Anyone can have an allergy or develop sensitivity to virtually everything. People are reacting not only to milk or wheat, but also to carrots, onions, strawberries, apples, yeast, bread, zucchinis, corn and everything else you can think of.
On top of all that, allergies seem to get worse, which may be due to our forever-increasing toxic environment, and the concentration of eating processed or refined food.
The industry has evolved so fast that our bodies have not had the time to develop defenses or tolerance against many of its by-products, resulting in a world that is toxic to the human organism.
Combination Of Organic And Chemical Substances In Our Environment
- The air we breathe, including pollen and polluted air.
- Depleted soils, sprayed with dangerous pesticides.
- Processed and Refined Food.
- Even our drinking water is treated with chemicals. Have you ever wondered what effect chlorine has on the beneficial bacteria in your gut?
- Now add “stress”, and you have the perfect scenario for an onslaught of allergies.
What Are We Doing About It?
Allergy is such a complex problem it nearly defies explanation. Even the term allergy is confusing; therefore, we will break it down into a basic definition and differentiation between an allergy and an intolerance.
A true allergy or as it is sometimes called a “Real Allergy“ requires the presence of IgE antibodies against the substance, eg; food, and it is diagnosed as an Immune response, and the reaction is quick, usually within half an hour, which makes it easy to identify.
An intolerance or sensitivity requires NO IgE antibody involvement, it is a chemical reaction and often associated with asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), ADD, ADHD and many more. Reactions can be delayed by hours or days and the effects can be cumulative.
Generally speaking, an allergy is easier to diagnose than intolerance. The pathways of non-IgE-mediated intolerance are poorly understood, which has hindered the development of simple and reliable diagnostic tests.
What Is An Allergy?
Our immune system defends us against viruses or bacteria or other harmful organism and substances. However, many substances that enter our body can be regarded as harmless, and in an ideal world our immune system would ignore those.
If a substance causes a reaction, we call it an “allergen”. Allergens are usually harmless substances, but they can cause allergic reactions in some people.
Food allergy is a common and good example, where a harmless substance such as a peanut, can cause a violent reaction known as anaphylaxis shock, which is a life-threatening allergic reaction characterized by swelling of body tissues, including the throat, and a sudden fall in blood pressure.
Pollen, house dust mites, mold, and animal dander are other examples of allergens.
In an allergic person, the body mistakes the allergen for a harmful substance.
Why Do Allergies Occur?
Why are allergies occurring in the first place is hard to answer, but we know, that it may run in families, you may have genetic predispositions or it may have been brought on by overexposure to certain substances or even because of past viral, bacterial or parasite infections.
Other factors are general digestive problems or stress.
Allergy reactions often can be divided into body systems, such as the typical hay fever symptoms which affects your respiratory system with symptoms of a runny nose, sneezing, itching, swelling, or asthma, or others, such as digestive or skin problems.
With a true allergy, a sufferer will even react to a minute particle.
Whereas with a sensitivity / intolerance, the amount of the food or substance which you get in contact with before reacting may vary greatly, and not only that, but it may come from a combination of many different substances, be it organic or chemical in nature.
With sensitivity, you will react to the sum of the exposure.
With a severe sensitivity, you will react constantly and you will not even know what you are reacting too. This is sometimes called a “masked allergy”, you simply feel not well, and may have chronic respiratory, skin, digestive or muscle/skeletal symptoms, which are usually accompanied by a lack of energy and possible brain fag.
Any symptom, any illness, any disease, and any chronic disease will have an allergy or sensitivity factor as either a causative or a contributing factor.
Diagnostic procedures are unfortunately unreliable, inconclusive or not even available and are made more complicated as people often have a mixture of real allergies and sensitivities.
Are There Any Solutions?
A combination of detoxification, specific elimination diets, followed with leaky bowel restoration treatments as well as digestive support have shown promising results.
