Food Allergies and Chronic Disease
by Martin Mulders, MD
The majority of problems and complaints that bring people to the doctor’s office are not indicative of any specific disease. We would think what causes most people to visit their doctor are diseases like diabetes, infections, heart disease, and cancer, etc. The doctor makes a diagnosis and treats accordingly with medications or surgery. However, most people present with vague and multiple complaints like fatigue, headaches, joint aches, stomach upset, sleep problems, depression and mood swings, chronic allergy symptoms and others. Usually no specific cause is found, despite all the tests your doctor might do. Your symptoms are treated with medications to suppress them, like pain medication, sleeping pills, antidepressants, acid blockers or others. Most of the time these prescriptions or over the counter medications help some, but make the symptoms tolerable at best.
In my practice I see many patients who have long lists of symptoms which they’ve had for years and nobody seems to have any idea what causes them. In general there are multiple reasons in each person that cause these symptoms, delayed food allergies being a major one. In general we think of allergies causing congestion, asthma, skin rashes and such. Acute ‘histamine’ or IgE related allergies which are determined through skin scratch testing or blood RAST testing (which most doctors do) mostly cause these types of symptoms. When it comes to less typical symptoms, like fatigue, intestinal problems, migraines, depression, arthritis or joint and muscle pains, ADD and ADHD, sleep problems, recurrent infections, eczema, acne, auto-immune disorders, anxiety, weight gain or loss, and many others, we usually don’t think of allergies. When the above mentioned allergy tests are done, they are usually negative.
Many of these symptoms and diseases are often caused or aggravated by hidden delayed food sensitivities. These are not histamine related, but are caused by immune complexes of IgG antibodies to certain foods which can cause reactions in nearly every part or organ of the body. These IgG antibodies are not routinely tested by doctors, mainly due to lack of awareness and the difficulty of testing them in a reliable and reproducible way. However, some labs (I use Immunolabs in Fort Lauderdale, FL) have developed excellent, reliable tests which have shown great improvement in the above mentioned symptoms and illnesses when patients avoid the foods shown in the test. It is not uncommon for people to have 10-30 positive foods show up on their IgG antibody test. It is almost impossible to determine which foods to avoid by trial and error (elimination diets).
The simplicity of the blood test is almost embarrassing when you see the life changing improvements patients experience after elimination of the offending foods. Many patients are amazed that the unexplained symptoms they’ve had for so many years, causing so much suffering, improved so much or even disappeared within weeks of changing their diet based on their delayed food sensitivity testing. Even quite severe and disabling symptoms often disappear after prolonged (3-6 months) avoidance.
The IgG Immunoprint food sensitivity test is often part of the extensive work-up we do on patients with chronic symptoms and disease. This work-up may also include testing for heavy metals (lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium and others), chronic infections (including Lyme’s disease and other tick born disease), hormone and adrenal testing, stool testing and nutritional evaluations.
Avoidance of sensitive foods, proper nutritional support, exercise, improved mental outlook and judicial use of prescriptive medications and detoxification can put you back in charge of your health. We are here to guide and support you in the process.
Martin Mulders, MD
Integrative Medicine
2505 Blvd of the Generals, Jeffersonville, PA 19403
610-630-8600