Why am I allergic to raw egg but not cooked egg?
06:27 Share

Have you ever looked up at the stars and wondered, is there life on other planets? From Disney and Pixar. Welcome to the community-verse. Allow me to adjust your gravity. Oh, I'm fine. Gravity off. Are not alone. Are you gonna eat me? Ew, what kind of alien are you? Disney and Pixar's Elio, rated PG. Parental guidance suggested. Only in theaters June 20th. Tickets available now. From the brains behind Brains On, this is the moment of um...

Moment of Mom comes to you from ABM Studios. I'm Whitley, the white blood cell. It's my first day working here as a white blood cell in the immune system. It's my job to help keep this human body healthy by getting rid of bad microbes and other tiny stuff. And I am nervous. What if a virus comes along? What if there's an infection that I have to fight?

I've studied hard and learned all the different shapes and profiles of the three billion most common microbatties and... Hang on. What is that? Is that a rogue salmonella cell? It's happening! Invader! Invader! Tell me a lie! Wait. What? It's not salmonella?

It's just some raw egg proteins. Oh, geez. Thinking normal egg stuff was a virus? What a rookie mistake. I saw some cooked egg proteins during training, but they look totally different. There must be some major differences between raw eggs and cooked eggs. Elle was curious about this, too. Why are some people allergic to raw eggs but not cooked eggs? Huh. I think I need some help from an expert. ♪

Your body has a microscopic security system, basically. I'm Liz Plachek. I'm a pediatrician in St. Paul, Minnesota. I am a primary care pediatrician. That means I work in a clinic, and if kids are coming in for well checks or have any general medical concerns, we're usually the first step.

You have special white blood cells that protect you from things like viruses, bacteria, which are tiny organisms that can make you sick. It's an amazing and complicated system. Most of the time, it takes care of these invaders with ease, but it can make mistakes. Your body can sometimes get confused and mistake something good for one of these invaders. In the case of egg allergies, your body sees the proteins, which are tiny chemicals in eggs, and it sounds the alarms.

It tells the other blood cells that there's an invader and it's time to protect your body from it. The mistake causes your right blood cells to release histamine, which is a chemical that affects every part of your body. Each body and each kid can have their own symptoms for allergies, but there are some that happen most of the time. These are things like hives or itchy rashes, swelling of your face or tongue, trouble breathing, throwing up, and tummy aches. So eggs have over 20 different proteins in them, and kids are usually allergic to one or more of them.

Most of the proteins are found in the egg white or the gooey, slimy, whitish part of the egg. What's interesting is that most kids that have an allergy to eggs can actually eat eggs that have been fully cooked or baked. So think about when you cook an egg, that clear jelly part turns hard and bright white. What you see is those proteins change. By heating up the egg, the chemical actually changes its shape.

If the eggs are baked in things like cookies, the proteins have been heated up enough to change their shape. And your body doesn't see this changed protein as an invader anymore, so it doesn't sound the alarm. The really awesome news is that over half the kids that have an egg allergy when they're babies will grow out of it. By the time they're teenagers, they won't be allergic to eggs anymore. Um, uh... Well, that makes me feel a little better. Other white blood cells make mistakes sometimes, too.

If there's stuff the immune system doesn't recognize in someone's bloodstream, it triggers a response from the white blood cells, like me. We send a signal to the brain that makes the body release chemicals called histamines. That's a signal to the whole body that something's not right. The body can respond in lots of different ways to try to get the invader out of there. You can get itchy rashes or sneeze a bunch or even barf.

I don't want to make any more mistakes. I guess I better brush up on my proteins again. Where did I put my flashcards? If you like this episode, take a second to subscribe to Moment of Um wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you have more questions about food allergies, check out the Brains On podcast, where we have a whole episode all about them.

Want to see our shows come to life? Head to YouTube where we've got awesome animated Brains On episodes. Search Brains On Universe on YouTube and subscribe. If you have a question, we'd love to help you answer it. Drop us a line by going to brainson.org slash contact.

Moment of Um is produced by Molly Bloom, Rachel Breeze, Rosie DuPont, Anna Goldfield, Ruby Guthrie, Mark Sanchez, Anna Weigel, Nico Gonzalez-Whistler, and Aramoldo Slassi. We had editing help from Shayla Farzan and Sandan Tatton, and engineering help from Josh Savageau. Our theme song is by Mark Sanchez. Our executive producer is Beth Perlman. The executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra Kravati and Joanne Griffith.

Special thanks this week go to Shannon Baldioli, Michael Schradel, and Liz Klachek. See you next time, and the next day, and every weekday. Until then, um...

Okay, next card. Let's see what's on it. Oh, oh, oh, common cold virus. Yes. This one is gluten. Take that, protein. Mm-hmm.