This week I had a couple of clients in my practice who had been to see Doctors and been given an IgG4 test to determine what foods that they were allergic to. To their horror the clients had been told that they would need to avoid over 50 different foods. These included staples such as eggs, dairy, meats fruit and good quality sources of nutrients! 50….50?! To me that should start alarm bells ringing.
Why is that client having so many reactions to food? It’s not normal to have so many reactions to that many foods. In the last blog that I did I talked about why people get a leaky gut and why it makes no sense to run a food intolerance test, which is just looking at another symptom. In the last blog I showed you my diagram of why people get a leaky gut and on the list are many issues such as fungus, parasites, bacteria, estrogen dominance, poor food choices etc. So why not start with key areas of assessment such as an internal terrain gut test or the thyroid, skip the expensive food allergy tests and for that matter adrenal tests, These are just symptoms of other metabolic dysfunctions. Danny Roddy wrote about adrenal fatigue and I must agree that I made a conscious decision to stop anaylising areas such as the adrenals so that clients can address areas that will bring around a resolution to their problems with assessments that yeild more bang for their buck!
Below is a childlike drawing of a leaky gut ( drawn by myself of course!)
Note the difference in structure of the villi of the healthy and unhealthy intestines. When food enters the mouth, the brain has already released enzymes in the saliva that start to break down food, prior to its arrival into the stomach. Once inside the stomach, hydrochloric acid or HCL is produced along with other key digestive chemicals that help to break down key nutrients into their most basic of structures.
Carbohydrates are broken down into sacharrides, Proteins are degraded to amino acids Fat is broken down to triglycerides.
So here’s where some of the problems start especially when HCL production is reduced. Hydrochloric acid can often be reduced due to issues such as dehydration, low protein diets or vegetarianism, bacterial infections such as Helicobacter Pylori (which is responsible for gastric ulcers and cancers) and proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole which lower stomach acid.
As the food is only partially digested and less acidic than normal it enters the small intestine, due to its low level of HCL and acidity. The normal stimulation of key digestive enzymes such as lipase, amylase and protease are also inhibited as the lack of acidity fails to initiate the production of cholesytekinin which triggers digestive enzymes decreasing further the digestive process.
Now you have undigested food particles hanging around the small and large intestine which becomes a breeding ground for fungus, parasites and bacteria which start to putrefy the foods in your bowel. The net effect….gas, noxious smells and other unwanted symptoms such as bad breath, poor skin, bags under eyes, poor sleep and the list goes on and so the vicious cycle of undigested food, gut dysfunction and a leaky gut ensue. a lot of people think that they eat healthily but f you have a leaky gut then it is likely that you will suffer from mal-absorption and key nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and sources of energy go undigested.
As the body is becomes increasingly stressed, the hormones that regulate the mucosal barrier such as cortisol become elevated and supressed as do other hormones and the bodies primary source of defence where most of the antibodies are produced starts to diminish.
This can also be contibuted to by the thyroid, adrenals and other glands which make the digestive system dysfunctional. If you want to find out why you have so many reactions to foods: find out what is causing it! Don’t shoot the messenger!
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