If you read food labels, you may notice this allergy warning or something similar: “this product was produced in a factory that also processes nuts, soybeans, etc.” The prevalence of food allergies has grown rapidly over the last decade. According to the CDC, from 1997 to 2007, reported food allergy cases increased by 18% in children under the age of 18 years old. Food allergies affect up to 8% of children and 3%-4% of adults. Other allergic conditions such as atopic dermatitis, allergic rhinitis, and asthma are more common in children who have food allergies.

What is a food allergy?

Food allergies are a potentially serious immune response to eating specific foods or food additives. Food allergies is an immunoglobulin (Ig)E- or non-IgE-mediated immune response to food protein. Eight types of food account for over 90% of allergic reactions in affected individuals: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat.

Symptoms of food allergies may include the following:

• Hives
• Flushed skin or rash
• Tingling or itchy sensation in the mouth
• Face, tongue, or lip swelling
• Vomiting and/or diarrhea
• Abdominal cramps
• Coughing or wheezing
• Dizziness and/or lightheadedness
• Swelling of the throat and vocal cords
• Difficulty breathing
• Loss of consciousness

Severe food allergies can be life-threatening and may lead to a reaction called anaphylaxis. According to the FDA, each year in the U.S., it is estimated that anaphylaxis to food results in: 30,000 emergency room visits, 2,000 hospitalizations and 150 deaths.

Adverse reactions to foods are sometimes confused with food allergies, but are really food intolerances.  These non-immunologic food reactions can be metabolic (lactose intolerance), pharmacologic (chemical migraine triggers such as tyramine, aspartame, monosodium glutamate, nitrates/nitrites, alcohol, coffee, and chocolate), or toxic (scombroid poisoning or food poisoning) in origin.

Food sensitivities can have varied symptoms including gas, bloating, asthma symptoms, fatigue, headaches, weight gain (and difficulty losing weight), obesity, joint pain, depression and food cravings.

To get tested for food allergies, call Dr. Ross’s office 303-993-5468

You may have heard of IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), but what do you know about Leaky Gut Syndrome? Leaky Gut Syndrome is a common health disorder in which the intestinal tract is more permeable or more porous than normal.  Toxins which should naturally be repelled and eliminated leak through small openings in the lining of the intestines into the bloodstream. Leaky Gut syndrome can cause food allergies because of the release of toxins from the gut which promotes inflammation and is associated with poor absorption of nutrients leading to some nutritional deficiencies.

If you have some of the following symptoms you could be experiencing Leaky Gut Syndrome:

• Abdominal pain
• Asthma
• Chronic joint and muscle pain
• Confusion or foggy thinking
• Mood swings & nervousness
• Recurrent vaginal infections and bladder infections
• Skin rashes such as eczema
• Bloating and gas, alternating constipation with diarrhea (usually referred to as IBS)

Some causes of Leaky Gut Syndrome are:

• Prescription antibiotics use
• Alcohol and caffeine consumption

• Chemicals in fermented and processed foods (dyes, preservatives, peroxidized fats)
• Enzyme deficiencies (e.g. celiac disease, lactase deficiency causing lactose intolerance)
• NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen
• Prescription corticosteroids (e.g. prednisone)
• High refined carbohydrate diet (sugary foods, soft drinks and white bread)
• Prescription hormones

There is help. Leaky Gut Syndrome can be reversed by a change in diet. Eliminating sugar, white flour products, gluten, dairy products, fatty foods, caffeine products, alcohol and increasing fiber intake can combat the effects of Leaky Gut Syndrome. Treatment might also include the use of natural antibiotics (Echinacea, colloidal silver, and garlic), antiparasitics (cloves, wormwood, black walnut) and antifungals (taheebo, caprylic acid, grapefruit seed extract). Some supplements to use are natural digestive enzymes derived from plants, essential fatty acids such as flaxseed oil and antioxidants like Vitamin C & Vitamin E.

Leaky gut syndrome patients should chew their food more thoroughly, eat frequent small meals and take their time while eating. A juice fast and taking probiotics like lactobacillus acidophilus and bifidus can also help.

When left undiagnosed or untreated Leaky Gut Syndrome is associated with autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, Sjogren’s syndrome, thyroiditis, vasculitis, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, urticaria (hives), diabetes and Raynaud’s disease.

I doubt that there’s another country in the world so addicted – not to food but to dieting.  So much so, that even children as young as 5 years old feel they should be dieting too.  Most people who start on the diet treadmill learn about dieting not from the media, but from their own families.  Famous people and celebrities are dieting.  Even 70 year olds are expressing dissatisfaction with their weight.

While we have lost the war on obesity, we have certainly won the war on brainwashing the public that they need to buy into the need to spend billions of dollars every year on diet products.

See the recent piece in the NY Times is written by a man who has spent a lifetime dieting and is beginning again to try and lose weight to understand the misery dieting can cause.  See the article:

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/an-endless-cycle-of-failed-diets/?ref=health

There are few hopeful signs in this extreme desire to be thin in our culture.  So my question above stands – Is a lifetime of dieting really a life?

There’s nothing wrong with this!  What is problematic is when we don’t recognize that the food we “love” is about a memory.  So we convince ourselves that we just love mac and cheese and therefore have to over eat it.  When in fact, what we may be hungry for is not mac and cheese but that feeling of being loved.

So how do you deal with the feelings that are associated with food?

Try using your coping strategies you already have, applying them to your eating.

If you have been successful in any area of

your life, you can apply the same strategies you’ve used in that area to dealing with your weight.

Perhaps you have been very successful in your job, or you have overcome obstacles in your life.

You may have survived tough times in your marriage or had to help your aging parents. Maybe

you are highly analytical or a good problem solver. Even if you haven’t applied those skills to

your weight problem, you may ?nd them useful. If you have overcome an obstacle in one area of

your life, you can use those skills in other areas. Use the exercise below to identify your strengths.

Exercise

Make a list of strengths you have or strategies you have used to overcome obstacles in your life:

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

Now that you’ve identi?ed your strengths and coping skills, imagine how these could be useful

to you in achieving a healthy weight. (Example: I could use my analytical skills to track my food

intake on an Excel spreadsheet, which would be more interesting than writing it out by hand.

(Example: I’m very competitive, so my friend and I are going to engage in friendly competition to motivate

us to exercise.)

_______________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Most of us don’t think of our bodies as our home but in fact they are.  We get one body at birth. We live in that body-home until we die.  The food we eat, whether or not we are active, how we nourish our bodies in general will have consequences.  If we smoke, we damage our hearts and lungs.  When we eat foods that are highly processed, we send out inflammatory cells to all parts of the body which over time cause wear and tear on the body organs.

As we look at the disaster being played out on our TVs in the news, I wonder what headline news it would take to get all of us to take our body health as seriously.  While the media is churning out more and more studies about how “bad” obesity is, we forget that scare tactics never work.  We must all refocus what has been called the war on obesity into a partnership to put health first, then weight. If we saw ourselves in the same light that we see the poor creatures of the sea; if our hearts would open to our own need for caring, then perhaps changing how we treat ourselves, our bodies would make sense. Because, to me, it doesn’t make the most sense that we try to get everyone to “just be thin.”  There are many thin people who are unhealthy.  So thin is definitely NOT the answer.

But anyone who takes care of themselves, who views their bodies as their friend, not adversary, who is a good steward of this home will be as healthy as humanly possible.  Perhaps BP’s oil spill and the crisis in the gulf can serve as a wake up call for us all to take care of all the homes under our guardianship – from our bodies to the earth itself.

How did we end up as a nation where over half of our citizens are losing the battle of the bulge?  I’ve talked about genetics already.  But our genes haven’t changed in the last 50 years while the percentage of us who are overweight or obese has skyrocketed.  Currently there is no state in our nations with less than 20% of its people who are not obese.

Well a lot of other things have changed in the past 50 years.  When I was a kid, we had only one Mc Donald’s in our hometown.  We also had a Dairy Queen.  Going out for fast food was a rare treat, usually reserved for long car trips when we couldn’t find a restaurant such as Stuckey’s to have a sit down meal.  There has also been a marked increase in portion sizes served in fast food and other restaurants.  As well, we have an enormous reliance in our country on sweet foods and processed foods.   The use of high fructose corn syrup, for example has increased 1000% and now represents 40% of all sweeteners used. 

At the same time, we no longer have to get up to even change the TV channel.  Not only do we not grow our own vegetables, we don’t have to even chop up our own vegetables – we can buy them pre-chopped.  Our overall level of physical activity has diminished.

Finally our level of stress has increased.  The modern world is not the slower paced world of the past.  Many people work more than one job.  If you’re a single mother, like myself, you may feel the heavy weight of responsibility for being the primary breadwinner.  Families are scattered and sometimes social support is lacking.

Well we can’t turn back time.  That’s for sure.  What we can do is simplify our lives to the best of our abilities and focus not on weight but on health.

Fact # 10 – Simplify your life with these 5 principles:

1.    Regarding food – eat as fresh and naked as you can.  Avoid foods covered in sauces and gravies.  Eat food in its natural state.

2.    Regarding stress – make a concerted effort to identify and learn to manage your stress.  If you have to work two jobs, find ways to relax and refresh yourself when you’re not working.  Learn to say no.  Build your social network so they can be there for you in a crisis.

3.    For good health, sleep at least 8-9 hours a night.  Sleeping less than this will dramatically increase your health risks and also your weight.

4.    Keep your body moving.  Don’t let moss grow under your feet.  Stay active.

5.    Take vitamins because none of us have perfect diets and even if we did, our food is not perfect.

Excerpted from “The  Binge Eating and Compulsive Overeating Workbook”  due July 1^st, 2009 from New Harbinger Press,  

Fact #6 – Obesity is associated with a number of health risks.  When you got to most doctors, they will tell you that if you don’t reach your “ideal weight” you will get heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.  Your risk for heart attacks and certain cancers go up.  That’s not all there is to know about this topic. What they don’t tell you is Fact #6:  

1. If you lose 10 pounds, you can lower your risk of heart disease.
2. If you lose just 15 pounds, your symptoms of arthritis may improve.
3. IF you lose 10% of your current weight, your blood pressure will go down.
4. No matter what you weigh, if you eat a healthy diet, your risk of cancer will be lower – cancer risks are related to what you eat NOT what you weigh.

What your doctor won’t tell you is that if you are overweight but physically active, your health risks are lower than someone who is thin but not active (sedentary).

The most important part of this fact is learning how to lose even a small amount of weight and keep it off. 

How do you do this?   Keep reading…

My talk was on obesity and how integrative medicine can approach this difficulty problem that conventional methods have heretofore failed.  In the next several blogs, I will offer some thoughts on this subject. 

#1  Obesity is 40-70% inherited (genetic).  Many of those struggling with obesity have spent a lifetime dieting and hating their bodies.  Many have progress to full-blown eating disorders as well.  When I talk with my patients who are overweight and obese I am always struck by how hungry they are.  Many believe that they deserve to be hungry as penance for their weight.  They are surprised when I tell them that they have to eat more to lose weight and that the goal should be that they won’t ever be hungry again.