The differences between allergies and intolerances
|
Are you suffering from any of the following conditions: Food allergies, food sensitivities, or intolerances can be the cause, and knowing the differences will help treat and alleviate symptoms. Let’s simplify and unpack these terms so we can better understand and help treat you in our practice. · Food Allergy reactions occur immediately after eating the food. This is a food allergy an immune reaction mediated by an IgE hypersensitivity (like a bee allergy IgE = bee) it can be a severe anaphylaxis response. Think of people who eat peanut butter and immediately their chest closes up and it is an emergency situation. · Food sensitivity symptoms may be delayed by several hours or even days. This is also an immune reaction of the IgG or IgA hypersensitivity. You may not even be aware of your immune symptoms. · Food intolerance is not an immune response but a lack of digestion for example lactose intolerant. Usually, your response is digestion related like diarrhoea or cramps with lactose. Lactose is one of the ingredients in milk. And sometimes people can tolerate certain amounts but once they get over the threshold (eating too much too often) it becomes a problem.
How our immune system chooses to respond to foods can depend on many complex factors like our genetics, our baseline level of health, our gut immunity, and general inflammation. That’s why you can be intolerant to certain foods but your friend tolerates everything you can’t. Stomach acid is a major factor in helping prevent food allergies and sensitivities, the acid in your stomach helps to predigest the foods and make them more tolerable. So one thing to consider is weaning off ant acids. · Blood tests to check on both the allergy and sensitivity, Vitamin D and inflammation markers. · Try the Elimination Diet. The Elimination Diet helps to uncover food(s) that may be the culprits. · Do a food sensitivity test to determine which foods are the worst culprits. |