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ausEE Inc. is gearing up for its second annual National EOS Awareness Week which will be held 12-18 August and raises awareness for eosinophilic gastrointestinal disorders (EGID).

People living with an EGID often have to live with food restrictions which make it hard on physical, emotional and social levels. Recent polls taken of adults living with or caring for children with an EGID showed that 68% rate the impact the disease has on their life as major and 84% experience either a moderate or severe financial burden on their family as a result of living with an EGID.
There is a significant amount of extra time spent on cooking, shopping and searching for safe foods for their child to eat with 50% rating this as severely more than the average family. When it comes to night time routine, 67% experience moderate to major sleep disturbances for the family and 75% say that their ability to have a social life/holidays etc. is moderately or severely impacted also.
Through this awareness week the charity also aims to raise much needed awareness to the medical community with our poll showing that a staggering 44% took over 3 years to be diagnosed with the life altering condition. Endoscopy and biopsy is the only way to confirm diagnosis of and effectively monitor an EGID. There is NO CURE for EGIDs. One of the common treatment options patients follow is an elimination diet which is why ausEE created the Top 8 Challenge appeal (www.top8challenge.com).

This National EOS Awareness Week we are inviting people to take our Top 8 Challenge!

Can you go a day without the Top 8 allergenic foods and walk in the footsteps of someone with an EGID?

To participate in the challenge for one day only, you DON’T EAT any of the Top 8 allergens – this means NO milk, NO eggs, NO soy, NO wheat, NO peanuts, NO tree nuts, NO shellfish and NO fish for 24 hours!
By proposing this challenge the charity aims to bring awareness to these often unheard of disorders and raise much needed funds for medical research into EGIDs and to help ausEE Inc. to provide education, support and information to anyone diagnosed with or caring for someone with an EGID, their families, friends and the community. In addition to the serious physical signs and symptoms of an EGID; it is a challenge to live in a society that focuses on food; those living with an EGID know only too well how difficult it can be.

To find out more about National EOS Awareness Week and how you can help, please visit http://www.ausee.org/nationaleosawarenessweek.htm

To learn more about the Top 8 challenge and to take part, go to www.top8challenge.com

A little on EGIDs:

EGIDs occur when eosinophils (pronounced ee-oh-sin-oh-fills), a type of white blood cell, are found in above-normal amounts within the gastrointestinal tract. The eosinophils generally attack foods (or air-borne allergens) creating an allergic response and causing inflammation wherever they may gather.
Having a large number of these white blood cells (where they shouldn’t be) can make people very sick. Sometimes they can feel nauseous, or they can have; stomach and chest pain, heartburn, it can hurt to swallow; they feel like vomiting or get food stuck in their throat.
Eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE) is the most common EGID and affects 1-4 per 10,000 individuals and rising. People with EoE also commonly have other allergic diseases such as asthma or eczema.

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  • Not being able to eat and enjoy food is a nightmare for me. I really feel for people who have to be so strict with what they eat, it must be so difficult!

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  • i complained about restrictions due to gestational diabetes!

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  • I am lucky l am have no allergy but it must be so hard for people who are.

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  • Uh that would be absolutely debilitating!

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  • yeah share this with your friends, awareness

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  • Must be so hard for the child and for the parents.

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  • oooh I coudnt even imagine how horrible this would be as I love food so much….I used to be allergic to strawberrys and oranges but I grew out of that

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  • Hopefully an answer is found to help people who suffer allergies. They seem to be so much more common these days. We have lactose and pork allergies, ripe fruit intolerances and some in the family are allergic to tomatoes, coffee, eggs and one has peanut allergy. Combined with hayfever, codeine and iodine allergies, its really hard to keep up.

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  • Food allergies are so horrible! My son has a few

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  • Food allergies are horrible my daughter and myself are both allergic to the same type of food

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  • Such an ongoing struggle, I hope something is found to help with the build up of those white cells rather than such a restricting diet so that these people can live a more relaxed life.

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  • I have lactose free milk and a gluten free diet with low fodmap food and that is hard, it must be a night mare for these poor folk. Bad enough adults have to do this but children..oh the poor children. I could do without 6 of these but milk and eggs would be hard for me . Research and more help is needed for these special people. Thank you for sharing and making us more aware.

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  • I’ve never met a family going through this, but your article has given me an insight into how organised they need to be to have appropriate food available.

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  • I can’t imagine how hard this must be.

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  • just working off the top eight would be a struggle

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