Dealing with Food Allergies in Babies and Children, by Janice Vickerstaff Joneja, PhD, RD

(for transparency: these book links are to my Amazon Store affiliate link).

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Image Credit:  Crying Baby, by Aleksandra Pośpiech

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crying_baby_(2).jpg

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Hi, I’m Russell Faust, author of this medical education blog.

Let me know what topics are important to you and your child’s respiratory health.

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Until next time, remember … you can pick your friends, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose (unless you’re a boogor doctor ;~D)

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