By Dr. Krystosik
What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of a food allergy. If you are like most people you think of someone who wheezes, sneezes or hacks when they walk in a room with cats or they eat a certain food. Worse yet, you may think of a child who carries around an epi pen in their school bag because of a life-threatening allergy to peanuts.
Food allergies can make your life miserable and, in some individuals, can even cause death if not treated properly. This type of adverse reaction to food occurs quickly, within minutes but usually within the first hour.
Hidden food allergies are quite different. In contrast to ordinary food allergies, this type of reaction to food is not so obvious or easy to identify. This type of adverse reaction to food can occur from days to a couple weeks after the offending food is consumed. Instead of symptoms that appear suddenly as in ordinary food allergies, hidden food allergy causes chronic, long standing symptoms or illness.
Ordinary Food allergies affect about 1% of children and about 5% of the adult population in the United States. On the other hand, many health experts, including Dr. Mehmet Oz M.D. estimate up to 60% of Americans have hidden food allergies. Dr. Theron Randolph, M.D. one of the world’s leading experts on allergies estimates that up to 75% of all doctors’ visits are linked to this type of allergic response. Symptoms of hidden food include bloating, gas, diarrhea, weight gain, low thyroid, chronic fatigue, eczema, psoriasis, acne, asthma, autoimmune diseases, migraines, insomnia, repeated sinus, lung or ear infections , joint pain, mood swings, brain fog and more. The most troubling fact about hidden food allergies is they usually go undetected. Consequently, the individual’s symptoms are treated with drugs or surgery, but the cause is never diagnosed correctly.
Fortunately, because of increasing consumer awareness and new blood tests available to detect hidden food allergies, getting to the bottom of your health problem is easier than ever. Over the past twenty-five years I have been sending a small sample of my patient’s blood to laboratories specializing in this type of adverse reaction to foods. Is this the answer to everyone’s chronic health problems. No. But hidden food allergies are one of the most overlooked, yet easiest and safest place to begin when trying to diagnose the cause of illness.
Dr. Krystosik is a board-certified chiropractic physician with an undergraduate degree in clinical nutrition and is northeast Ohio’s leading expert in functional medicine. Dr. Krystosik is the author of 5 books on nutrition and natural medicine and is a nationally known speaker. For an appointment with Dr. Krystosik in his Northfield office, call 330-908-0094 or go to www.TheOtherSideofMedicine.com.
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