|
|
 |
|
|
Q: What is a food allergy?
Around 1.5 per cent of the population suffers from symptoms of a food allergy. They can be serious and may even be life-threatening.
Q: What are the symptoms of a food allergy?
Symptoms of a food allergy: mainly urticaria and skin rashes, swelling of the lips face and throat
runny nose and sneezing wheezing very severe cases - anaphylactic reactions - these can be fatal if not properly treated.
Q: How do I prevent the symptoms of a food allergy?
If food allergy is suspected, it is important to try and identify which food triggers the allergy symptoms. It is recommended that you always act on the side of caution wherever an allergic response is suspected and offending foods should be eliminated from the diet.
Q: What is food intolerance?
Food intolerance occurs when the body has difficulty in digesting particular foods and therefore reacts against it. In medical terms the body's reaction to that food is to create IgG antibodies. These do not spark off 'allergic' chemical reactions as do IgE antibodies which is why there may be no immediate physical reaction to the offending food.
Q: Am I food intolerant?
How does the food we eat affect our bodies? Why are some diseases on the increase and affecting both our children and ourselves? We all know our bodies are our most precious assets, yet how much do we know about what we are eating and how it affects us as individuals? A large number of us have a hidden sensitivity or intolerance, or even an allergy to different foods. This can cause many potential problems. The most common symptoms (which may often take a long time to build up) include: Eczema, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Migraines, Hives, Rhinitis, General lethargy, Fluid retention, Asthma, Arthritis, Aches and pains, Childhood hyperactivity
Q: Is gluten-free the same as wheat-free?
Definitely not! Gluten or gliadin is a complex protein that occurs in wheat, rye and barley. Gliadin is a constituent of gluten and causes toxic reactions in people with a particular genetic make-up. This can cause them to develop coeliac disease, or intestinal atrophy. Being sensitive to wheat is a very different thing: in this case your reaction may be to any one of the proteins contained in the grain and is likely to be a true immunological reaction, not a toxic one. Therefore, the fact that food is gluten-free is no guarantee at all that it is wheat-free. However, there are several gluten-free products on the market that are wheat-free. Read any labels carefully.
Q: What causes food intolerance?
There are a number of possible causes of food intolerance including enzyme deficiency, reactions to chemicals in foods, and the most difficult to resolve - delayed food reactions mediated by the IgG antibody. Traditionally, elimination and challenge has been the first approach to identifying delayed food reactions, however this method is costly, time consuming and extremely difficult to manage, often ending in failure and frustration. Delayed food reactions often lead to chronic illness, and these reactions can occur from two hours to many days after ingestion of the offending foods, therefore making them difficult to identify.
Common chronic illnesses and conditions such as asthma, eczema, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis and general continuous poor health have been associated as symptoms of food intolerance. Continuous consumption of the food to which you have an intolerance weakens your immune system. A weak immune system enables illnesses to develop and take hold. Many patients commonly report that they suffer from more than one illness at the time of taking the test. Unlike classical allergies, usually more than one food is involved. We find that on average, sufferers react to four or five different and apparently innocuous foods.Because of the delay between eating the food and the onset of symptoms, it is extremely difficult to identify the cause of the reaction without laboratory testing.
Q: What is the milk we test?
In the test we examine your blood when it has been combined with extract of whole milk from organically fed cows. This contains all the components of milk as it comes from the cow, without any removal of cream or any processing. Whole milk is divided commercially into several different fractions, mainly cream, cheese, buttermilk and whey. It is possible that allergens that are in whole milk will not be present in some of the components, although clearly an allergen, which is present in one of the component parts, must be present in whole milk. Our advice is that if you react to whole milk, it is best to assume, at least to begin with that you react to all components. Although this makes the diet more restrictive, in our experience elimination is the fastest way to gain benefit. Skimmed milk is formed by removal of some of the fat from the whole milk, leaving the protein. Since nearly all intolerance reactions are to protein, it is unlikely that skimmed milk will be tolerated any better than whole milk.
|
|
