Allergies

Once you have identified the foods you are allergic to, the next step is to eliminate them from your diet. Initially you should completely refrain from eating all allergenic foods for 60 – 90 days. After this period, you can begin to slowly reintroduce them into your diet. You should also vary the foods that you eat on a daily basis to avoid developing new allergies. Adopt a diet that includes a wide variety of non-allergenic fresh fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts, and low-fat non-dairy animal protein. For people with allergies and sensitivities it is important to keep well hydrated. Most alternative medicine physicians generally recommend eight to twelve 8oz glasses of pure water daily. Foods play a dual role in allergies and sensitivities, as both triggers of and contributors to adverse reactions. The problem with food allergies and sensitivities is that 85% of them involve delayed reactions, manifesting up to 72 hours after consumption of the offending food. You may not realize that the wheat bread you ate two days ago is responsible for your headache today. And the symptoms may shape-shift; that is, change over time and with repeated exposure. “Proper diet is the foundation from which to deal with allergies of all types” says dentist and naturopathic physician Dr Dick Thom ND. DDS. “If the body is continually being stressed by the foods that are meant to nourish it, there will be fewer reserves left over for the immune system to deal with other ‘foreign’ substances”. Elimination Diet: Once you have identified the foods you are allergic to, the next step is to eliminate them form your diet. Initially, you should completely refrain from eating all allergenic foods for 60 – 90 days. After this period, you can begin to slowly reintroduce them into your diet. You should also vary the foods that you eat on a daily basis to avoid developing new allergies (see “Rotation Diet”). In most cases, this diet allows the body to repair intestinal barrier function, enabling patients to reintroduce the reactive foods into their diets. Dr James Braly, MD, who is regarded as a leading authority on gluten sensitivity and food allergies, estimates that only about 5% of delayed food allergies will not subside using the elimination and rotation diets, necessitating the use of other alternative therapies. Remember that eliminating an allergenic food can cause withdrawal phase, lasting one to five days, while the body detoxifies itself”, says Dr. Braly. Allergic symptoms may get worse during this period and cravings can be intense. Dr. Braly explains that “once the withdrawal phase has passed, the cravings also abate, and the allergy sufferer is free of dependence on that food, free of both the physiological and psychological desire to consume it so frequently and in such great quantities”. Rotation Diet: One way to ensure that the body is receiving a greater supply of nutrients from food, while at the same time minimizing the risk of exposure to allergenic foods, is to increase the variety of foods eaten and rotate them so that they aren’t eaten too frequently. This is known as a rotation diet. According to Dr. Braly, a rotation diet one of the simplest and most effective measures anyone can take to both prevent and deal with the problems of food allergies. “Normally, I would rotate the foods every four days”, he advises “This means that you are not eating any one food more often than every four days. You might be able to have the same food more than once a day, but then you wouldn’t have it again until four days later. Some people may need to go longer than that, but usually four days is ideal”. Dr. Braly also suggests adopting a diet that indulges a wide variety of non-allergenic fresh fruits and vegetables, seeds and nuts, and low-fate, non-dairy animal protein. “Grains are important too” he says. “Although, I make it a general policy to avoid the gluten grains such as wheat, rye, barley, and oats which many people are not able to tolerate. I would stick to grains like brown rice, millet and amaranth”. Stone Age Diet: The “Stone Age” diet is another potentially useful diet plan for allergy sufferers. The theory behind this diet is that our bodies are not genetically adapted to the synthetic, processed foods that constitute much of our modern eating practices. Therefore, we are unable to digest many foods properly, and they become allergenic as our body tries to defend against them. According to MD Abram Hoffer, due to the slow course of evolution, our digestive apparatus has remained the same for 10,000years. Thus, we are best suited for the foods prevalent during the Paleolithic era – meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and a few seeds. “You ate different foods in the spring, summer, fall and water and never had too much. You also did not load up on any one item” says Dr. Hoffer. Now, we eat an abundance of the same foods, especially grains, every day of the year. “If you overload the gut with one particular item, for instance bread three times a day, then eventually the body breaks down” explains Dr. Hoffer. Malnourishment and a leaky gut are elements of this breakdown. Food combining: If your food allergies are caused by poor digestion, which allows food molecules to escape the gut barrier, proper food combining may help restore healthy digestion. The general rule, according to Patrick Donovan, is that proteins and starchy carbohydrates are never eaten at the same time. Proteins may be eaten with non-starchy vegetables. Carbohydrates (grains, potatoes etc.) may be eaten with all vegetables.  Fruits may be eaten alone, usually as a snack; the same is true with dairy products. “Digestion is optimal if foods eaten together have roughly the same digestion time”. Many alternative medicine practitioners have found that food combining helps patients avoid gas, belching and bloating, which is often caused when sugars from fruits or starchy carbohydrates ferment in the guy because the stomach is busy processing fats. Once again the efficacy of this diet depends on individual response and how severely digestion is impaired. Supplemental enzymes with food may also help.

• Do not consume any artificial sweeteners, such as Splenda, NutraSweet or Aspartame

• Do not consume high fructose corn syrup or mono-sodium glutamate.

• Do not drink any carbonated beverages.

• Avoid all fast food restaurants.

• Avoid all canned food.

• Eliminate conventional dairy products. The best dairy products are raw, unpasteurised and homogenised dairy from grass fed cows.  If this is unavailable, then buy organic dairy.

• Avoid conventional beef. The best beef is organic grass fed beef.

www.grasslandbeef.com The second best is organic meat; this includes beef, veal, lamb, chicken and turkey.

Supplements:

Probiotics: Imbalances of intestinal flora are common among allergy sufferers. To normalize this situation, naturopath, osteopath and acupuncturist, Dr Leon Chaitow stresses the need to restore bowel flora balance with a daily program of probiotics, or the use of friendly bacteria that inhabit the intestines under healthy conditions. Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. bulgaricus, and the Bifidobacteria are the key players in this process. To be effective, probiotic supplements should be freeze-dried, contain only the declared and desirable strains of the species and have concentrations of the friendly bacteria of about one billion parts per gram. They should also be kept refrigerated.

• Vitamin D has been shown to be a key factor in treatment.  Take Vitamin D3 50,000-100,000 International Units a day   for (how long?)
• Wholefood supplements are the best way of ensuring your nutritional needs are met.
• Omega 3s:

Krill oil – Fish oil – www.shoporganic.com Cod liver oil Vegetarian – www.

• Vitamin C  www.livonlabs.com
• Zamu  juice www.amazonherb.net
• Take Fivelac – one packet three times a day
• Digestive enzymes

Apple Cider Vinegar: Drinking apple cider vinegar upon onset of allergy symptoms or as a daily regimen has allowed many people to completely stop the histamine response and prevent their allergies. You can mix 1/8 cup of apple cider vinegar with 16 oz. of water and sip it throughout the day, or drink the entire mixture all at once. Often one dose of this will stop the allergy symptoms, but others need to take it up to 3 times a day to see results. If you drink this mixture when your allergies begin, you can usually see your symptoms disappear within 1-3 hours. It may taste disgusting at first, but you get used to it and benefits greatly outweigh the flavor! Bioflavonoids such as Quercetin taken orally along with bromelain, vitamin C and glutamine, are effective anti-allergy nutrients. For non food related allergies add:-

• Raw organic locally grown honey – 1 tablespoon one to three times a day

Nutritional Supplements: If digestive disorders are compounding an allergy, which is usually the case, they will need to be corrected before any significant improvements can occur. “I find that many people with such complaints suffer from deficiencies in vitamin A, certain B vitamins, zinc, magnesium and essential oils.” Dr. Braly says. “Some people, especially as they get older or if their allergies are severe, also require digestive assistance in the form of pancreatic enzymes and hydrochloric acid, so supplementing each meal with them can be helpful as well”. Alternatively, plant-derived enzymes like bromelain (from pineapple) or papain (from papaya) may be helpful. Both zinc and vitamin Aplay an important role in the production of IgA, an antibody secreted from the salivary glands in the mouth and from cells that line the digestive tract. If you are zinc and vitamin A deficient you produce less IgA and therefore you susceptibility to food allergies increase. Zinc also plays a role in the production of hydrochloric acid (HCI) which the body needs for digestion. Another group of nutrients that Dr. Braly employs to treat allergies is vitamin P or certain bioflavonoids. “Bioflavonoids are some of the most effective anti-allergy nutrients that I’ve come across” he says. “Many of my patients who are allergy prone, both to their diet and their environment, over time stop having allergic reactions once these bioflavonoids start taking effect. Quercetin taken orally along with bromelain, vitamin C and glutamine has produced wonderful results”. Finally, vitamin C in high doses can have a dramatic effect in improving allergy symptoms, particularly hay fever and asthma, due to its ability to counteract the inflammation responses that are part of such conditions. Robert Cathcart III MD, who pioneered the technique of taking vitamin C to bowel tolerance, recommends its use for allergies. In cases of more severe exposure he advises that the dose of vitamin C be increased as well.

Prescription and non-prescription medication:

What non-prescription and prescription drugs are you taking?  Your non-prescription and prescription are partially the reason that you have this illness or disease – you need to get off these medications but do so only under the guidance of a licensed health care practitioner.