Asthma & Allergies
Whether you suffer from seasonal allergies or year-round allergy symptoms, allergies can take a real toll on your body, and get in the way of everyday quality living. Allergies affect an estimated 50 million people in the United States. The rate has been increasing every year. In fact, allergies are the fifth leading cause of chronic illness in the U.S. for people of all ages. It is also the third most common chronic illness in children under 18 years old.
Is it a cold or allergies? If you’ve been sneezing and suffering from a runny nose, coughing, or congestion, your first thought might be that you have a cold. However, sometimes symptoms can persist for much longer than we realize. That’s when you need to really pay attention to symptoms, triggers, and responses to treatment.
The reality is that allergies are not a harmless nuisance. They are more than just an inconvenience, and they do not occur in isolation. Our bodies react uniquely to our lifestyles and environments. Allergies can also be connected to other health conditions.
It is important to know what triggers allergies since these problems can become chronic and persist well into adulthood. They can also cause permanent changes in the respiratory tract, such as nasal polyps, chronic sinusitis, and obstructive lung disease. Aside from all that, wouldn’t you want to know why you sometimes get that rash or that pesky 2 month old cold? If given the opportunity, would you like to avoid or minimize your seasonal allergies? Let’s first, just look at the symptoms.
POPULAR ALLERGY TRIGGERS
Anything that can be eaten, inhaled, or touched is a potential allergen. Most allergy sufferers are generally aware of their triggers and do their best to avoid them. However, not all triggers are as obvious as a peanut allergy. Whether or not a potential allergen affects you depends on your individual genetics, the strength of your immune system, and a range of potential factors such as your lifestyle, diet, and physical environment. Even if you eat well and live a healthy lifestyle, you may be exposed to numerous chemicals and potential allergens that can trigger or aggravate symptoms over a long period of time. Allergy triggers can be easy to miss if you don’t know what to look for.
Everyone experiences allergies differently and the range of potential triggers is huge. Just think about it: there are so many potential things in the world that our bodies may not get along with. Popular triggers can be broken down into 3 main categories: foods, inhalants, and contact substances.
Popular food triggers include: dairy, wheat (and other gluten-containing grains), corn, soy, seafood, eggs, nightshade vegetables (i.e., potatoes, sweet potatoes, peppers, raw tomatoes, eggplant), nuts, chocolate, caffeine, yeast (i.e., bread, baked goods), MSG and other glutamates, artificial food coloring and preservatives (BHA and BHT) in condiments & processed or pre-packaged ready-made food.
This guide focuses primarily on environmental triggers. If you suffer from food allergies, it’s always best to eliminate exposure to those foods. If you’re not sure what is causing your allergic reactions, try an elimination diet or get yourself tested for allergies.
Other popular allergy triggers include inhalants such as: mold, pollen, dust, dust mites, animal hair and dander, synthetic fiber off-gases, down, feathers, artificial chemicals, scented candles, perfumes, and cleaning products.
Contact substances that trigger allergic reactions include: latex, plastics, cleaning solvents, insect bites, chemicals in air, water, cosmetics, sunscreens, shampoos, make-up, and other personal care products.
OTHER COMMON ALLERGY TRIGGERS
Below are some other common items that can cause unexpected allergic reactions.
Soap: Because we use soap to clean all kinds of different things, we often overlook it as a source of acute allergy symptoms. It’s not uncommon for people to experience allergic reactions on their skin. It can come from that hand soap from work, your laundry detergent, kitchen soap, and various other hygiene products. Negative reactions to soap can often be attributed to scent additives. Try using unscented or additive-free oil-based soaps.
Stuffed Toys: If you have little ones, you know how much they love their stuffed toys. Unfortunately these toys also make a great home for dust mites. To minimize potential allergens, wash your child’s toys in hot water (140°F should do the trick) and let them dry. If the toys can’t be washed, place them in plastic bags in the freezer for a few hours. Repeat every couple weeks.
WHAT ABOUT SEASONAL ALLERGIES?
Most people blame pollen for their seasonal allergies, but the truth lies in our immune systems. Our immune systems produce antibodies that prevent infection and protect us from getting sick. When you have allergies, your immune system is reacting to things like pollen, pet dander, grass, or dust because it is perceived as harmful. The root cause of your allergy symptoms are your body’s overreaction to certain triggers.
what are food Allergies?
A food allergy is an adverse health consequence stemming from a specific immune response after consuming a particular food which is perceived as unsafe. When the specific “toxic” food is identified by the stomach as unsafe, warning bells ring inside the stomach’s immune system. The bells signal that the toxic food cannot be digested and instead needs to be rejected. This may cause acute symptoms after eating: stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, burping, belching, metallic taste in mouth, burning in chest, or diarrhea.
These “toxic/allergenic” food(s) kick the immune system into action and trigger a stress response throughout the body. When an immediate intense reaction, it is called a “classic” allergy” towards a specific food. By reacting to a specific antigen on the food, the immune system produces the antibody IgE which recruits mast cells throughout the body. Symptoms, such as acute urticaria (hives), mouth/throat itching, lip swelling, shortness of breath, and/or generalized body itching without a rash may be elicited.
Other antibody responses can occur due to the immune system reacting to a particular toxin or protein on a food. The reaction can initially be mild and gradually intensify. When a person becomes increasingly symptomatic, they have already developed full-blown damage to their digestive tract as in the case of Celiac disease or inflammatory bowel disease.
Years of exposure to large protein molecules, such as animal products, fish, wheat, corn, soy, and rice leads to destruction of the digestive tract. These individuals are no longer able to digest these proteins as well other acidic foods, such as alcohol, caffeinated beverages and sugar often tainted with food additives, chemicals, pesticides, heavy metals and other industrial toxins. Pathogens and undigested “toxic” food particles leak into the bloodstream, triggering the immune system to get rid of these poisons and cause a chronic state of inflammation.
COMMON ALLERGY SYMPTOMS
An allergy is your body’s reaction to an environmental trigger or “allergen”, such as pollen, dust, mold, and certain foods when they are inhaled, ingested, or make contact with your skin. Symptoms can vary from mild to life-threatening, and can cause nasal congestion, runny nose, cough, sneezing, watery/itchy eyes, rash, itching, upset stomach, constipation, or diarrhea. Severe symptoms can include swelling of the throat, trouble breathing, hives, throwing up, dizziness, and if untreated, death.
If you’re unsure about whether your symptoms are coming from a cold or allergies, watch closely for these signs from your body: Are they constant, or do they flare up when you do something in particular? How long have they persisted? Allergies can cause rashes and itchy eyes, whereas fevers and body aches are not signs of an allergy.
Fatigue
Migraines/headaches
Dizziness
Difficulty sleeping
Mood swings
Depression
Anxiety
Irritable stomach.
testing
Traditional allergy testing are helpful since they typically only look for one immune response (antibody IgE) associated with anaphylaxis, and can elicit false positive and negative results. Most food sensitivity typically cause a delayed immune reactions which cannot be tested on IgE blood and skin tests.
There are IgG and IgA antibody tests which are significantly more accurate at detecting different levels of food sensitivities. While elimination diets are considered to be the gold standard (and the cheapest way of identifying foods that trigger inflammation in the body), they are confusing and do not consistently help you find the right answers.
GUARANTEED RESULTS
Work with the nation’s top integrative functional medicine physician to uncover the root causes of your symptoms and guided effectively how on to transform your illness into wellness. Dr. Bhandari refuses to accept the status quo commonly accepted in conventional medicine and revert to prescribing immunosuppressive drugs loaded with dangerous side effects when there may be more effective and safer solutions.