By Dr. Eliezer Ben-Joseph
You go outside to breathe in the spring air and start sneezing, your son eats bananas and gets diarrhea, your Aunt Mary breaks out in a skin rash after eating strawberries, and when your next-door neighbor even smells cooked cabbage he breaks out in hives. Sound like food allergy? Most people are familiar with these acute immediate reactions, experiencing watering eyes, skin rashes, or runny noses within minutes of eating the guilty food. Yet what about the chronically depressed, hyperactive children, or those with labels of learning disabilities? Do these issues fall into the category of undiagnosed food allergies?
Millions of people continue to suffer from undiagnosed and untreated food allergy. At the heart of this epidemic problem is the prevalent misconception about the nature of food allergy. The belief of many health professionals, including allergists and dieticians, is quite outdated when it comes to understanding food allergy. Food allergies are not taken seriously unless they conform to the symptomatic patterns seen in the immediate “Type I” allergy reactions like stuffy nose, wheezing or hives, etc. which occur shortly after eating the allergic food. To add insult to injury, most allergy sufferers must deal with the condescending professional conclusion that their allergic symptoms are psychosomatic, the “it’s all in your mind” attitude from the physicians that perpetuate self-doubt, depression, and anxiety in their patients.
Hundreds of hours of clinical experiments on thousands of allergy sufferers, mountains of
research, and numerous international symposiums on food allergy have shown that these widely held ideas about allergy are severely distorted. What are the facts?
Food allergy reactions are categorized into four types, depending on the immune mechanisms that are involved. They are Type I, II, III or IV. It is generally recognized that all Type I reactions are immediate and are mediated by IgE antibodies. These reactions may account for only about 10% of all reactions. Scientific research now indicates that delayed food allergies (Type II, III, and perhaps IV) may account for up to 90% of all food allergy symptoms. Delayed food allergies do not appear to involve the IgE antibody. They involve IgG and, less often, IgM and IgA antibodies and, in Type III reactions, food antigen IgG antibody complexes as well. Symptoms are delayed from one hour to 2-3 days after consumption. These immune complex reactions involve the much more hidden symptoms of food allergy.
There are many emotional, mental, and behavioral symptoms and signs involved with these hidden food reactions. Mental or physical fatigue, an inability to concentrate, irritability for no apparent reason, inexplicable depression, free-floating anxiety and panic attacks, crying jags, mood swings, hyperactivity, mental confusion, acute schizophrenia, and addictive behavior traits may all be linked to delayed food reactions.
In summary, we may draw a number of conclusions about immediate or delayed food allergies:
1. Food allergy is not rare. Food allergies are common in both children and adults, brought on by nutritionally depleted diets, stressful lives, chemically polluted environments. They are, of course, from foods, and hereditary dispositions.
2. The effects of food allergy are not limited to the air passages, the skin, and the digestive tract. Although these are common sites, once in the bloodstream the effects of food allergens may show up anywhere that the blood flows and may produce a wide variety of physical and mental symptoms.
3. Most food allergies are delayed reactions. They take anywhere from an hour to three days to show themselves and are, therefore, much harder to detect.
4. Delayed food allergy appears to be the inability of the digestive tract to prevent partially digested food from entering the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, allergens may be deposited in tissue, causing the various symptoms.
5. When allergic sensitivities begin to develop they have far-reaching and unsuspected effects. The expression of an allergy reaction indicates that the metabolic balance of the system is undermined.
6. Most of the causes of allergy are under our control and may, therefore, be minimized, corrected, or eliminated. There is not an organ in the human body that cannot be overly stressed, whether it’s your heart, your brain, your liver, or your immune system. When you go beyond the limit, there will be a malfunction, inhibition or breakdown. Many of these stresses are unavoidable; however our ability to cope with these stresses may be improved immeasurably by making beneficial changes in our lifestyles and our diets.
With all of this information now available on food allergies, it becomes very appropriate to have complete Food Allergy evaluations as the foundation of all therapeutic modalities and programs.
Table 1 – Common Physical Symptoms Associated with Food Allergies
Head
Dark circles under eyes, swelling and wrinkles under eyes (Dennie’s sign), cluster headaches and other “vascular” headaches, migraine headaches, faintness, dizziness, feelings of fullness in the head, excessive drowsiness or sleepiness soon after eating, insomnia, frequent awakenings during the night, early A.M. awakening (usually between 2 and 4 A.M.) with inability to return to sleep.
Eyes, ears, nose, and throat
Runny nose, stuffy nose, excessive mucus formation, postnasal drip, watery eyes, blurring of vision, tinnitus (buzzing, roaring, popping, ringing of the ears), earache, fullness in the ears, fluid in the middle ear, hearing loss, recurrent ear infections, itching ear, ear drainage, sore throats, hoarseness, chronic cough, gagging, canker sores, itching of the roof of the mouth, recurrent sinusitis, persistent nose picking.
Heart and lungs
Palpitations, arrhythmias, increased heart rate, rapid heart rate (tachycardia), asthma, congestion in the chest, exercise induced anaphylaxis and asthma.
Gastrointestinal
Mucus in stools, undigested food in stools, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, bloating after meals, belching, colitis, flatulence (passing gas), feeling of fullness in the stomach long after finishing a meal, abdominal pains or cramps, irritable bowel syndrome, colic in infants, failure to thrive in infants, extreme thirst, inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, e.g.), anal itching, coated tongue, apparent symptoms of gallbladder disease (which may turn out to be of allergenic nature instead).
Skin
Hives, rashes, eczema, dermatitis herpetiformis, pallor, dry skin, dandruff, brittle nails and hair.
Other symptoms
“Growing pains” in children, symptoms of PMS, chronic fatigue, weakness, muscle aches and pains, joint aches and pains, arthritis, swelling of the hands, feet or ankles, urinary tract symptoms (frequency, urgency), vaginal itching, vaginal discharge, abnormal craving and binge eating, epilepsy in children with migraines, obesity, rapid weight fluctuation from day to day (2-10 pounds or more).
Psychological symptoms
Anxiety, “panic attacks,” depression, crying jags, aggressive behavior, irritability, mental dullness, mental lethargy, confusion, excessive daydreaming, hyperactivity in children and adults, restlessness, learning disabilities, poor work habits, slurred speech, stuttering, inability to concentrate, indifference, perhaps certain types of autism and schizophrenia, perhaps bulimia/anorexia nervosa.
Table 2 – An Allergy-or-Not Checklist
Yes, this probably is an allergic symptom
Head
Migraine headache.
Cluster headache.
Sinus headache.
Muscle-tension headache, especially after eating the wrong food.
Eyes
Blurred vision associated with eating certain foods or smelling certain odors.
Visual changes associated with specific geographic locations.
Visual changes preceding migraines.
Ears
Ringing or buzzing.
Recurrent infection.
Blockage.
Itching.
Sounds too loud or very soft.
Intermittent hearing losses.
Nose
A thin, clear discharge.
Excess mucus buildup.
Sneezing fits.
Itchy nose and palate.
Nose picking.
Mouth and Throat
Difficulty swallowing.
Chronic sore throat with no known causes.
Chronic dry feeling.
Cold sores.
Taste in the mouth.
Neck
Stiff neck not associated with injury, fever, or trauma.
Thyroid malfunction.
Chest
Wheezing (both lungs).
Coughing associated with exercise.
Abdomen
Diarrhea alternating with constipation.
Chronic or temporary diarrhea not associated with infection.
Bloating after meals.
Excess gas.
Indigestion.
Muscles and Joints
Pain, stiffness, and swelling of joints.
Muscle aches and/or pain; “growing pains”.
No, this probably is not an allergic symptom
Head
A headache that’s worse when you awaken in the morning but rapidly improves when you sit upright.
A headache associated with stiff neck and fever.
A headache associated with loss of muscle control, especially in anal sphincter or bladder.
Eyes
Double vision when looking hard to the right or left.
Protrusion of both eyes.
Loss of vision in one or both eyes.
Unequal size of pupils.
Yellowness in the eyeballs.
Pain or swelling in one eye only.
Rapid deterioration of vision.
Ears
Pain in one ear only.
Infection accompanied by fever, pain, and swelling below or behind the ear.
Deafness, vertigo, nausea, and a tendency to fall in one direction.
Nose
A thick yellowish-green discharge (infection).
Severe nosebleed with high blood pressure.
Mouth and Throat
A painless lump in the throat.
Sore throat associated with fever.
Persistent cough without fever in smokers.
Chronic sore on the tongue or lips.
Gradual change in voice.
Neck
Stiff neck associated with infection or fever.
Painful lymph glands down front or back of neck.
Bulging neck veins, which become worse when you are lying down.
Chest
Wheezing from one lung only.
Chest pain associated with fever.
Chest pain or pressure associated with sweating, clammy skin, and fainting.
Chest pain or pressure associated with exercise.
Shortness of breath associated with nausea and/or palpitations.
Labored breath that is worse when you are lying flat and is associated with swollen ankles or belly.
Abdomen
Blood in stool.
Pain that starts below the breast-bone and radiates to the back.
Severe pain with or without fever.
Pain that starts below the breast-bone and radiates to the right of the rib cage.
Pain that starts at or above the navel and descends to the right lower quadrant of the belly.
Muscles and Joints
Sharp muscle pain.
Arthritic symptoms of gouty arthritis, psoriasis, lupus erythematosus, infections, etc.
Tags: add, adhd, allergies, anti-aging, ARTHRITIS, general health, health, immune, infections, lupus, men's health, muscle, women's health
