An Overview of Allergies
Did you know that you can be allergic to medications, vitamins, minerals, your own hormones, grasses, animal fur/saliva, mould, spores, your bed linens, latex, husbands (I kid you not!), colour, perfumes and the list goes on…
Medical Testing for Allergies
Skin Prick Tests
If you have a skin prick test, your doctor will examine you for signs of an allergic reaction after 20 minutes. Red weals, ouch! Patch tests can require further visits at two and four days after they are applied.
Blood Tests
The results of blood tests (when skin prick tests are not possible or inconclusive) may take up to a week to be known.
Elimination and Challenge Diet
An elimination and challenge diet may take many weeks to provide results. Foods are isolated and reintroduced to see if there is a symptom associated with the food. An oral allergen challenge may require admission to an outpatient or inpatient clinic at a hospital.
Once the offending allergen is confirmed, the medical recommendation is that you avoid or reduce exposure to it in future.
Understanding Allergy Development
Unfortunately that is the recipe for MORE allergies to develop!
What?
Nobody told you that.
Oh dear.
Yes, one allergy tends to lead to another and another. That’s one more reason the food elimination diet is ineffective and potentially very harmful.
Prevalence of Food Allergies
Studies have shown that food allergy affects 10% of children up to 1 year of age and approximately 2% of adults. A recent article (American) boldly claimed that half the kids today have some form of allergy!
Hospital admissions for severe allergic reactions (anaphylaxis) have doubled over the last decade in the USA and the UK. In Australia, admissions for anaphylaxis due to food allergy in children aged 0 to 4 years are even higher, having increased five-fold over the same period.
And hay fever stats are up to 1 in 7. Something is going on.
The Stress-Allergy Connection
Fortunately, an allergy is simply an inappropriate stress reaction to something normal.
Think about wheat and dairy, two of the most common allergies.
Growing up how many of us had cereal for breakfast with Mum yelling “HURRY UP,” pretty much every morning? A repeated stress, as we eat the same food, becomes associated with that food and an allergy is created. Of course that is just one simple example…
So, what to do?
The Consequences of Ignoring Allergies
Unfortunately, if you do nothing, more allergies develop and you get to miss out on what were probably some of your favourite foods. And you may very well pass those allergies (or at least the pattern) on to your future children and grandchildren.
In fact a recent client had avoided her list of foods for more than 3 years. She was still allergic to them and her list had grown! That is just not fair. But not any more. She is now allergy free. She has broken her allergy patterns.
Why the rise in allergies?
There is no official answer.
Perhaps there are many, many reasons that are each UNIQUE to the individual… Caesarean births, bottle feeding, decreased dirt play for children and increased hygiene all of which reduce exposing babies to a plethora of bacterias thereby not developing natural antibodies. Fast paced life stress for pregnant mothers, the increased vaccine schedules, long term exposure to heavy metals, preservatives, colourings, insecticides and pesticides over the last few generations and food company inclusions/exclusions. Hmm… just a few hypotheses.
Allergies and Possible symptoms
- skin rashes – such as eczema or hives
- swelling of the lips, tongue, throat, face, eyes, skin contact
- sneezing and running nose hay fever
- teary, red, itchy eyes – or allergic conjunctivitis
- wheeze, cough
- nausea and vomiting, dizziness, pale and floppy, abdominal pain
- anaphylaxis – a severe allergic reaction that causes serious breathing problems. Anaphylaxis can be fatal.
Understanding Intolerances
These adverse reactions have often been dismissed by the medical community as trivial. Headaches, bloating and simply being unwell are symptoms wanting to get your attention.
The good news is you can effectively break this allergy/intolerance pattern.
This is where NeuroTraining can help.
NeuroTraining Solutions
- Identify allergens with out painful skin prick tests
- Find the pattern behind the allergy
- Become allergy free
Training the nervous system to respond better, for long term health is what
Beautiful Life – Neurotraining is all about.
For more HELP come in for some neuro-training with Trudi.
Remember: You don”t have to be sick to get better.
Trudi Hemetsberger, B.Ed. Exercise Physiology and Literature, Dip. Neurotraining, Kinesiology