The Difference Between Food Allergies and Food Intolerances

Nancy Guberti, www.coachforhealthyliving.com, notes the following in her upcoming book.

• Food allergies are different from food intolerances.
• In food intolerances, there is an adverse reaction to a food for reasons that do not involve the immune system. With lactose intolerance, for instance, a person lacks an enzyme necessary to digest milk sugar. As a result, when they consume airy prducts they develop symptoms like bloating and diarrhea. For food intolerances, there are enzymes available to help the body digest most food intolerances.
• On the other hand, there is no current cure for food allergies, and the only way to prevent a reaction is to strictly avoid the foods.

IgE versus IgG Reactions

• Allergies are defined as specific reactions within the immune system involving an antibody called immunoglobulin E (IgE). Immediate responses such as hives, congestion or swelling typically result from IgE activity. Traditional scratch testing identifies IgE triggers such as pollen or peanuts, which can cause symptoms that range from annoying to lethal. The best known and well-studied form of food allergies is called a Type 1 immune reaction.
• Very different responses are delayed allergy reactions. If they occur more than two hours after eating a food, they may result from immunoglobulin G (IgG) rather than IgE activity. IgG reactions may cause symptoms such as sleep disturbances, subsequent bed wetting, sinus and ear infections, or crankiness. Blood tests rather than scratch tests are the only way to screen for IgG allergies.
• Where immunoglobulins are involved, the word "allergy" can legitimately be used to describe symptoms after exposure. A reaction to gluten or casein sometimes shows up in IgG or IgA blood testing, and is, therefore, referred to as an "allergy".

Excerpt from upcoming book by author Nancy Guberti, www.coachforhealthyliving.com

Allergy Testing and Autism

A word from Dr. Kenneth Bock about what to expect from mainstream doctors when dealing with allergy testing and treatment:

In his recent book, Healing The New Childhood Epidemics, Dr. Bock writes:

"... Some physicians who don't really understand integrative medicine can be dismissive of important factors, such as dietary change or detoxification, and they may even be hostile about their implementation. This may be a person who has a great deal of expertise in his or her own medical approach, and he or she will undoubtedly be very articulate and persuasive -even when he or she is misinformed."

"Allergies frequently remain undiagnosed for several reasons. One reason they're missed is because the majority of allergists rely primarily or even exclusively, on the skin scratch test, or prick test, in which they scratch open the surface of the skin and apply a potential allergen, to see if it causes inflammation. I consider this test to be relatively unreliable, because it doesn't place the allergen deeply enough into the body to achieve a consistently clear result. I much prefer the intradermal test, in which the allergen is placed significantly deeper into the skin. The intradermal test is a more sensitive tool, and helps eliminate false negative, in which existing allergies go undetected."

"Allergy is the least responsive of the 4-A disorders to effective remediation with medication. Allergy is the quintessentially complex internal reaction that simply cannot be contained with the highly targeted action of pharmaceutical medicines. Medication by itself, is not the answer to 4-A epidemics. But it is part of the answer when it is applied in conjunction with the other aspects of a healing program, as one element of a comprehensive, individualized, flexible plan."

Now, in order to help clarify the differences between types of allergies and what distinguishes them from intolerances, I will include this word from Dr. Bock:

Food and Inhalant Reactions - The three primary types

1. IgE Allergies. These are the reactions that most doctors do recognize. They are reactions to foods or inhalants that involve the immune system's IgE antibodies. They are the only type of classic, "true" allergy, according to the conventional definition of allergy. They are relatively uncommon, affecting only a small percentage of all people who have reactions to food. They are generally the most severe type of reaction, and usually occur almost immediately upon contact with allergens. They can remain troublesome throughout life.
2. IgG Sensitivities. Technically, these are not classic allergies, because they involve the immune system's IgG antibodies, instead of the IgE antibodies. Therefore, they are often ignored by allergists. These sensitivities are far more common than classic IgE allergies, although they usually have milder symptoms. Generally, symptoms don't become evident for several hours. Occasionally they take as much as a day or two, or even longer, to produce symptoms. They sometimes go away after a reactive food has been avoided for several months, or longer.
3. Intolerances. These are simple, chemical reactions, usually to foods, that do not involve the immune system. Because they don't involve the immune system, they are not considered to be classic allergies. Therefore they are often completely overlooked by allergists. Even so, intolerances can cause severe symptoms. For example, when some people eat the food substance known as tyramine, which is in wine and cheese, it triggers dilation of the blood vessels in their brains, and causes migraines.

Why We Get Allergies:

Dr. Bock continues: "We get allergies because of three fundamental factors: 1) nutritional factors, 2) immune factors, and 3) inflammatory factors. Feeding into each of these three general factors is an array of harmful, interwoven forces. For example, the force of yeast overgrowth can stress the immune system, and contribute to immune factors that cause allergies and other food reactions. Similarly, the force of enzyme deficits can contribute to the nutritional factors that cause food reactions. Even one isolated force can create an allergy. When many forces combine, they can create allergies that are so severe that they can last a lifetime and even be fatal."

"Distant Inflammation is one root cause of allergy that is often overlooked. For example, many doctors fail to realize that airway allergies are often exacerbated by distant inflammation, in the gut. However, this happens quite often. Therefore, patients can frequently overcome air-borne allergies when they resolve their intestinal inflammation."

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