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In the world of allergy today, there are two camps: the traditional, or alleopathic practitioners who base their diagnoses purely upon the results of one of three traditional tests; and alternative, or naturopathic practitioners who use anecdotal information and observation as well as some testing to diagnose.
In the middle of these two camps is a third which tries to marry the scientific basis of the one, with the observational work of the other. These are the Clinical Ecologists, trained medical practitioners who have assimilated into their medical knowledge the freedom to believe what a patient has to say without having to rely on the results of tests sometimes inherently unreliable.
The original Clinical Ecologist, or Father of Modern Allergy Study as he is often referred to, is Dr. Theron Randolph of the United States. Dr. Randolph’s work is still considered definitive, even though written in the 1930s, and most US allergists have at least some exposure to his work. Unfortunately, this is where the two disciplines began to diverge.
Those who have followed after Dr. Randolph, no matter which country they may call home, have worked hard to categorize not only the more obvious and dangerous symptoms of allergy, but also those which are experienced by most allergy sufferers, but which are considered of little import to the alleopathic “allergist”.
Almost everyone knows that if you eat something, get hives, have trouble breathing, get itchy and have diarrhea then you probably are allergic to that food. But did you know that bloating, halitosis, gas, insomnia, joint pains, muscle spasms and ringing in the ears can also be symptomatic of allergy?
In the last thirty years, a number of specialists have focused on the brain’s response to allergies. Some of these specialists are commonly known names like: Dr. Doris Rapp, Dr. Lendon Smith, Dr. Keith Mumby. Others are not so well known, but their work is at least as important.
Some of the more crucial discoveries include these concepts:
1. The brain is the only organ in the body which cannot control cell wall permeability, making it far more susceptible to allergic toxins than any other component of the body.
2. That the brain has blips, several times a day, which results in moments of blankness. Some of us occasionally experience this as the inability to discover the right word or remember a name. If the brain is exposed to allergic toxins, the frequency of these blips increase substantially, and it may appear that allergy sufferers have epileptic-like seizures, or are “zoning” out.
3. That the brain often deals with components in food to which it is allergic or sensitive, by sending them to storage instead of burning them for fuel, creating a larger than normal fat store - something which may account for at least part of the increase in obesity, especially among children.
4. A brain which lacks appropriate fuel is tired and a tired brain function poorly. It may direct the body to take more frequent carbohydrates, in either simple or complex forms (sugars or starches) - another feature which may be contributing the obesity of the population.
5. In certain instances, intolerances to certain food substances have led the brain to encourage the body to hyper-production of endorphins and dermorphins, treating the body to a kind of natural drug haze and inducing a form of stupor, which is frequently mistaken for autism and other mental illnesses, or learning disabilities.
6. Allergic response to foods can lead the brain to direct the body to not fully digest foods, leading to a build-up, or impaction of stool in the digestive tract, which inhibits natural processing of vitamins and nutrients from the food as each nutrient is extracted from the food in a different part of the digestive tract. At the very least, the body will suffer malabsorption of the B Complex vitamins, as these are one of the last to be extracted.
7. Undigested food and stool impaction can lead to chronic constipation, leaking of liquid stool (as it is the only form in which impurities can pass by the impaction), pain, and perhaps again trigger the brain to signal the body to store, rather than utilize, leading to increased lipid size.
8. A starved brain often communicates poorly, and the neurotransmitters will atrophy as well. Those involved in mood control, like serotonin, norephinephrine and dopamine, when not readily available because of atrophy, lead to symptoms reminiscent of clinical depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and schizo-affective disorder. In children, these reactions may seem to mimic ADHD, ADD or other autistic spectrum disorders.
It does appear obvious then, that much more goes on in the allergic cycle, than the more dramatic ones that first appear. While anaphlaxis can be scary and overwhelming at the time, the reaction of the brain to on-going assault can only be debilating in the extreme, and far more likely to cause downtime at work, school or home.
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