Discussion Board

This guy is a gluten-free author, but besides just the gluten perspective, he says here that GERD may be a symptom of various types of food allergy.

http://www.betterhealthusa.com/public/359print.cfm

Not because it means anything, just personal experience- I have life threatening food allergies to quite a few things and I have never had GERD or experienced anything like GERD as an allergic response.

My allergic responses have been:

Eyes swelling shut for up to 5 days
Intense raised hives over my entire body
Itching and swelling of my airways, ear canals, and mucus membranes
Intense stomach cramping followed by something so horrific I won't even go into it.
Knife like gas pains
Life threatening Asthma attacks
Headaches
Itchy lips
Panic
Feeling of impending death
Irritability (This could just be because I'm a moody person. )

There is a big difference between your body not tolerating a food, and being allergic. I think a lot of the "food allergies" we are seeing today aren't actually allergies at all, but some form of built up intolerance (like celiac) that we have aquired due to our nasty eating habits.

I think the allergy bandwagon goes overboard, and I think the grain intolerance isn't taken seriously enough.

sorry to hear of your difficulties.

I think allergy and intolerance are somewhat similar...I mean as far as elliciting a response from the immune system...

however...what I think...I mean if I'm right about this, is that due to the different types of immune response in the two separate situation, the allergy might be an immediate, sudden and accute response, whereas the intolerance might be a slower-release of immune activity directed toward the offender...and may result in more chronic, ongoing conditions.

At least I THINK that's right, but not 100% sure. It's a confusing issue, and the terms are often interchanged in discussion.

Have you identified all of your allergens so you are able to know how to avoid them???

Your line of thinking about intolerances and allergy is exactly the conclusion I came to...

When I got tested I was 18. I got tested because I ended up in the emergency room basically dead, they had to do some things to clear my airway etc. I had had so many allergic reactions all my life, and my parents never really thought I needed a doctor so I just learned to swallow my lumps and not whine too much when I couldn't see or breathe.
The day I ended up in the hospital I had eaten: A pint of Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream, Apple Juice, and an antibiotic. Turned out that the antibiotic I was allergic to, and with the combo of the ice cream containing dairy, wheat and eggs was like a bomb in my body and it exploded.

They decided on a blood test, a skin test, and an elimination diet for various allergies, environmental and inhaled/consumed. I just have a very touchy allergic/asthmatic/arthritic system so it was kind of a tough thing to weed through.

My food allergy tests through blood came back highly allergic to: Wheat, Gluten, Eggs, Nuts, Bananas, and some other tropical fruits and dairy. This list may be missing some stuff, as I don't really keep it memorized anymore. I also have awful drug allergies.

Basically I played with fire a couple times, but within a week of complying to my "new" dietary restrictions the constant eczema was gone and healed, my skin didn't have hive breakouts EVERYDAY they were gone, my eyes didn't tear, my throat wasn't snotty and sore, I could breathe, asthma attacks became rare and seasonal, my stomach didn't hurt, my lips stopped swelling up etc.

The environmental allergies were much harder to battle. They don't go away.

I've often wondered why I got hit so hard with allergies, but my dad has them pretty bad and when I was a kid I was exposed to tons of constant cigarette smoke and my parents pumped us full of dairy. I also wasn't breastfed. I think some people just have itchy triggers on their immune systems like me.

The whole allergy thing to me is very scary. I spent years not knowing why I would suddenly get so sick, and it was very very frightening and debilitating. Having OCD and panic attacks only magnified my fear.

Luckily I now feel I have it under control after 10 years of work.

My gosh, Porcelain Interior...sounds like you've been through quite a lot!!! I'm glad you've identified the culprits and are able to avoid the dangers.

I've heard, as Carroll says, that in some cases, either some food intolerances can lead to allergies, or other intolerances, and possibly some allergies can lead to more allergies...etc. A real snowball effect and can get very involved and puzzling.

My hunch is ANY intolerance leads to leaky gut, and then leaky gut messes with your immune system enough to create further allergies...because your immune system is on alert for viruses and gets confused as to what is friend and what is foe...either reacting violently to things like pollen, or even starting to react to the body's own tissue, as in autoimmune disorders. Leaky gut...another groundhog(g) hunch, for whatever good they are , might possibly be involved somehow with the general oogies that people call candida...I'm all fuzzy about that...whether in fact it can really exist, etc., but I do think normal body flora can be thrown wacky and all sorts of things go wrong when all these immunity confusions are in place...and so, I would personally (as a non-scientist groundhog) catagorize candida as an aspect of leaky gut syndrome in general. Just musings, though...i don't think anybody, even researchers, doctors and scientists, really understands WHY people or other creatures have allergies or intolerances.

Those with intolerance/allergy might feel unlucky somtimes...but really, at least KNOWING which things cause the symptoms is really a pretty lucky thing, giving one the power to be proactive enough to avoid problems.

I think I've read that at least with some forms of contact allergens, the more time the person can avoid the allergen, the better the body becomes at coping with some possible future exposures. If that's true, that's good news for evnybody with allergies. That could possibly extend to intolerances as well, as I've heard that celiacs are extremely sensitive the first few years gluten free, but then as time goes on and they remain away from gluten, accidental exposure begins to produce less severe symptoms. These are just things I've heard...I hope they are true!

Well if your happy dance is really that "terrifying," I might just run away and crawl back into the groundhog(g) den before the smootch gets planted...but either way, I do sincerely HOPE you find the cure for the GERD...the natural cure! It's there...you just need to seek it out.

I'm keepin' my fingers...er Paws, crossed fer ya on that one !