They are known as the “great mimickers.”
They can trigger any and every symptom in your body, including:
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Brain fog
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Aches & Pains
- Bloating
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Eczema
- Psoriasis
- Hormonal imbalances
- Weight Gain
- And much, much more.
Want to know what IT is?
Food allergies and sensitivities.
They can trigger any and every symptom in your body!
It’s highly likely that you have at least one hidden food allergy or sensitivity, if not many more. I’m going to help you find them.
First, let me explain the differences between allergies and sensitivities, because there’s a lot of confusion and misinformation on the subject.
Allergies versus Sensitivities
Allergies and sensitivities all have to do with reactions from the immune system.
Think of your immune system like the military. There are different branches of the military, and they each serve a unique and specific purpose—Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Special Forces.
Just as there are different branches of the military, there are also different branches of the immune system. When it comes to allergies and sensitivities, they are known as IgE, IgA, and IgG, reactions.
(There are also IgD and IgM, but since they cannot be tested yet, I will leave them out of the discussion for now.)
IgE reactions are food allergies. IgA and IgG reactions are food sensitivities.
Food Allergies
Without getting overly technical, a food allergy is an IgE response from the immune system. In fact, the term allergy is medically defined as an IgE reaction.
This is the branch of the immune system that only allergists will deal with.
Symptoms
An IgE reaction to a food is considered a true allergy and is the strongest of all the immune reactions. An example of this is when a person eats strawberries and they immediately break out in hives. Or, when a person eats peanuts and develops a life threatening allergic response.
But not all IgE food allergies will show this immediate amount of strength. A person can have multiple IgE food allergies without even knowing it! And this may be an underlying cause of your fatigue.
Testing
A suspected food allergy is usually tested with a skin prick test by an allergist.
Unfortunately, the skin prick test only finds about 50 percent of IgE food allergies. So if you have already seen an allergist and had a skin prick test done, that’s a good start. But you’re not done yet.
The next step would be to get an IgE blood test done for food allergies. Panels are commonly done for 95, 150, even 300 plus foods.
Now that you understand what a food allergy is (an IgE response), let’s briefly look at IgA and IgG.
Food Sensitivities – Symptoms
The next level down in response is the IgA and IgG reactions—food sensitivities.
In addition to fatigue, food sensitivities can cause:
- runny nose
- digestive upsets
- skin rashes
- headaches
- depression
- anxiety
- foggy brain
- constipation
- diarrhea
The reaction you are looking for can be one or more of the above, or anything unusual for you. It can be as simple as a racing heartbeat. Any reaction to a food means you have a problem with that food.
Testing
Food sensitivities can be tested with blood, but sensitivities are tricky to find. They tend to wax and wane, depending on how much of the food you have eaten during the weeks before the test is run.
They also wax and wane depending on how much irritation is already going on deep inside your intestines. The more irritation in your intestines, the more sensitivities tend to show up on a test.
On top of that—and here is a little secret that most doctors aren’t even aware of—most labs will use foods in their raw form to test with.
This is fine for fruits and veggies. But, testing to see if you are allergic to raw pork? Or raw shellfish? Or raw oats? You would never eat that stuff raw!
When we cook our foods, it changes their chemical structure, which would also mean it would generate an immune response altogether different from raw foods. See the problem?
Here’s another gem. You may be fine with (not sensitive to) individual foods, but start combining them together and you may get a whole different scenario. Take pizza for example. You may show no sensitivities to tomato, mozzarella, wheat, yeast, or oregano, but combine them all together and now you have a different beast that you may be sensitive to. Obviously it would be impossible to test for combinations of food.
Unfortunately there is no best way to test for IgG and IgA food sensitivities via blood work. There will always be some false positives (showing a sensitivity when you really have none), and there will always be false negatives (doesn’t show a reaction even though you do actually have a sensitivity).
Having said all of that (hang in there!)…
Yes, the technology for testing IgG and IgA food sensitivities is not 100 percent. But, it is the best we have right now. So as long as you understand the pros and cons of the test first, you can at least make an informed decision about having yourself tested or not.
Lastly, IgA and IgG reactions are never tested by allergists. Allergists only deal with IgE skin prick tests. Functional medicine doctors are the ones who will test all three—IgE, IgA, and IgG.
(Phew—thanks for hanging in there!)
Now, let’s get back to resolving your fatigue!
Treatment for Food Allergies and Sensitivities
You can be sensitive to nearly anything. However, the most common food sensitivities are (in order):
- wheat
- orange
- eggs
- tea
- coffee
- chocolate
- milk
- beef
- corn
- cane sugar
- yeast
To find what you are sensitive to:
Option 1: Avoid everything on this list and see if that helps your fatigue.
OR
Option 2: You may want to get the blood testing done for IgE, IgA, and IgG food reactions. It’s definitely the most expensive option. But if you’re like me and don’t want to tinker with your diet unless you really have to, then have the blood test done. You will have your answers in two to three weeks.
OR
Option 3: Actually the best way to detect food allergies and sensitivities is to do an Elimination Diet, followed by a Food Challenge.
Make a promise to yourself starting today:
Stop feeling lousy…rotten…awful…crummy…miserable…terrible…crappy.
Find a good Functional Medicine doctor to help you get to the root cause of your health problems.
Like I always say:
Find the cause.
Fix the cause.
Feel normal again!
Dr. Carri Drzyzga, DC, ND – The Functional Medicine Doc
Find the Cause. Fix the Cause. Feel Normal Again!