With the industrialization of the food industry over the past 100 years, our bodies have had to deal with a lot of changes. Potential stressors, such as processed foods, confusing dietary recommendations, and drastic changes in food production methods has resulted in the human body’s inability to keep up! This manifests physically as leaky gut which can lead to allergies, food sensitivities and intolerances. Digestive disturbances can lead issues with proper nutrient absorption needed for optimal health and may even effect your sleep, your mood, or your joints.
The most common food allergies and sensitivities include:
Gluten
Dairy
Eggs
Nuts
Soy
Fish
How Can Functional Medicine Help?
Instead of just removing the symptoms (bloating, gas, skin rashes, etc), functional medicine focuses on the CAUSE of these imbalances. For instance, if someone with a nut allergy eats nuts and their skin breaks out, functional medicine will provide a natural solution to not only the skin swelling but also the immune system response. The overreaction to the proteins ingested can be combated by increasing immune efficiency through dietary and lifestyle changes. There is testing available to help determine which foods might be the most troubling for you as an individual but elimination of the trigger is the best way.
If you’re seeking to eliminate adverse food reactions and boost your overall immune health, functional medicine WILL help you. By explaining things such as elimination diets, environmental stressors, and evolutionary changes in organic human health, functional medicine will aid in the relief of your allergy symptoms as well as ensure they will not hinder your life going forward.
As previously mentioned, in order to ensure your body is protected against allergens, it is vital to strengthen the immune system. If you’re curious about which foods might be causing your reactions, try eliminating one food at a time (for at least two weeks at a time) will help you properly identify what could be causing your discomfort. If you still can't figure it out let me know and we can do some blood testing that will set you in the right direction. For example, I used to suffer with mysterious stomach aches for years! I thought I was eating clean and had removed any sensitivities, but the mystery continued. Finally, I took a simple finger prick blood test for help. Turns out I have a sensitivity to BANANAS! I had been putting 1/2 banana occasionally into my morning smoothies, and by mid afternoon I would be suffering. This goes to show that even the most common foods, safe for even babies may be the culprit and illustrates how everyone needs individual treatment.