What are Food Allergies?

     I actually had someone tell me that food allergies weren't real.  This more than aggravated me!  I know first hand that this is so far from the truth!  Food allergies show up in different forms - from skin reactions to anaphylaxis.  According to Food Allergy Research and Education, food allergies affect up to 15 million Americans, including 1 in 13 children.  That's unreal!  When I was growing up, I didn't know anyone with a food allergy.  Don't recall hearing about food allergies until I became an adult.
     So what exactly is a food allergy?  Basically, it's an overactive immune system.  Before I explain, let's look at our immune system.  Our immune system identifies and destroys germs, like viruses and bacteria, in order to keep us well. It's our first line of defense and a very important function of our body.  If it doesn't work properly, or is overloaded with germs, we get sick.  The majority (like 80-90%) of our immune system is located in our gut, or intestines.  So a healthy gut equals a healthy you.  According to an article on cancer.org called "What the Immune System Does,"

                    "Your immune system is a collection of organs, special cells, and substances that 

              help protect you from infections and some other diseases. Immune cells and the

              substances they make travel through your body to protect it from germs that cause 

             infections. They also help protect you from cancer in some ways. 

                    It may help to think of your body as a castle. Germs like viruses, bacteria, and 
            parasites are like hostile, foreign armies that are not normally found in your body. 
           They try to invade your body to use its resources, and they can hurt you in the process. 
           Your immune system is your body’s defense force. It helps keep invading germs out, or 
           kills them if they do get into your body.

                  The immune system keeps track of all of the substances normally found in the body. 
          Any new substance in the body that the immune system doesn’t recognize raises an 
         alarm, causing the immune system to attack it. Substances that cause an immune 
         response are called antigens. The immune response can destroy anything containing the           
         antigen, such as germs or cancer cells. 
                 Germs have substances on their outer surfaces, such as certain proteins, that are 
         not normally found in the human body. The immune system sees these foreign substances
        as antigens and attacks them."

     So, it only makes sense that since the majority of your immune system, or first line of defense, is in your gut, you must keep your gut healthy, right?  So, how do we do that?  I'll tell in a bit.  But first, let's go back to the previous question; what is a food allergy?  Food allergies are the result of the immune system mistaking an otherwise harmless food protein as an allergen, or threat, and attacks it.  With food allergies, the immune system produces large amounts of antibodies called immunoglobulin E (IgE).  These antibodies fight the intruder, which in this case is food proteins, and releases histamines and other chemicals, which then trigger the symptoms of an allergic reaction.  
     Unlike other types of food disorders, such as intolerances, food allergies are “IgE mediated.” This means that your immune system produces abnormally large amounts of an antibody called immunoglobulin E — IgE for short. IgE antibodies fight the “enemy” food allergens by releasing histamine and other chemicals, which trigger the symptoms of an allergic reaction.  Food intolerances are a bit different.  When people are tested for food allergies, its the IgE levels that are being tested.  With a food intolerance, IgE doesn't go to battle.  A great example is a person who is lactose intolerant.  If you are lactose intolerant, you don't have the necessary enzymes to digest lactose, or milk sugar.  So, if you drink milk, you end up with a very unhappy gut, but not an immune response. Do you swell when stung by a bee or bit by a wasp?  This is a great example of an IgE mediated reaction.  The antibodies are sent to destroy the foreign substance left by the insect.  That area will become enlarged and hot to the touch, and the IgE goes into battle.
     Their are 8 foods that account for 90% of all food allergy cases in the U.S. - peanuts, tree nuts, milk, egg, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish.   Of course, any food can potentially become a problem.  One that is gaining popularity in the food allergy world is corn.  I know of at least 3 people in my county with a corn allergy, besides my daughter.  I learn of more corn allergies each time I search the web for new recipes.  So, if the immune system thinks certain foods are the enemy and attacks it, it must have gained some incorrect information, right?  Computers are only as great as the information entered in them.  If we input wrong information, we may not get the correct information when we need it.  Junk in, junk out.  Yet, if the correct information is entered, we get correct information when we ask for it.  Well, in reality, our bodies are not that much different.  If we continually feed our bodies the wrong information, by consuming the wrong things, we are giving our bodies the wrong information.  Junk in, junk out.  
     The Lord tells us that our bodies are temples and should be treated as such.   We are created in His image, and He doesn't make mistakes.  He tells us the good things to eat.  Take Daniel and his friends for example.  Daniel and a few others were brought to the king's house for training before entering the king's army.  They were to eat of the king's food and drink the wine.  Daniel did not wish to put this "junk" in his body and instead requested he and his friends be allowed to eat vegetables and drink water.  This was done for 10 days, and Daniel and his friends were stronger and healthier than the men eating the king's food.  I would bet these vegetables were also organic by today's standards.  Although I am sure they were much better than what is produced today.
      To improve your immune system, your gut flora needs improvement.  Our gut is home to good and bad bacteria.  In a healthy gut, the good bacteria out numbers the bad and is able to keep the bad in check.  However, that balance is often upset by any number of factors; like antibiotics, poor diet, and stress.  Yes, antibiotics do kill germs that create bacterial infections, but they also kill the good bacteria along with the bad.  And since the bad bacteria don't have anything to keep it in check, they become over populated in our gut, and can potentially create all kinds of chaos in the form of poor health and diseases.  So, we need to add good bacteria to give our bodies a fighting chance.  We can do that through taking probiotics, consuming raw fruits and vegetables, fermented foods, like sauerkraut, kimchi, or kefir, and drinking good quality water.  Read the labels when purchasing store bought yogurt and kefir as these products contain sugar, and you may not be getting everything you think.
     There are so many choices when it comes to probiotics.  According to Natural News' website, look for one that has 15 billion or more of live bacteria in each capsule, potency at expiration date, and many different, well researched strains.  Also, one that is resistant to stomach acid and bile is a plus.  Many organisms are killed during this part of digestion and the more organisms in a probiotic, the better chance of them making it to your gut.  Look at the other ingredients listed.  I prefer a probiotic that doesn't have a lot listed there.  I see those as fillers, and in Sis's case, they have been aggravating factors with her eczema.  
    Like I mentioned earlier, food allergies can present themselves in many different forms. 
Anaphylaxis reactions are life threatening.  Nuts, fish and shellfish are common food allergens which produce anaphylaxis reactions.  There are some people that can't even be in the same room as these foods.  Bee stings, animal dander, pollen, plants, and medications are some other common allergens that can cause anaphylaxis reactions.  Once a person is exposed to an allergen, their reaction can worsen each time they are exposed.  When we were little, my brother was stung by a bee on his foot and it swelled liked crazy.  My mom always warned that if he was ever stung near his throat, he had to get to the ER immediately.  Thankfully, we didn't experience that, and now he hardly has a reaction.  His body actually developed an immunity to the stings.  Me on the other hand...I was not allergic as a kid, but as an adult, I am very allergic.  Asthma, eczema, psoriasis are also symptoms of food or environmental allergies.  Food Allergy Research and Education's website lists several other common reactions associated with food allergies on their website.
      Most eczema patients also have asthma.  Thankfully, Sis doesn't.  Just food and environmental allergies and intolerances.  However, we do get a glimpse of something that most asthma patients don't get to see.  When eczema patients are flared up, it is very close to what the lungs of an asthma patient look like during an asthma attack.  Until my asthmatic, nurse friend pointed that out, I had no idea.
      Currently, Sis has not had a flare up since February 2014 (YAY!!!).  At the end of May, we began food challenges to determine more specifically what she is allergic to and what is safe for her to eat.  We had some trout that was caught in the NC river in Cherokee last year.  The rivers are stocked there with farm raised trout.  So no telling how long the fish had actually been in the river before they were fished out.  At about 24 hours after eating the fish, Sis's whole body began to itch horribly. So trout is out.  I honestly don't think I will try farm raised fish any time in the near future either.  About 2 weeks later, we did try wild caught salmon and she did great.  So for now, we will stick to that.  And believe me, she doesn't mind salmon one bit - she has expensive taste!
     If you have a family member, church member, friend with allergies, please take the time to learn all you can about the allergies and the ways they react.  It will amaze you and may help them in the long run. 

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Thanks for reading!  I'd love to hear from any of you that care for someone with allergies or an autoimmune disease, or have family members or friends with either.

Blessings,

CJ

A place to start

      I do apologize for the length of this post.  There are so many things to tell and its hard to condense my story of our journey.  At this point, I feel so much like a walking encyclopedia. 
      We are close to 2 years into this journey, and I often forget there may be some of you that are unfamiliar with eczema. Everyone's journey is a little different, as with their allergies and other triggers. First, for those who are unfamiliar with eczema, it is also known as atopic dermatitis. It's characterized by itchy, dry skin. The skin becomes irritated, inflamed, and very rough. The skin often looks like alligator skin or has a leathery look to it. Many websites state the cause is unknown, while others talk about it being linked to food allergies or environmental allergies.  Suggested remedies range from topical steroids (most common) and wet wraps to elimination diets and treating this from a holistic standpoint. Eczema and asthma or hay fever are typically seen together, but thankfully not in our case.  But our daughter (both of them actually) does have seasonal allergies.  My great grandmother had asthma, but not anyone else in my family that I know of. 
     Eczema and psoriasis are also related and psoriasis is hereditary. Plus, they are both autoimmune diseases.  (As is asthma, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, thyroid, and (in my opinion) the majority of the diseases that ail our country.)  Autoimmune diseases run in mine and my husband's family.  Psoriasis runs in my family on my dad's side.  His dad suffered from a mild case.  My dad's started out mild - his fingers would crack and bleed in the winter - and then became severe over several years and covered his entire body.  He tried treating it topically - which only suppressed it, temporarily.  As his psoriasis worsened, it spread all over his body.  His medical doctor said the next step would be a chemo pill.  Mom decided there had to be a better option and she found someone in the field of natural medicine with a wealth of knowledge.  At his consultation, they learned dad's psoriasis was systemic - it was in his blood.  And, as we found out, was food-allergy related.  He had to go through a radical diet change and took many supplements.  Over the course of several months, he was on a liquid fast, juiced, sunbathed daily, ate only fresh fruits and vegetables, and then gradually added healthy, fresh foods back to his diet.  He lost undesirable weight and his psoriasis cleared.  He could tell pretty quickly if he ate a food he was allergic to as he would break out again.  As long as he ate good foods and took his supplements, he did great.  When he deviated, his psoriasis flared.  I knew proper nutrition worked.  Junk in, junk out.  Good in, good out.
     A few months later, I started with psoriasis on my hands - in the winter - like my dad.  Old fashioned Bag Balm helped for a while.  Every winter, my hands dried, cracked, and bled.  Washing hands in cold water dried them out worse.  Washing dishes in hot water did the same thing.  Didn't matter how much lotion I put on my hands, they still cracked and bled every winter.  Many years later, when I changed from Dawn dish soap to Greenworks dish soap, washing dishes in the winter wasn't a problem anymore.  My hands weren't cracking and bleeding anymore. 

     When our oldest daughter's eczema flared up, I honestly didn't know what to do. Prior to that month, it kept getting worse. The weekend it blew up and her body said enough, was the first weekend in November 2012.  We weren't doing anything special at that point to control her eczema. Seems like we were using a hydro cortisone cream for the itch. A week or so before all this, she had a boil on her knee. Her pediatrician said it wasn't staph & told us how to treat it. It finally popped and went away.  We still don't know why she got it.  Seasonal allergies have always been an issue for her. And where we live, it seems something is blooming most of the year. She had typical county fair food that Saturday (corn dog, cotton candy, and can't remember what else), and French toast Sunday morning. Later we ate at our local Japanese restaurant followed by ice cream. Then eggs and bacon for supper that night. That night was the beginning of our nightmare. She clawed all night. We hardly got any sleep. Her worst spots were the crooks of her elbows, backs of her knees, and inside of her thighs. In the morning, her legs looked like a war-zone. She went to school that day. By the afternoon she was limping because she couldn't straighten her leg out all the way.  The back of her knee was scratched open. That night was even worse than the night before. We had to do something. I remembered about the guy that helped my dad yrs before with his psoriasis. My husband had witnessed my dad's psoriasis and what nutrition did for him, so he was ok with going this route.  Normally he is quite skeptical in alternative medicine.  My mom finally remembered the name of the place she took my dad and I looked up the number and called.  I thought I had found him, but it was a chiropractor who had bought part of this guy's business. We went to see this chiropractor anyway. Soon as he saw our daughter, he told me it was her liver & that it doesn't filter out toxins like a healthy liver does. It confirmed what I was told several years earlier. The toxins were coming through her skin. He told me about an allergy elimination method called NAET. Through this method, allergens are found through a muscle test & then eliminated. In theory, your supposed to stay away from that allergen for 24 hours to allow your body a chance to "reset". So from November to April, we made weekly trips to the next town to see this chiropractor. At first, it was twice a week, then 1 time a week. He had her on whole food supplements from a company that used only organic ingredients. And introduced us to kefir, a probiotic packed drink that we made at home so she could drink it daily (the store bought kefir is loaded with sugar).  Each time we went, her list of allergens grew. This child is so allergic to so many things - and we had no idea!  The only food we suspected was eggs. (She broke out in red spots as a toddler when she ate store bought eggs, but a year later when she ate homegrown eggs, she didn't seem to react.  But after that weekend in November, with the amount of eggs she ate in various dishes all weekend, I wasn't so sure anymore.)  And we knew she had seasonal allergies. Through NAET, we discovered she is sensitive or allergic to food additives (sodium nitrate, sodium phosphate, calcium sulfates, & calcium phosphates), nuts (NAET breaks this down into 2 groups. The nut mix she allergic to is peanuts, black walnuts and English walnuts), sugar, starch, nightshade vegetables (tomato, tomatillo, all peppers except black pepper, eggplant, white potatoes), grains (wheat, corn, rice, oats, rye, millet, barley), eggs, chicken, MSG, yeast, mold, tree pollen, grass pollen, animal dander.  I know what you are probably thinking at this point - "what CAN she eat?"  Believe it or not, a lot...but I had to get very creative!  And thank God, she's not very picky.  In NAET theory, we were to avoid this list of things for 24 hours, and her body is supposed to reset itself and not be allergic anymore.  I have come to realize, looking back, that her allergies must have been SO severe that 24 hrs were simply not enough. 
      The first 2 weeks were awful!  So stressful for all of us. I just wanted to cry. I wanted to take this burden from her. All I could do was pray. Pray for her healing. Pray for wisdom and guidance. The Lord answered those prayers. And He is still answering them today. Through this valley I learned to trust The Lord even more. She was out of school for 2 weeks. She couldn't straighten her legs at all. She had pimples all over both legs that were incredibly sore. I totally believe these were toxins coming out of her body. Even on the coldest days, she wore shorts. I had to carry her to & from the car when we went anywhere.  Baths were so stressful - all she could do was scream & cry with pain as we bathed her. Although she was in the tub, she didn't soak at all. Water ran long enough to get her wet and then rinse her after a quick bath. Come to think of it, that went on for a little while in October before everything blew up. Our youngest was suddenly more independent than her older sis. And we had to help the oldest do almost everything. That's hard to adjust to for everyone.

       The day she returned to school was the day of her Thanksgiving Feast. And the day before break. Her friends had been so concerned about her the 2 weeks she was out and were so happy to see her that day. I had to send her lunch that day since she couldn't eat anything that was served. My heart was sad. But, she was (and is) such a trooper. 
      During my countless hours of research, I learned that our skin, our largest organ, is the last to heal from things like psoriasis and eczema.  Our body repairs itself from the inside out.  Through the supplements she was on, her liver and other organs were being helped, and her liver was working better.  But there was still something that she was getting that her body didn't like.  Occasionally, she ran out of a supplement (or several) before I was able to get more.  That turned out to be another answered prayer.  Sometimes, after she ran out of a supplement, her skin got a little better.  So I became "Sherlock Holmes" - again.  I read the ingredients of everything she took, and if it listed something that I didn't know what it was from, I googled it.  One culprit was the probiotics she was taking.  Probiotics...one thing she (we all) needed to help her immune system.  I had to pay attention to the "other ingredients" closer than the blend that was in there.  I have had a hard time over the years keeping her on a probiotic that doesn't have "extra junk" that she is allergic too.  Its very frustrating and the amount of hours put in to researching ingredients is mind boggling.  As she ran out of her other supplements, her skin improved.  She had been taking things that were supposed to help her, but instead were keeping her body inflamed.  As a mom, I felt horrible about that. 
      We switched to whole wheat pasta at one point.  She seemed to do ok, until one night we noticed her neck getting a red rash while she was eating the pasta.  So, we cut wheat and went to brown rice pasta.  That did good for a while.  When corn was coming in, we thought we would check to see if she was in fact allergic to corn.  THAT WAS HORRIBLE!  She itched like crazy and her skin was flared up for a week!  So, I checked everything she was taking for corn.  I googled to find out what corn is in. I was SHOCKED!  Having a corn allergy was as bad as wheat is for a person with Celiac!  Remember her supplements she was taking?  Well, the reason her skin seemed to get better when she ran out of them was they had organic corn and organic wheat.  So, I felt we were back to square one.  We began eliminating things from her diet that we discovered through NAET.  Over a few weeks, we saw another improvement in her skin.  But there was still something not right.  Over the next year, we discovered even  more things that she was allergic to by eliminating suspected allergens from her diet.  Her list grew even more: coconut, olives, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, palm (anything that is from a palm tree - glad I never gave her dates - they are from the date palm!), sea salt, cantaloupe, chlorine...  I could not even find a vitamin that she could safely take.  I was afraid to give her anything that I was in doubt of.  That summer, my best friend sound out she has celiac (extreme wheat allergy).  I was traveling out to Tx for Mary Kay Seminar, so she made an appointment for me to talk with her doctor - a chiropractor/naturaopath.  We talked in great length about her, and he helped in another area - what else to remove from her diet based on the list of allergens I told him.  Plus, I got a liquid vitamin to try.  I was a little hesitant to try it based on previous experience with all her other supplements, but did and held my breath.  A year later, she is still on that same vitamin. :)  This chiropractor also does NAET, but a more advanced version.  He tells his patients to avoid allergens for a year.  This made more sense to me, especially in our daughter's case.
    Remember the guy that helped my dad with his psoriasis through nutrition?  Well, we finally found him just before I went to Tx.  Since we were getting help through the chiropractor in Tx, I didn't want to consult with the guy here just yet.  I did find out that he was able to get the vitamin our daughter was on.  That August (2013), her eczema flared again - and it was pollen season which I'm sure added to it.  Something had to give.  She had missed a few days of school again shortly after school started and she had a hard time straightening out her legs - again.  We felt like she was going backwards.  It was time to find out for sure what she was allergic to.  Her pediatrician ordered a blood test and depending on those results, we would be sent to an allergist.  We did the blood test.  The results confirmed ALOT and gave us a few more answers.  She reacted to EVERYTHING!  So her list grew AGAIN.  Egg whites, milk, wheat, corn, mold (including the mold that causes leaf spot), pecan trees, walnut trees, Bermuda grass, Johnson grass (also known as sorghum), peanuts, soybean, cod fish, clams, scallops, shrimp, walnuts, pecan, hickory, cat & dog dander, cockroach, common pigweed, common ragweed, elm, dust mites, Kentucky blue grass, fungus, oak.  Great!  We live in the country and have a hay field.  Bermuda grass grows all around us.  We have oak trees all around us.  What was surprising was her corn allergy was lower than a lot of the others.  Her pediatrician said this was the WORST she has ever seen and recommended an epi-pen and singular.  Knowing how my daughter reacts, I researched ingredients before agreeing to the Singular.  Thankfully, she doesn't have anaphalaxic reactions to things - never has.  It ALL comes through her skin.  Dander will give her itchy, watery eyes (from cats), pollen gives her an itchy nose, and dogs and rabbits gives her a rash along with a mild case of itchy eyes and nose.  I did not feel at all comfortable with giving her an asthma medicine when she didn't have asthma.  I felt that was only asking for trouble.  I called the guy that helped my dad, to see what he had that may help.  He told me about this super powerful enzyme made in Germany as a cancer treatment - it ate anything foreign in the bloodstream.  After talking it over with my husband and praying about the right thing to do for her, we opted to try the enzyme.  Plus, we started her on a liver supplement.  She was showing signs of anemia at this point and this would help.  She had been off a liver supplement about a year since I couldn't find one without extra ingredients.  This one didn't have anything extra.  (YAY!)  She has been on this enzyme (Wobenzyme N) since September.  I can honestly say it has been another answered prayer.