Excerpt from an in-depth interview with Talal Nsouli, M.D.

...If you ask any knowledgeable clinician what he or she thinks causes serous otitis media, or if one carefully reviews the medical literature, the honest answer is that we don't really know how to treat serous otitis media. But we should carefully review what we do know.

For example, at least 55 percent of the people afflicted with recurrent serous otitis media have allergies or atopy. In other words, in a normal, controlled population of 100 children suffering from recurring serous otitis media, at least 55 percent of these patients have allergies. This is one important fact that we do know and we should treat what we know—namely allergies—before we say we don't know the cause of serous otitis media.

This is one important fact that we do know and we should treat what we know, namely allergies, before we say we don't know the cause of serous otitis media.

The purpose of our study ("The role of food allergy in serous otitis media," Annals of Allergy, September 1994) was to show a possible cause-and-effect relationship between food hypersensitivity and recurrent serous otitis media. Initially, we had about 220 patients selected for recurrent serous otitis media. We did not select them for food allergy whatsoever. After a careful selection process, we were left with 104 patients with recurrent otitis media.

Read the entire interview...