Good Question By Nancy Snyderman

    Every time I eat a banana, my throat starts to itch.What's going on?
    Are you allergic to latex, by any chance? I know that sounds strange, but some foods, bananas included, contain the same protein that's in latex. And an increasing number of people are realizing they're allergic to latex.
    In fact, the rise in this allergy over the last decade has been dramatic, mainly because so many health-care workers wear rubber gloves to protect against HIV infection. But laypeople are vulnerable, too, since there's latex in condoms, diaphragms, dishwashing gloves, even some makeup sponges. When it comes to food, kiwis and avocados are the other most common trou-blemakers, but many other foods, such as tomatoes, celery, and cherries, occasionally trigger symptoms.
    Interestingly, this is one food allergy that is truly on the rise. Even though many people are convinced they have food allergies, less than 5 percent of the population really does. The vast majority of allergies are caused by just eight foods (eggs, cow's milk, peanuts, soy, wheat, nuts, fish, and shellfish). If a food merely upsets your stomach, you're probably not allergic; clas-sic symptoms of a true allergy are itchy, swollen lips, mouth, and throat, and, occasionally, nausea and vomiting.
    In rare cases, a person can suffer from anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal condition in which the blood pressure crashes or the breathing airways swell up (or both). So talk to your doctor about your reactions to bananas. Anyone with a latex-food crossover allergy should always carry something called an epinephrine pen. That's a shot with a dose of adrenaline that can literally save your life.

    I bruise really easily. Could I be deficient in some vitamin or mineral?

Probably not, If you're concerned, you can cover your bases with a daily multivitamin. But a complaint like yours does make me want to ask a few other questions. Do you also get frequent nosebleeds? How about your periods? Are they generally heavy and prolonged? You could have a genetic blood-clotting disorder called von Willebrand's disease. It affects about 1 percent of Americans, but most people don't think to check for it.
    If you have symptoms and especially if you also have any close relatives with a his-tory of excessive bleeding—tell your doctor. It could be important if you ever need to have surgery. The same holds if your bruises are unusually large or painful or if you're also having a lot of bleeding from your gums. These can be signs of a blood-clotting defect, too.
    But you're probably just experiencing one of the niggling effects of getting older. As you age, your skin thins, and blood vessels become more fragile. And who knows? You may be a little klutzier than you used to be, and more prone to bumping into things. Also, think about any medications you take regularly. Many people pop an aspirin a day in hopes of preventing colon cancer, heart disease, and stroke. I do, and I bruise more easily than I used to. That's because aspirin and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, such as ibuprofen, interfere with your blood's ability to form clots. For that matter, so does vitamin E.

    I've nad endometrios s for years,and I've been wondering: Does it increase my risk of ovarian cancer? 
     Perhaps, but the added risk doesn't really amount to much. Endometriosis is extremely common—about 5 million women in the country have it—yet the number of sufferers who develop ovarian cancer is very small. Also, no one really knows what's causing what. There may, in fact, be some unknown problem that underlies both conditions.
    There is a bit of a controversy, though, about how endometriosis sufferers should proceed. The National Cancer Institute doesn't suggest they do anything different with regard to cancer prevention than anyone else. But the Endometriosis Association warns women to be extra vigilant. Unfortunately, there's no good test for detecting ovarian cancer, so what that boils down to is keeping up with yearly pelvic exams (be sure to get a bimanual exam, in which the doctor examines your ovaries by way of your vagina and rectum simultaneously) and treating the endometriosis itself—nothing any good doctor wouldn't advise anyway.
    Generally, the most troublesome com-plications from endometriosis are painful periods and infertility, both due to endome-trial cells that, for whatever reason, have set up shop outside the uterus. (Endometrio-sis may also involve some hormonal prob-lems that keep a woman from conceiving.) Some sufferers get relief from the birth con-trol pill, which, as it happens, is also known to lower the risk of ovarian cancer. Others may require laparoscopic surgery to remove the excess tissue.