Introduction to Allergies
You are what you eat
Food once was fresh and natural with no preservatives or additives. Food is no longer seasonal but highly modified, processed and preserved all year round.
Food inolerances and allergies plan a key role in the wellbeing and health of humans. 4-8% of the population have a Type 1 allergy with acute symptoms, 25-45% have an intolerance to lactose, fructose, and histamine and over 50% have Type 3 allergies leading to chronic inflammatory diseases.
Chronic inflammation can cause such symptoms as obesity, chronic iron deficiency, cancer, hypertension, migraines, diabetes, fatigue, depression, asthma, malabsorption syndrome and hypothyroidism. Low grade chronic inflammation can be a cause of infertility issues such as hormonal dysfunction, endometriosis, metabolic diseases.
Children can present with digestive problems, skin problems, behaviour and development problems caused by IgG inherited by their mother.
Symptoms for Type 1, Type III and pseudo allergies overlap. With Type 1 allergies the response is immediate and up to 30 minutes after ingestion and the duration is 1 day. With an intolerance the time after ingeston can be 30 min to 2 hours and up to 4 hours with histamine. It can last hours to days. Type 3 is the most common and chronic occurring 3 hr to 3 days after ingestion and lasting up to 3 days. No wonder it is so hard for a physician to accurately pinpoint the allergen.
Differences in Type I and Type III
Type I
- IgE
- immediate onset of symptoms
- small allergens concerned
- traces are sufficient to cause reaction
- permanent removal of source
Type III
- IgG
- delayed symptoms
- many foods concerned
- dose related
- often not recognized
- remission possible if avoided and reintroduced
The small bowel is our intestinal barrier with tight enterocyte junctions. It has a surface area of 600 square metres as opposed to skin at 2 square metres. If there is destruction or dysbiosis of the tight junctions there will be increased permeability and therefore a change in the immune response. And basically things can pass through that normally should not. This causes the production of antigen-IgG complexes.
Food intolerance is not the primary cause of the disease but the secondary cause that maintains chronic inflammation even after the primary cause has disappeared.
> 90 percent of symptoms of nausea, bloating, flatulence, diarrhea and constipation disappeared after changing diet.
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