Treatment for allergies starts with avoidance of the allergen. Over-the-counter or prescription antihistamines relieve and sometimes prevent the symptoms of allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and some other allergies. Decongestants can help shrink the blood vessels and relieve nasal congestion.
WHY YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FOOD ALLERGIES/SENSITIVITIES
I've said this before and it bears repeating here: Every person with a yeast-related problem has an overgrowth of Candida albicans in the digestive tract. This creates a disturbance in the normal balance of good bacteria, which, in turn, leads to a weakness of the membrane lining the intestinal tract and what is commonly called a "leaky gut." As a result, antigens (or toxic substances) in food are absorbed, and this plays a part in making you sick.
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| Candida Yeast Allergy |
More than a decade ago, J. O. Hunter, a fellow of England's Royal College of Physicians, in a discussion of irritable bowel syndrome, suggested that patients with food intolerances have an abnormal gut flora, even though pathogens may not be present. In a discussion of food intolerance in the British journal, The Lancet, he said that food allergies may actually be caused by fermentation in the colon and by correcting imbalances in the gastrointestinal flora, those intolerances may be resolved.
Still other investigators, including Leo Galland, M.D., and W. Allen Walker, professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, add that molecules that penetrate the intestinal walls (we've called it "leaky gut") may not have "nutritional importance," but they may certainly have "immunologic importance."
Types of Allergies
When you develop an allergy to something you breathe, such as grass or ragweed pollens, animal danders or house dust mites, the cause of your symptoms can be suspected from your history and identified by the use of the simple allergy prick test. In carrying out such a test, a physician pricks your skin through a small amount of an allergy extract.
Yet, most people with food allergies and sensitivities do not show a positive prick test, and these allergies are often called "hidden," "masked," "variable" or "delayed-onset" food allergies. Allergies or sensitivities of this type are often caused by foods you eat every day. You may be surprised to learn that you're apt to be sensitive to some of your favorite foods, especially wheat, corn, milk, yeast, chocolate, citrus and coffee.
Moreover, you may be "addicted" to foods that are making you tired or cause headaches, muscle aches or nasal congestion. Like the cigarette or narcotic addict, you may feel better for an hour or so if you've eaten some of the foods to which you're allergic.
Eight foods cause 90% of all allergic food reactions, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America: milk, soy, eggs, wheat, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and shellfish.
The Foundation says, "People with food allergies have supersensitive immune systems that react to harmless substances found in food and drink."
Sounds familiar! Re-read the previous posts on autoimmune disorders and consider the theory that people with these diseases have hypersensitive immune systems. We begin to pick up the thread of the yeast connection this way.
OBSERVATIONS OF OTHER PROFESSIONALS
In the his award-winning presentation delivered before the Section on Allergy of the American Academy of Pediatrics, William C. Deamer, M.D., of San Francisco, commented on the deceptive nature of food allergies and how difficult they are to diagnose and treat. He believed that skin tests to determine food allergies are unreliable and advocated elimination diets when he was looking for causes of fatigue, irritability, headaches, abdominal pain, musculoskeletal discomfort, asthma and other unexplained symptoms in his patients. And he said:
There can be no doubt ... of the role specific foods may play in causing these symptoms ...
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| Candida Yeast Allergy |
Ted Kniker, M.D., of San Antonio, Texas, said in an award-winning article:
There are countless millions of individuals who have unrecognized adverse reactions to various antigens, foods, chemicals and environmental or occupational triggers ... The acquired disease may be limited to body surfaces, or may involve a puzzling array of organ systems causing the patient to visit a number of different specialists who are unsuccessful in recognizing that an allergic or adverse reaction is going on. To find out more, you can check out Candida Yeast Allergy.