If we asked you to name the most common chronic disease in Europe - what would you say? Maybe overweight and obesity? Heart disease? Well no - its allergy. More than 150 million Europeans suffer from chronic allergic diseases with predications that by 2025 half of the entire EU population will be affected.

The UK has some of the highest prevalence rates of allergic conditions in the world, with over 40% or adults and children having being diagnosed with an allergy. And the most worrying thing? The number of people living with allergies is rising by 5% every year – and these figures do not include intolerances – they relate solely to pure allergy to foods and environmental factors.

So this month we chatted to IHS graduate Nicola Brady https://www.thefoodclinic.ie/, a Nutritional Therapist and professional cook with a special interest in allergies and intolerance to find out why allergies and intolerances are on the rise, how we find out if we have an undiscovered allergy or intolerance and what we can do to support our immune systems.