FOOD AND CHEMICAL ALLERGIES
Is it something in your diet. . .
The two symptoms Dr Saifer was talking about are found mainly in people who have a food allergy. But they aren’t the only two signs of food allergy. If you answer yes to any of the following questions, your problems may be food related:
Did you have colic as an infant?
Do you have frequent attacks of indigestion, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea or gas?
Are there foods that you can eat freely in one season (winter, for example), yet they bother you during other times of the year?
Do you feel tired after you eat?
Do you feel better if you skip a meal?
Do you have to loosen your belt after meals?
Are there any specific foods that you particularly dislike?
Are there any foods that you crave or eat frequently?
Another sign often associated with (but not limited to) food allergy is a patchy tongue. Little round or oval smooth patches appear on the back, edges and tips of the tongue. They tend to come and go.
. . . Or is it something in the air?
Chemical allergy is another problem that can sneak up on you. Billions of pounds of chemicals are produced each year, to say nothing of the fumes given off by cars, industry and even home appliances. Ultimately, chemicals and fumes end up in our bodies. And invariably, some people can’t tolerate them. Maybe you, too, are chemically sensitive – but don’t know it.
‘You may have a gas stove, yet never suspect you’re allergic to gas when you’re home every day,’ says Dr Theron Randolph, a well-known allergist in Chicago, Illinois. ‘Yet when you take a vacation — say, up to the mountains where the air is good -you may come home only to become sick within minutes after walking through the door. But when you were living with the same stove every day, you never suspected it.’
Petroleum-derived chemicals, by virtue of their infinitesimal size, find their way into the most sensitive parts of the body -like the brain. In fact, since petrochemicals are fat-soluble and have a special affinity for the nervous system, they tend to affect sight, hearing, personality, memory and reasoning.
The following questions will help you evaluate whether or not you’re sensitive to chemicals.
Are you more aware of smells and odours than other people seem to be?
Do the odours of perfumes, marking pens, correction fluid, freshly printed newspaper, car exhaust, fresh paint or new car interiors make you ill?
Do you (or your child) do well in school one day and poorly the next?
Is your behaviour unpredictable, turning from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde (and back again) at the drop of a hat?
Are you cranky, listless, impatient and ill-tempered more often than not?
Did any health problems begin shortly after exposure to a chemical – after refinishing furniture, cleaning a carpet, mopping up spilled petrol or doing pool maintenance?
‘There are an awful lot of folks who could be helped if it occurred to them that they may have an allergy,’ said Dr Saifer. She added that once they realize they have an allergy, their aim should be to reduce their overall exposure to allergens by using ‘avoidance tactics’ – specific methods to keep the allergens with which they come in contact to a minimum.
Reducing exposure not only eases existing allergies, but may also prevent allergy from surfacing in the first place.
*9/65/5*
