Allergy, Asthma & Food Allergy Care for St. Petersburg

Food allergy care without the downtown traffic

An appointment in downtown St. Petersburg can mean heavy traffic and a long hunt for parking. Sher Allergy Specialists runs an Oral Immunotherapy Clinic in Largo — up 66th Street from Tyrone or straight west on Park Boulevard, and parking is easy.

Dr. Johana Castro Wagner leads the Sher Allergy Oral Immunotherapy Clinic for Food including Peanut Allergy, and has a special interest in food allergies, eczema, hives, and pediatric allergy and asthma. She is fluent in Spanish and English.

What a real food allergy workup includes

Food allergies are an abnormal immune system response to an otherwise harmless food — the immune system treats the food as an intruder. A severe response can result in life-threatening anaphylaxis requiring immediate emergency care, which is exactly why the diagnosis has to be right rather than assumed.

The first step is a thorough medical history and physical examination with particular attention to the reactions themselves: how much of the food, how long before symptoms, what the symptoms were. From there, allergy skin prick or scratch tests, blood testing and oral food challenges are safe diagnostic tools that lead to an accurate diagnosis when performed by a trained, board-certified Allergist. Patients are closely monitored throughout. At Sher Allergy Specialists, your allergy skin tests are personally measured and read by a physician or physician assistant, with physician oversight and interpretation, rather than simply recorded by a technician or medical assistant for later review.

Re-testing matters as much as first testing. Some childhood food allergies, like cow’s milk and egg, can be outgrown — while peanut, tree nut and shellfish allergies can last a lifetime. Reactions can become increasingly severe with exposure, so it is never safe to assume on your own that a food allergy has resolved.

• Common food allergies: eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish and sesame
• Less common: alpha-gal (meat) allergy, pollen-food allergy syndrome, airborne food allergy from cooking vapors, FPIES, proctitis in infants and eosinophilic esophagitis
• Food intolerance and sensitivity conditions: gluten sensitivity, lactose intolerance, reflux, food allergy headaches, oral sensitivity syndrome and histamine-related conditions

And then there is the tree canopy

Food allergy is not the only reason St. Petersburg patients come north. The city’s neighborhoods — the Old Northeast, Kenwood, Jungle Terrace, Snell Isle — are famous for their live oak canopy, and a mature oak canopy is a serious late-winter and spring pollen source. Due to multiple factors, including climate change, that tree pollen season has become longer and more symptomatic, and pine trees generally do not cause significant respiratory allergy. A humid Gulf climate keeps indoor mold and dust mites in play year round. Family cats and dogs can also cause respiratory allergies year-round.

Nasal allergy is associated with both food allergy and asthma, so the patient who arrives about one frequently leaves with a clearer picture of all three. We diagnose and treat allergic rhinitis, allergic headaches, dust and mold allergy, pet allergy, snoring and non-allergic rhinitis alongside the full range of asthma types.

Worth the twenty minutes

A board-certified Allergist/Immunologist is on site for every visit. Dr. Mandel R. Sher is double board certified in Allergy & Immunology and Pediatrics, trained at Northwestern, Duke, Boston Children’s Hospital and the University of Michigan, and is Clinical Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine.

Dr. Johana Castro Wagner, Allergist/Immunologist, earned her medical degree at Universidad Central De Venezuela, completed her residency at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Texas, and trained under Dr. Sher in her fellowship at the University of South Florida Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Division of Allergy and Immunology at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. She leads the Sher Allergy Oral Immunotherapy Clinic for Food including Peanut Allergy and is fluent in Spanish and English.

We strive to test and interpret on the same day as your evaluation, we participate in most insurance plans, and telemedicine appointments are available for follow-ups that do not need testing. For a St. Petersburg family, that usually means one real trip up Seminole Boulevard instead of four half-trips somewhere else.

Food allergy and allergy questions from St. Petersburg families