Allergies or allergic reactions can occur in three forms. The most familiar reaction is the one where we are coughing, sneezing, have itchy watery eyes, nasal congestion or nasal draining. These are usually associated with airborne allergies. Many people have seasonal allergies which are more often in the spring and secondarily in the fall. These occur for about 6 weeks as different flora becomes more prevalent. These symptoms can be mild to incapacitating. This type allergy usually responds very well to specific supplementation of herbs and nutrients. The herbs and nutrients often work better and faster than prescription or over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and tend to have far less side effects.
The second allergic reaction that we see from allergies is in the skin in the form of contact dermatitis or hives. This can occur if we encounter something, if it touches the skin directly that we react adversely to or, if we ingest something, as soon as it hits our gut. These reactions occur within a few hours of skin contact or ingestion.
The third allergic reaction is when a substance we are allergic to circulates into our bloodstream. This reaction can be delayed by 48 to 72 hours, so it is often hard to associate or identify the offending allergen when symptoms occur.
This third reaction is the most detrimental type of allergy because it goes undetected in most cases. This type of reaction can shut down your thyroid function, cause you to develop autoimmune disease, or cause a chronic inflammatory state, or can basically mimic any known pathology in the body.
The two most common food allergies that cause this reaction are from casein (protein in cow’s milk) and gluten (found in wheat and other grains). There are numerous reasons that these two foods cause problems. Some of it has to do with our DNA and much of it has to do with how these foods have been commercially altered (genetically modified) from their original state.
There are also many chemicals in our food and environment that can trigger allergic/sensitivity reactions. Blood tests are now available that can be done to evaluate these common food/chemical allergens/sensitivities at a fairly reasonable cost. I would encourage anyone with a chronic health problem such as overweight/obesity, an autoimmune illness, or chronic inflammation to utilize food/chemical allergy/sensitivity for testing as an appropriate ruling in and out diagnostic tool. The information obtained could be life-changing or life-saving.
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