Never late for dinner

Taken at Troy and Rons' House

Metabolic derangement

I don't talk a lot about my food allergies. It is boring to anyone but me, and except when I eat out, it really isn't a super big deal (though I would kill for a decent cookie.) (actually, come to think of it, there is a whole social isolation aspect of it, but that is a whole 'nother post.)

But then I got a newsletter from the allergy doctor who got me past the worst of things and in the lead article, the woman writing it stated that food allergies mainly effect women and children. My immediate reaction was, "What a giant load of bullshit." I've discovered before that the world of food allergies is incredibly misandrist. On allergy forums the reaction to women who are looking for foods their husbands will be able to eat will often be, "Men are just going to be gross and fart and belch all the time anyway, what is the point of cooking anything special for them?" And while the women who say things like that are vile, the point remains that men don't take steps to help themselves. If they can't tough it out, they might, eventually, go to the doctor for a pill, but that is it. And who wants to admit they can't tough it out?

The thing is, food allergies don't go away if you ignore them. They get worse, and as your gut gets more damaged and permeable, you become allergic to more foods until eventually you have a whole list of things you can't eat, assuming you don't just get more and more prescriptions to cover the symptoms.

The thing about food allergies is that they are poorly tested for, and really misunderstood. Most people when they think of food allergies think of the life threatening kind like abqdan has. That is an IgE allergy and is the kind that is tested for with the skin prick testing. The allergies that cause long term problems from inflammation, nutrition malabsorbtion, and so forth are caused by IgG allergies and they are hard to track down since the symptoms don't show up right away, but rather 1 to three days after you eat the offending food. Here is a link to my Doctor's web page explaining it all better: http://www.ibstreatmentcenter.com/3_a_3.htm They are only found using sophisticated blood tests.

Now, everyone has indigestion or other digestive (or skin) upsets from time to time, it is not always food allergies. But if you always have a cranky tummy, or Indigestion, or weirdness at the other end of the digestive system, and it is effecting your life, you want to figure out what is wrong because ignoring it only makes it worse.

Doctors will just put you on pills to mask the symptoms. This is like taking your car to the shop because the engine is making a noises and having the mechanic suggest bigger speakers for your stereo so you can't hear them. You end up getting more damage, and, more to the point, you aren't getting good nutrition from your food. If you know someone who is up all night with indigestion and is sick with a cold or flu all the time, that is because they are suffering from malnutrition from all the handfuls of tums they are popping to be able to function. I went almost a year having to get up to take antacids or drink baking soda two or three times a night before I finally decided I had had enough.

Now, ongoing indigestion¹ does not have to be food allergies. It could simply be a symptom of inflammation caused by your general diet. Carbs, and especially grains are really hard on the body and not only irritate the digestive tract, but block mineral absorption and send your blood sugar through the roof. A couple pieces of really good Tuscan loaf dipped in olive oil with dinner is not a big problem. Toast with your fruity pepples and muffin, bagel for a snack, sandwich and donut for lunch, cookies for snack, and tuna casserole with bread and butter and chocolate cake for dinner is. Carbs in general are high glycemic foods that wreck your blood sugar, but grains (with wheat far out ahead of the rest of the pack and white rice way back with potatoes and vegetable starches) are the worst because they cause so much irritation.

A particularly scary quote from the article I linked above,"If I glycate the proteins in my eyes, I get cataracts. If I glycate the cartilage of my knees and hips, I get arthritis. If I glycate small LDL, I’m more prone to atherosclerosis. So it’s a twofold effect. And if you don’t start out slender and keep eating that fair trade, organically grown whole wheat bread that sounds so healthy, you’re repeatedly triggering high blood sugars and are going to wind up with more visceral fat. This isn’t just what I call the wheat belly that you can see, flopping over your belt, but the fat around your internal organs. And as visceral fat accumulates, you risk responses like diabetes and heart disease." Fun stuff huh?!

Glycemic index aside, all this causes inflammation which makes everything run poorly.

In any case, don't be satisfied with just masking symptoms. I started out a good 15 years ago trying to find out what was causing my acid reflux, and when they went to put me on meds, my insurance would only cover the generic, but offered, "this isn't as good as what the doctor wants you to take, and if it upsets your stomach, we can give you something else for that." I saw my future as being one of those old people with a long line of pill bottles on the dinning room table and refused to go there. Then I lost my insurance and just took antacids for almost five years. Ask anyone who ever shared a room with me (or Ron for that matter) what it was like when I would get the hiccups in the middle of the night. Even once I had insurance, finding out what was wrong, starting with the gluten intolerance and going from there, took a couple years.

You don't have to be sick all the time, but it takes finding a doctor that wants to find out what the hell is wrong with you rather than just get you to buy a set of sub woofers so you can't tell anything is wrong.

1. This is an article on GERD that you might want to read if you spend a lot of time having to sleep sitting up in order to sleep at all.