Introduction to Food Sensitivities and Seasonal Allergies
Food sensitivities and seasonal allergies, though seemingly unrelated, share complex control over your immune systems behavior and can exacerbate each other's symptoms. This article delves into the underlying mechanisms of how food sensitivities can influence the severity and frequency of seasonal allergy symptoms, providing actionable advice for managing both.
The Link Between Food Sensitivities and Allergic Reactions
When people hear food allergies many think of the person who ate a peanut and had their throat swell shut. This scary life-threatening immune response is a food allergy and involves the IgE antibody response. IgE-mediated reactions can result in a range of symptoms from more mild (e.g., hives, itching, digestive upset) to more significant (e.g., swelling of lips and mouth) to severe (life-threatening anaphylaxis). These are potentially life-threatening immune responses and symptoms that occur very quickly after exposure and are not the same as a food sensitivity…
Food sensitivities are also an abnormal response by the immune system to certain proteins (antigens) found in foods. Food sensitivities typically involve IgG and IgA antibodies as the immune response, resulting in a slower, less life-threatening reaction. When IgG and IgA antibodies are released, common symptoms are headaches, digestive upset, skin rashes, joint pain, fatigue, and more... Food sensitivities commonly appear up to 72 hours after exposure to that food, making them much harder to pinpoint.
Food Sensitivities and their Impact on Seasonal Allergies
Imagin your body as a bucket and inflammation is like the water causing it to fill up. The bucket can hold a certain amount of water before it starts to spill over. When you are regularly consuming foods you are sensitive to, you are creating inflammation and filling that bucket up. If your bucket is constantly filled to 90% capacity there is little room for other things to create inflammation in the body including seasonal allergens such as pollen, dust, or mold without them causing symptoms...
Once spring rolls around, and flowers and grass start releasing their pollen or your pets start shedding their winter coats that 90% full bucket is suddenly at capacity and starting to spill over causing symptoms like:
· Chronic sinus problems
· Asthma
· Post-nasal drip
· Always feeling like you need to clear your throat
· Headache
· Eczema/skin rashes
· Acne
· Digestive issues
· Joint pain
· Fatigue
· Brain fog
· Sleep problems
The key connection lies in the immune system's tendency to overreact to external stimuli when already sensitized or activated by food antigens.
Your Seasonal Allergy Solution
Reducing your seasonal allergy misery without medications and supplements can be as simple as strategically eliminating your food sensitivities from your diet so your baseline inflammation is lower. Lowering your base line inflammation creates volume in the proverbial bucket for springs’ allergens to irritate you without it “spilling over” into symptoms.
Dietary Interventions
Eliminating or reducing consumption of foods (if known) you are sensitive to during the spring allergy season. Keeping a food diary to track the correlation between diet and allergy symptoms can be an effective strategy for identifying problematic foods. Remember that symptoms from sensitivities can take up to 72 hours to occur, which makes this approach a little challenging. Food sensitivity testing can help quickly identify problematic foods and allow you to skip straight to the elimination step.
Limit Sugar and Artificial Sweeteners:
Both sugar and artificial sweeteners can promote inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation impairs the immune system's ability to differentiate between harmless substances and potential threats, leading to an overactive immune response when exposed to allergens. This can increase the severity of seasonal allergies, as the body reacts more aggressively to environmental triggers.
Enhancing Gut Health
A well-balanced gut microbiome plays a crucial role in regulating immune responses and can lessen sensitivity to allergens. Incorporating probiotic-rich foods like yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut or taking a high-quality probiotic supplement can help strengthen gut health and potentially reduce the severity of allergy symptoms.
Discovering Your Food Sensitivities:
The two most common ways to discover your food sensitivities are Elimination and Rechallenge Diets and Food Sensitivity Testing. Both approaches help identify which foods cause inflammation in the body and reduce seasonal allergy symptoms.
Elimination and Rechallenge Diet Approach:
With the Elimination and Rechallenge Diet approach during the elimination period, you eat a limited diet of foods that most people have low reactions to and all common food allergens and spices are completely eliminated from your diet for a minimum of 2 to 3 weeks or until your symptoms have improved. After your symptoms improve, foods are added back, one at a time every 3 days, to determine which foods are causing your symptoms.
Food Sensitivity Testing with Functional Labs:
Identifying food sensitivities and their impact on seasonal allergies can be challenging and time consuming! The IgG Food MAP with Candida + Yeast from Mosaic Diagnostics (which check your immune reactions to 190 foods plus candida and yeast), can provide the exact foods that are causing the Inflammatory Immune Response and tell you if your reactions are low, moderate or high. With this data in hand selective avoidance of reactive foods is possible with a brief blood draw.
Avoid Your Food Sensitivities this Spring so you don’t have to avoid the Spring Season:
By focusing on diet adjustments, enhancing gut health, and employing accurate diagnostic tests, you can achieve better control over your symptoms and improve your overall health! If you’d like to learn more about Natural Approaches to Seasonal Allergies call the office or book online. If you’re not a patient yet, schedule a Free Discovery Call with Dr. Rachel to learn more.
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