Causes of allergies

Health Matters Trust Marandure
What we usually are dealing with in cases of allergy is a hyper allergic system not a system with an allergy. This can be easily seen in the typical allergy patient who finds himself or herself first allergic to one thing, only later to develop more allergies as time goes by.

I have seen patients who claimed food allergies to nearly everything except chips and Coca-cola! Another interesting fact is that allergies may be inconsistent, being worse on some days and almost absent on others. This reflects variations in the individual’s reaction, due to factors other than exposure.

The difference in many cases between a normal reaction and an abnormal reaction to otherwise normal elements in the environment is weak and over-stressed adrenal glands.

This is not only the cause as we shall see later, but certainly is a major factor. Overstressed adrenals may be due to an improper diet of sugar and refined carbohydrates, alcohol, or coffee all of which put an excess burden on these glands.

Hypoglycemia, a result of such a diet, is closely associated with most cases of allergies. Prolonged psychological stress also stimulates and depletes the adrenal glands. This creates a vicious cycle of stress, adrenal exhaustion, and allergy, which in turn usually creates some degree of stress, and so on.

A very common history reported by many allergy patients clearly shows this allergy-stress relationship. As a child, many symptoms of allergy were present. These disappeared sometime in the teens or earlier. For years the patient was symptom free, until the onset of a severely stressful incident or period of life such as a divorce or marriage, death of a loved one, stressful job, difficult child, or other similar situation. Shortly after this, severe allergic symptoms return.

Another common cause of allergies, especially in the form of chronic skin rashes, is the use of vaccines and other drugs. A common history obtained from those with chronic eczema or psoriasis is single or repeated vaccinations followed closely by the onset of allergy. This is probably due to a similar mechanism of thymus and destruction as found with massive chemical exposure of severe viral disease such as mononucleosis, hepatitis, or influenza.

Certain cells, called T-regulatory cells, are produced by the thymus gland and help suppress formation of excess antibiotics and thus reduce allergic reactions. These cells are easily destroyed by many vaccines, some drugs, massive chemical exposure, severe viral infections, and radiation.

In some cases, however, the roots of allergy are not so easily traced, but a history of repeated vaccinations of drugs is always suspected. Once a foreign protein is introduced into the blood stream some degree of allergy reaction, depending on individual variables, is probable.

Certain foods may act as the primary cause of allergy. These cause different reactions in the body than the common inhalants and other topical allergies. The body may, due to inherited tendencies, have for example a gluten intolerance causing mal-absorption of any grain that contains this protein.

The intestines become irritated and lose their normal villi necessary for proper absorption. This thinning of the bowel’s walls allows toxic substances to be absorbed into the bloodstream, which may cause allergic symptoms far from the original disorder to complicate the local intestinal complaint. Thus we see how a single digestive incompatibility may lead to multiple allergic symptoms.

Milk intolerance is also a very common problem. Some individuals lack the enzyme to digest milk sugar from birth, while others lose this enzyme (lactase) later in life. Up to 85 percent of Orientals are deficient in lactase by adult life, while up to 85 percent of the Caucasian population retain adequate levels for normal digestion.

If lactase levels are too low or absent, milk cannot be digested and it ferments, causing diarrhoea, constipation, gas, abdominal pain, and many other systemic allergic reactions. The protein in milk may also cause problems.

Part of the problem with these two main food groups, wheat and milk, stems from improper weaning. The infant’s intestine is much more permeable than the adult’s. Large protein or protein fragments can be absorbed directly into the blood. If protein containing foods such as milk, wheat or eggs are introduced into the diet too early, these protein components can set the stage for life-long allergy.

Breast milk seems to protect against this foreign protein absorption into the blood by sealing the intestinal mucosa and making it less permeable. Most children are either not breastfed, or are breastfed for too short a period and then weaned to pasteurised, homogenised, antibiotic-ridden, pesticide-containing cow’s milk. If breastfeeding were continued for a minimum nine to 12 months and the child then weaned to raw goat’s milk, which is closer in constitution to mother’s milk, fewer allergies and allergists would exist.

Wheat also is added to the average infant’s diet too early. Digestive enzymes necessary for proper starch digestion are not even present until four to six months.

I usually advise adding wheat cereal grains as one of the last, not first elements of the diet, somewhere around the first birthday. This most definitely includes crackers and breads, no matter how wholesome. I find that the children with the most colds and allergies generally eat the most starches.

Children who are breastfed eat fewer starches and get plenty of fruit and vegetables, and are generally very healthy during their first year of life.

Eggs are the third major food allergen and should not be given until the child is about eight to 12 months old, and then no more than one poached egg should be consumed every other day, to prevent allergies in the early years.

Liver congestion and toxemia due to improper diet may also be a factor in allergies. If this is coupled with digestive enzyme deficiency or other causes of incomplete digestion, the allergy reaction is enhanced.

Undigested foods unusually stimulate an increase in histamine which may initiate an allergy reaction by the cells.

The liver normally detoxifies histamine, but a damaged or toxic liver may do so inefficiently, causing the histamine to build up in the system, initiating a reaction.

Antihistamines used as allergy medication may further cause liver damage, reducing body’s ability to detoxify histamine.

Another factor of increasing importance in the last 50 years is the widespread use of chemicals, pesticides, and other additives to the food supply. Evolution naturally adapts us to our environment; however, the pace of this exposure to foreign substances has been so rapid that evolution has been unable to keep pace. A dramatic increase in various allergic reactions has been the result.

Fairly recently Candida albicans (yeast) infection of the digestive system has been imprecated in some stubborn cases of allergies.

The yeast proliferates and irritates the intestinal mucosa, causing it to become inflamed and more permeable, allowing foreign proteins to enter into the blood. A history of antibiotic use or the birth control pill is suggestive.