Can Kissing Be Hazardous to Your Health?

Can Kissing Be Hazardous to Your Health?

Kisses can be dangerous for many reasons, but one is truly medical. You can trigger an allergic reaction in your Valentine.

Even brushing your teeth or waiting hours after eating may not prevent some partners of people with food and medicine allergies from triggering an allergic reaction through a kiss, according to allergists.

Allergies not just in the heat of the moment

“If you have food allergies, having an allergic reaction immediately after kissing someone who has eaten the food or taken oral medication that you are allergic to isn’t highly unusual,” said allergist Sami Bahna, MD, past president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI). “But some patients react after their partner has brushed his or her teeth or several hours after eating. It turns out that their partners’ saliva is excreting the allergen hours after the food or medicine has been absorbed by their body.”

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Russell Settipane, MD, an allergist at Rhode Island Hospital and with the Allergy & Asthma Center, as well as Associate Editor of Allergy & Asthma Proceedings, agrees. "Some food allergens are likely to remain in the mouth for many hours after eating," Dr. Settipane said. "The exact amount of time it takes for all traces of the food to be cleared from the mouth has not actually been determined."

Although brushing, flossing and rinsing will certainly help to reduce the amount of food particles remaining in the mouth, Dr. Settipane said, "in my opinion, it would be safest not to kiss an allergic person for 12 hours following ingestion of a known food to which that person is allergic."

"Kissing" allergies are most commonly found in people who have food or drug allergies. Symptoms include swelling of the lips or throat, rash, hives, itching and wheezing. Food allergies affect about 2 to 3 percent of adults and 5 to 7 percent of children in the U.S. population, or more than 7 million people, according to the ACAAI.

Advice for the lovelorn… and allergic

So what are lovebirds to do? Allergists recommend that the non-allergic partner brush his or her teeth, rinse his or her mouth and avoid the offending food for 16 to 24 hours before smooching with a person who is highly allergic to that food. But even these steps may not help in some cases.

Dr. Bahna referred to a case of a 30-year-old male with a peanut allergy who has had recurrent anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction. This patient developed lip swelling and itching in his mouth when his girlfriend kissed him. She had eaten peanuts two hours earlier, brushed her teeth, rinsed her mouth and chewed gum prior to seeing him.

Dr. Settipane added that not all kissing-related events were in romantic settings. "At the Allergy & Asthma Center, we frequently see children who experience a skin reaction to a parental kiss," he said. "In these instances, the parent has recently eaten a food to which the child is allergic."

When allergies involve more than just kissing

When things turn more intimate, allergies can be disruptive as well. Allergists have seen cases of people experiencing allergies to chemicals in spermicides, lubricants, latex or even a partner’s semen. Some people develop hives or wheezing from the natural chemicals released by their body by the emotional excitement or physical exertion during sexual interaction.

For people allergic to their partner’s semen, Dr. Bahna suggests the use of condoms or desensitization (immunotherapy, allergy shots) by an allergist. Preventative antihistamines may be helpful in mild cases.
"There may be more who are suffering from this than we know because people may be embarrassed to bring it up," said Dr. Bahna. "But allergists can help determine what's causing the allergy and find the right treatment. No one has to suffer."

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