The Food Allergy Brain

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Dr. Robyn Liu, a family medicine physician in Portland, Oregon, a member of the board of directors of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and, as Mia learns during their conversation, a food allergy mom herself. Dr. Liu sees the family doctor as the "quarterback" of a patient's whole health team: someone...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Dr. Douglas Jones, a board-certified allergist, co-founder of the Food Allergy Support Team, and one of the first physicians in the country to bring oral immunotherapy (OIT) into private practice. Dr. Jones has spent nearly two decades reshaping what food allergy treatment can look like, and he traces it all back to one pivot...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Dr. Kaitlin Proctor, a licensed pediatric psychologist, program manager at the Multidisciplinary Feeding Program at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, and assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Proctor works at the intersection of food allergies and ARFID (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder...

Send us Fan Mail Content warning: this episode contains discussion of eating disorders.  This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Lex Decker, the creator behind NYC But Gluten Free, one of the most vibrant and trusted gluten-free communities on the internet. Lex has been living with celiac disease for 17 years, diagnosed at just 10 years old, and she does not hold back in this one....

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Dr. Manisha Relan, a pediatric allergist and immunologist who sees patients of all ages and has been one of the OG allergy voices on social media since 2019. Dr. Relan shares how she approaches the emotional weight of food allergies with her patients every day, the proximity challenges she uses to help kids build real confide...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is sponsored by Abe's Muffins! Shop at abesmuffins.com This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Thomas Silvera, co-founder of the Elijah-Alavi Foundation, a public health advocate and certified surgical technologist whose life changed forever on November 3rd, 2017, when his son Elijah died from a preventable allergic reaction at a New York City day...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia goes solo for a highly requested Q&A episode, answering your most burning questions about what it's really like to live with over 50 food allergies through the lens of mental health, relationships, and everyday life. Mia opens up about her therapy journey and how CBT, radical acceptance, and a consistent self-care routine have help...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Jenna Gestetner, known online as Jenna X Health, a 23-year-old content creator and patient advocate living with MCAS (mast cell activation syndrome) and several other chronic conditions. What makes Jenna's story so striking is that she currently eats just eight foods yet maintains such a positive outlook on life. Jenna b...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain, Mia sits down with Congressman Maxwell Frost, who represents Orlando, Florida, and is the youngest member of Congress and its first Gen Z representative. What many people don't know is that Congressman Frost is a lifelong food allergy kid with severe peanut and tree nut allergies. He shares his personal journey, including a terrifying near...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain , Mia sits down with Jenna Tso, a licensed clinical social worker based in California who specializes in food allergies, chronic illness, and anxiety. Jenna brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her practice, having grown up with anaphylactic food allergies herself. They discuss Jenna's personal journey from experiencin...

Send us Fan Mail This week on The Food Allergy Brain , Mia sits down with Dr. Linda Herbert, Director of Psychology Research and Clinical Services in the Division of Allergy and Immunology at Children's National Hospital and NIH-funded researcher. Dr. Herbert has spent over a decade building evidence-based psychological interventions for food allergy families, and in this conversation, she sh...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Food Allergy Brain, host Mia Silverman (Allergies with Mia) sits down with Dr. Elizabeth Hawkins, a psychologist specializing in food allergy-related anxiety and trauma, to explore the emotional realities of living with life-threatening allergies. Dr. Hawkins shares her journey from being trained as a child and adolescent psychologist to becoming a food alle...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of The Food Allergy Brain , host Mia Silverman (Allergies with Mia) sits down with Zachary Rubin, a double board-certified pediatrician and allergist-immunologist with a large and influential social media platform, to explore what it truly means to live with and care for food allergies today. Dr. Rubin shares his journey from growing up with severe eczema to becomi...

Send us Fan Mail In the first episode of The Food Allergy Brain , host Mia Silverman (Allergies with Mia) speaks with Dr. Amanda Whitehouse, PhD, psychologist and food allergy mom, about how food allergies affect the nervous system, mental health, and everyday life. They explore anxiety versus appropriate caution, how food allergies impact children and families across developmental stages, and why...