Hello Ben:
In your studies have you come across any information as to why a person may start to become allergic to the food they eat? Or even hypersensitive to a particular food they have stopped eating?
Thanks for your help,
Allergic
ANSWER:
Allergic -
Huge question. No way I can answer this completely - it is an entire book.
A few main reasons with the leading reason being anything that causes inflammation in the gut will likely cause food allergies down the road.
Some things which cause inflammation in the gut:
- Pathogenic bacterial overgrowth due to antibiotic use in last 5-10 years. Locate a quality probiotic to restore healthy bacteria
- Weak digestion due to stress causing little release of HCl from the stomach or enzymes from pancreas or bile from liver. [Weak digestion typically means constipation - or diarrhea. both of which cause inflammation if chronic.]
- Weak digestion due to antibodies against your parietal cells - those which secrete HCl
- Genetics - a gene turned on due to environmental stimulus - celiac disease is a big one - avoid wheat and see how you do - all wheat products. Not easy to do but try it for a week. If you're allergic to wheat, you'll feel incredibly better quickly.
- Constipation, pathogenic bacteria, candida, celiac, crohns, IBD, IBS - causes increased absorption of toxins back into the bloodstream and irritation to the intestinal lining. Irritation to the gut lining causes inflammation. Inflammation causes the gut lining to open. Open gut lining combined with weak digestion causes protein complexes to enter the body's tissue space. Larger protein complexes are not supposed to be in the tissue space. macrophages come and eat them and then send out signals which tell the body's immune system to make antibodies against this potential invader - the leaked out specific protein complex which came from a specific food. That protein complex is then is a target and when seen by the immune system, gets acted upon - causing further inflammation and further intestinal inflammation. Protein complexes are not supposed to enter the body's tissue space. All proteins, fats and carbs are supposed to be absorbed into the blood via the intestinal absorptive layer. If they escape into the tissue space instead - bam. potential for allergies. Remember food is proteins, sugars and fats. The allergic foods are proteins as the body can make antibodies against them.
- Example - say you ate some cheese. The inflammation in your gut and weak digestive enzymes and acids did not properly break down all the long chain amino acids - peptides - into single amino acids. So some longer protein escaped through the intestinal lining into your tissue space. The macrophage saw this as an invader and ate it. It then sent out a signal to the other immune cells and they created an antibody against...cheese. So next time you eat cheese and your gut lining is not healed, the protein complex that the macrophage saw before is recognized by the immune system. The immune system reacts - allergy.
One may not be able to introduce an allergic food back into their diet if they are genetically prone to a specific family of foods such as gluten or the poison oak family - which includes mango and cashews.
However, if one is overburdened with solvents, heavy metals and others and they are properly removed, one may be able to balance their system back and regain the ability to eat anything. A naturopathic physician trained in environmental medicine can help here.
Bottom line:
- Eat fiber such as oatmeal for breakfast.
- Limit dairy as its constipating.
- Don't drink with meals as it dilutes stomach acids, bile and pancreatic enzymes.
- Exercise - which helps absorption, mind/body so one is relaxed. that's important as relaxation allows the sphincters to open and when they are open, the enzymes, bile acids and stomach acids are released. When stressed, they are closed. Also exercise helps one have a bowel movement. It's important to have a bowel movement every day.
- Drink plenty of water throughout the day - before and after meals - not during. There is way more to the story but this is something.
If you have inflammation and allergies, it is important to quench that inflammation and restore health to the gut.
Poor gut health led to the allergies - or environmental chemicals and toxins did - that's another whole ball of wax.
An outstanding supplement combination which quenches inflammation is Bioinflammatory Medical Food Powder by Biogenesis. It is best taken with intestinal repair complex as this product heals the gut while bioinflammatory powder quenches inflammation. taken together, healing is faster. If one has a weak digestion for some reason - and that reason should be determined by a good doc - then perhaps digestive enzymes and stomach acids will help. Panzyme by Biogenesis contains both of them in one bottle.
If any more questions - I'm here to help - not all answers will be this long - i had some time this evening - you caught me in the right moment!
In health,
Dr Ben
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