Posted by Dr. James Wilson on Mon, Nov 02, 2009
Food sensitivities can affect your life in subtle ways. They can manifest by increasing your fatigue, clouding your judgement, intensifying your anger and other emotional reactions, or just make you feel bad for no apparent reason. Here are some tools to help you learn which foods, drinks or
substances are the offending agents -- and how to relieve your body's
stress and speed your adrenal recovery time.
Food & Environmental Intolerances Questionnaire
Food and environmental intolerances affect your body's ability to function and can contribute to adrenal fatigue. A “Food & Environmental Intolerances Questionnaire” is available at our website at http://adrenalfatigue.org. It lists common signs and symptoms of food and environmental intolerances. They may or may not show up on allergy tests, but if you have many of these signs and symptoms, your body is likely reacting to one or more substances you are eating, drinking or have been exposed to. Once you determine which substance(s) is bothering you and remove it, you should see improvement, provided that your adrenal glands have the capacity to respond and recover.
Elimination/Provocation Confirmation Test
The elimination/provocation test is an accurate, inexpensive and easy way to confirm suspicions about food sensitivities/allergies. To do this, you simply eliminate the suspect food from your diet completely for at least three weeks and then reintroduce it. The first time you reintroduce the food, beverage or substance, it is best to have only a small amount (one or two mouthfuls). Do not eat or drink anything but water for approximately one hour before and two hours after you consume your test item. Take your pulse sitting quietly before eating the food and every 15 minutes after, for an hour. Record any emotional swings, mood changes, or alterations in mental clarity. Note if your energy level goes up or down. One of the most common reactions found in food allergies/sensitivities is to feel especially good, almost giddy, for 30-45 minutes after you ingest the test item, and then to fall into a real low.
If you still do not notice any detectable difference in your pulse, energy level mental clarity, mood or in any other way physically, mentally or emotionally, you are probably not sensitive to that food or perhaps your are only sensitive to it under certain conditions. If you do notice such changes, you are probably sensitive to that food substance. Eliminate this item completely from your diet.
ELISA IgE Test
Getting an ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbant assay) IgE food allergy test is the best place to start with laboratory tests. The basic panel covers 90-100 foods, and the more comprehensive panels cover about 175 foods including spices, herbs, condiments and uncommon foods. Despite the usefulness of the ELISA tests, there are certain kinds of food reactions that they do not pick up. For these, the Cellular Immune Food Reaction Tests may be more useful.
Cellular Immune Food Reaction Tests
Also known as delayed-type hypersensitivity reaction tests (DTH) or activated cell tests (ACT), these are less common blood tests that can be valuable in detecting subtle or delayed allergies not caught by the ELISA. These tests look at the part of the immune system’s response to food that can be delayed up to three days after eating the food. Such food allergies are seldom discovered by observations and are not picked up by the usual food panels.
Posted by Dr. James Wilson on Mon, Nov 02, 2009
It is hard to say which is more important when you have adrenal fatigue – what to eat or what not to eat! Eating the wrong foods or combination of foods can throw you off for hours and even days, so do not event try to sneak something by; it is just not worth the price you have to pay. Make regaining your health a major priority and do not sacrifice it for the cheap gratification of a favorite, but unhealthy, food or drink. Pick the foods that are recommended for adrenal fatigue and stick with them. The further you deviate from them, the more problems you are likely to have and the more difficult it will be to balance your body chemistry. In order to heal and maintain your health, you need to stack as many things in your favor as possible.
Eliminate All Foods to Which You Are Allergic, Sensitive or Addicted
If you think that a particular food substance interferes in any way with achieving your optimum health, eliminate it immediately. If you suspect, but do not know which foods or beverages you are allergic, sensitive or addicted to, then it is important to find out. The adrenals are extremely important in all allergies, including food allergies and sensitivities. As your adrenal function improves, you will be less prone to allergies and will be able to eat more things. However, for the first three months, do not push the envelope. Completely eliminate all the foods you are sensitive to or suspect you are sensitive or allergic to. The idea is not to see how far you can test the limits; the idea is to get yourself well.
Role of Allergies in Adrenal Function
Most allergies involve the release of histamine and other pro-inflammatory substances (substances that produce inflammation). The adrenal hormone, cortisol, is a strong anti-inflammatory (a substance that reduces inflammation). Your circulating level of cortisol is the key factor in controlling the level of inflammatory reactions in your body. For this reason, your adrenal glands play an important role in mediating the histamine release and inflammatory reactions that produce the symptoms experienced with allergies. It is therefore not surprising that people with food and environmental allergies commonly have weak adrenal function.
The more histamine that is released, the more cortisol it takes to control the inflammatory response and the harder the adrenals have to work to produce more cortisol.
The harder the adrenals have to work, the more fatigued they become and the less cortisol they produce, allowing histamine to inflame the tissues more.
This vicious circle can lead to progressively deeper adrenal fatigue as well as to larger allergic reactions.
Anything you can do to break this cycle will help your adrenal glands and reduce the effects of allergies.
Eliminating foods that you are allergic or sensitive to from your diet is one of the best and easiest ways to decrease the demands on your struggling adrenals.
Most symptoms of allergies or food sensitivities are first felt between thirty minutes and three hours after the meal, but some may be delayed as long as two to three days.
Because of the abundance of histamine receptors in your brain, an allergen will often cause a greater reaction in your nervous system than it does anywhere else. Ranging from subtle to profound, these cerebral allergy reactions can include such symptoms as a cloudy head, confusion, sudden awkwardness, loss of consciousness, coma and occasionally death.
Responses to particular foods and drinks vary from person to person but there are some food substances that tend to produce allergies more frequently. The most common food allergens are the proteins in cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish, and tree nuts. Sugar is not a common allergen, but it can greatly increase an allergic reaction. If you find yourself feeling odd or experiencing more of the signs and symptoms of adrenal fatigue after eating, think of allergies or food sensitivities.
Allergic reactions also vary in magnitude, even within the same individual. At one a time an allergen may produce only a small response, and at other times be incapacitating. It is important to track down and eliminate these food sensitivities and allergies in order to help you adrenal glands recover.