Environmental
and Food ALLERGIES
Each year more than 50 million Americans
suffer from allergic diseases. Allergies
are the 6th leading cause of
chronic disease in the United States, costing
the health care system $18 billion annually.1
We all are familiar with “Clariten” type
allergies causing symptoms such as a runny
nose, sneezing, headache, generalized weakness
and tiredness (as seen with hay fever),
contact allergies causing rash and itching
(poison ivy), or systemic (body-wide)
reactions to drugs (penicillin), foods
(strawberries, shellfish). They are related to
a class of immune globulins called IgE. These
are typically tested for using skin tests and
elimination/ provocation/ challenge tests.
But what of delayed reactions to certain
foods or environmental substances? Symptoms
can be varied and difficult to attribute to
specific foods or other substances. Everything
from migraine headaches, irritable bowel
syndrome (IBS), asthma-like symptoms, chronic
fatigue and depression in adults to behavioral
disturbances in children such as ADD and ADHD
can be caused by these types of environmental
sensitivities. Symptoms often appear hours or
even days after exposure, so diagnosing these
disorders are more difficult. Different types
of immune globulins including IgG and IgA
mediate these delayed allergic responses.
Testing is done on the blood, using enzyme
immunoassays to detect these antibodies, often
missed by conventional means. Further
information, a symptom self-test, and
treatment information are
available at http://www.immunolabs.com/.
By whatever name -- a reaction to foods,
chemicals, toxic fumes, perfumes, and almost
anything in the environment may draw you into
an unexpected controversy2 It is said
that 99.3 % of physicians do not have training
in recognizing, diagnosing or treating
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS), Sick
Building Syndrome or any of the other health
problems caused by the environment.2
At CEIM, we have that training.
The following links contain reliable
information about allergies:
