A-Z allergy management Articles

Many people suffer from environmental allergies and get a flare-up during Spring when the air is filled with pollen. However, environmental allergens can be any substance, but the most common ones go beyond pollen and include dust, pollen, animal hair, animal dander, insect bites, grasses, moulds and fungus, cleaning products and metal in costume jewelry. 

These allergies can be hereditary, and they appear to play a role in allergies. If both parents have allergies, then the child will have a 70 percent chance of developing allergies. People who are not breastfed are also more likely to develop allergies.

What Causes Allergic Reactions?

Allergic reactions occur when your immune system comes into contact with substances and interprets them as threatening. At times of physical and emotional stress, the immune system might show a heightened response to allergens and have a more difficult time dealing with fungal and parasitic infections. The body releases histamine, which creates inflammation of the mucous membranes and can cause reactions of varying severity. 

Some of the more common, less severe symptoms are:

• Itching
• Increased mucous production
• Redness
• Swelling

Serious reactions may cause asthma attacks, severe hives and rashes and anaphylactic reactions.

Conventional Treatments For Environmental Allergies

Conventional treatment of environmental allergies is targeted at decreasing symptoms. Antihistamines are the most common treatment for moderate allergies. They inhibit the ability of mast cells to release histamine. Steroid nasal sprays also decrease nasal allergy symptoms. Long-term effects of using these sprays may include glaucoma and decreased bone density. Anaphylactic reactions cause the swelling of the air passages. They are treated with injections of norepinephrine. This hormone causes a sympathetic nervous system response, resulting in an opening of the airways.

What Are Natural Treatments For Environmental Allergies?

There are many ways of decreasing allergic reactions, these include:

Take only hypoallergenic supplements. Keep rooms free of dust and use an air purification system. Avoid feather and down bedding. Keep windows closed during times when the allergen is present in the air. Pollen is at its highest concentrations between 5 and 10 AM and lowest after it rains. Use mould-proof paint and disinfectant in the house. Exercise indoors. Do not smoke and eliminate exposure to secondhand smoke. Keep plants that remove pollutants from the air, these types include bamboo palm, Boston fern, dracaena, English ivy, ficus ali, peace lily, rubber plant and spider plant. Wear protective clothing when handling allergenic substances and wash after using them. Use calendula cream to heal skin reactions. Avoid cantaloupe if you have a ragweed allergy, as cantaloupe contains similar proteins to ragweed. Decrease stress, eat healthy and be well rested. Perform regular cleansing of the liver, kidney and intestinal tract to reduce the build up of allergens in the system.

Food allergies or intolerances are becoming more prevalent in today’s society. Food allergies involve antibody responses to food, and food intolerances occur when a food cannot be digested properly due to an enzyme deficiency. An intolerance often leads to food allergies because improperly broken down food particles cause an allergic response.

Allergens can be any food substance, but the most common ones are dairy products, peanuts, eggs, wheat, corn, soy, the nightshade family, food additives and preservatives and medications like penicillin and aspirin.

What Causes Food Allergies?

There is some research into the cause of food allergies that points to the diets of young infants. Some researchers theorize that when infants are given foods that their bodies cannot yet digest adequately, the molecules from the food, which have not been broken down properly, enter the bloodstream and confuse the immune system. The immune system identifies these molecules as hostile and foreign and will create a heightened immune response. 

In addition to this potential cause of allergies, there are many modern environmental toxins that put stress on the immune system, which then becomes over-sensitive to food particles. 

Finally, predisposition can play a role in allergy development; if both parents suffer from allergies, then their child will have a 70% chance of also experiencing allergies in their lifetime.

How Does The Body React To Food Allergens?

The immune system views allergens as a threat to the body. When the allergen contacts the gastrointestinal lining, inflammation occurs due to the release of chemicals such as histamine. Allergic symptoms can range from severe and life-threatening anaphylactic reactions to a runny nose, itchy palate, bloating, diarrhea or constipation, headache, joint pain, heart palpitations, mood swings, hyperactivity, hypoglycemia and candidiasis.

Reactions to food are often mild and may occur well after the food is ingested. Allergies can also be exacerbated when the body is exposed to emotional or physical stress.

Tips To Support Food Allergies

Conventional treatment of food allergies and intolerances only involves the avoidance of the suspect foods. Anaphylactic reactions that cause swelling of the air passages are treated with injections of norepinephrine. This hormone causes a sympathetic nervous system response, resulting in an opening of the airways.

There are many ways of testing for food allergies and sensitivities. Many of these methods are costly and tend not to be very accurate. One of the better ones is ALCAT testing. It involves mixing blood with food particles to see if there is any immune reaction. It is a better test because it shows both immediate and delayed immune reactions.

The best way to treat food allergies is with elimination or rotation diets. Both methods involve charting the foods you eat and any reactions. Elimination diets start with a cleansing period to eliminate offending substances. Then the diet is restricted to mild, non-irritating foods. 

Finally, the testing period begins when a new food is introduced every third day. If a food is okay, then it can be added to the diet in moderation. If a food causes a reaction, then it is restricted for a period of a few months. It can then be retried. Rotation diets limit your food intake to certain food families each day. It can be used to assess food allergies and is a good method to prevent the return of allergies.

Important Information

A tip for avoiding food allergies: Avoid taking aspirin within three hours of eating because it can increase the absorption of allergy-causing foods.

It can seem strange at first to think that something you have been eating your entire life may be making you sick. This is especially true when you had a few (if any) symptoms when you were younger. Food sensitivity is a relatively new concept that the medical community has only recently begun to recognize. We are constantly learning more about how it happens and what possible causes may be.

What Are Food Sensitivities?

It is important to distinguish between food allergy, food sensitivity, and food intolerance. Although often used interchangeably, each condition involves a different process in the body. So what is the difference between them? 

A food allergy is triggered by an extreme immune response, mediated by the IgE type of antibody. This allergic response can escalate to anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction. It requires emergency treatment due to restricted breathing and blood pressure drop.

Food intolerance is the inability to properly digest food due to a lack of digestive enzymes. The most common example of food intolerance is lactose intolerance. Individuals lack the lactase enzyme required to digest lactose in dairy products.

Finally, food sensitivity is a term that represents a spectrum of other (non-IgE) immune reactions triggered by the presence of certain foods in the digestive tract. Because “food sensitivity” is still a bit of an umbrella term, it is difficult to completely define its boundaries. The most common immmune response associated with food sensitivity is an IgG reaction. IgG is a G-type antibody. Some recent research also associates food sensitivity with IgA antibodies. Growing evidence shows that sensitized individuals exposed to certain food proteins develop erratic immune responses. Some responses can even trigger autoimmune disease. One severe example of this is the gluten sensitivity associated with celiac.

What Causes Food Sensitivity?

Researchers have not yet identified the exact cause of food sensitivities. Current theories suggest that reduced gut integrity and limited parasite exposure may contribute. According to the hygiene hypothesis, regular exposure to microbes and parasites helps regulate the immune system. The development of sterile home conditions, antimicrobial products, and strict cleanliness has phased out this exposure in children. Some researchers believe the parasite-fighting immune response may overreact to harmless food proteins without regular stimulation. It is possible that these two potential causes both play a role.

Immune System in the Gut

The digestive tract plays a large role in the health of our immune system, with over 70% of our body’s immune cells lining the inside of it. When a food sensitivity occurs, the immune cells in our gut respond as if the food is an invader due to their over-sensitivity to that particular product. The immune system is composed of many different immune cells as well as immune messenger molecules, called cytokines. Because of this variety, the inflammation caused from a food sensitivity can show symptoms in distant and seemingly unrelated parts of the body. See the symptoms paragraph for more information.

What Are The Symptoms of Food Sensitivities?

Food sensitivity can cause a wide variety of symptoms in the body, which often makes it difficult to diagnose at first blush. Food sensitivities can cause a wide range of symptoms because they involve complex immune system responses. Digestive symptoms commonly include gas, bloating, poor digestion, nutrient malabsorption, diarrhea, constipation, mucus, and acid reflux. Some of the most common symptoms caused by a more widespread immune reaction are: headache, fatigue, rashes, puffiness, malaise, joint and muscle aches, swelling of feet and hands, and dark circles under the eyes (“allergic shiners”).

Onset of Food Sensitivities

There are some really interesting theories as to why food sensitivity is becoming more prevalent today than in older generations. The first is simply that previously, food sensitivities went undiagnosed, and people were simply labelled as “frail” or “sickly”. The next is the hygiene hypothesis listed above. Another theory is that our current food is no longer the food of our ancestors. Because of cross-breeding and genetic modification, many of the foods that we eat today actually bear little resemblance to our natural food sources. The development of food sensitivity is not so surprising when you consider that corn may contain frog genes, and soy has had genes inserted to make it resistant to pesticides.

Most Common Food Sensitivities

It is possible to be sensitive to anything that you put in your mouth, but there are common trends seen in practice. The most common food sensitivities are:

• Dairy (symptoms may also be caused by an intolerance to lactose)
• Wheat and gluten
• Corn
• Soy
• Nightshade family of plants (tomato, potato, peppers, eggplant and tobacco)

Diagnosing A Food Sensitivity

There are a number of blood tests available on the market that you can have performed by your healthcare practitioner. These can test for IgG, IgE and IgA antibodies in the blood or IgA antibodies in the stool. They can be useful if you are completely unable to modify your diet at the moment. Unfortunately, because we do not yet fully understand how food sensitivities occur, these tests merely give us a direction to look, and do not provide us with complete answers. Some people with antibodies to a food will not show a reaction, while those with none will react strongly.

Note from Dr. Katy: In my clinical experience, I have found that the best way to discover your food sensitivities (if any) is to ask your body directly. It will be able to tell you exactly what foods cause which symptoms. Sadly, your body can’t talk, but if you set up the conditions with an elimination diet, it will clearly show you what’s going on.

Elimination Diet

In order to clearly identify which foods are triggering what symptoms, we must first give our immune system a chance to cool off and settle down. We do this by eating a hypoallergenic diet free from common allergens for 3-6 weeks (or more, depending on the severity of symptoms). If your symptoms do not improve at all after 6 weeks, it is unlikely that you are suffering from sensitivity to the foods you have removed. You may be reacting to foods on the safe list, or you may not have a food sensitivity at all. There are a number of resources online for doing your own elimination diet, or you can contact your naturopath for more information. After 3 weeks (or once your symptoms have resolved), you begin to reintroduce one food at a time in a controlled manner and journal your body’s response. Foods that cause reactions are listed with the type of problem created, so after a few more weeks, you will have a complete understanding of what foods cause you problems.

Managing Food Sensitivities

Unfortunately, with food sensitivities, there is no magic pill. The only way to ensure your symptoms stop is to completely avoid the offending food. This will give the immune system a chance to cool down and stop the symptoms. Ultimately, once you know what foods cause which symptoms, you can decide what you are willing to tolerate and what you are not. It seems overwhelming at first to completely modify your diet, but in my experience, most people feel so much better off of the offending foods that they laugh at the thought of ever eating them again.

New Research

There is evidence that after eliminating food sensitivities for at least a year (maybe several), some people can begin to reintroduce the food on a 4-day rotation without relapse. This means that they can once again eat the food, but cannot have it more than once every 4 days. Whether or not you can do this will be entirely trial and error. Ultimately, trust your body! Your symptoms will tell you what you can and cannot get away with. Ultimately, living without the symptoms of food sensitivity makes all of the hard work worthwhile.