07 Apr Food Intolerance and How it Affects You
There’s a lot of confusion out there about eating, allergies and food intolerance. Having a food allergy, intolerance, or sensitivity are not the same thing. Each of these categories have a different level of reaction associated with them. What allergy, intolerance, and sensitivity do have in common is how you prevent them. Your best strategy: stay away! Avoid any food that’s got the problem ingredient in it. Our team in Broomfield is committed to helping educate you on your options, plan a course of treatment for your food intolerance and improve your quality of life.
Understanding the Differences Between Food Intolerance and Food Allergies
Food Intolerance/Sensitivities
A common misperception among patients is that food intolerances and allergies are synonymous. This is not the case. If you compare the symptoms and effects of the two conditions, and the body systems they affect, you are better able to understand their differences. Food intolerances are much more common and do not involve the immune system. A food intolerance response takes place in the digestive system. It is triggered when your body is not able to breakdown your food properly due to an enzyme deficiency. Other causes include:
- pharmacological factors, like sensitivity to caffeine or other chemicals
- reactions to food additives like sulfites or artificial colors
- psychological factors, like an extreme dislike of certain foods
- sensitivity to the toxins naturally found in certain raw legumes like lima beans
With food intolerance, you are able to eat small amounts of the problematic food without causing life-threatening problems. Symptoms may be delayed for hours after eating the problematic food, unlike with a food allergy. The symptoms of a food intolerance may also last for several hours, even into the next day and sometimes longer. Intolerance to several foods or a group of foods is not uncommon. Chronic illness is sometimes misdiagnosed when the real culprit is a food intolerance.
Food Allergy
Food allergies do not allow you to tolerate even a small amount of the problematic food without triggering an immune system response and immediate symptoms. Food intolerance involves the digestive system where a food allergic reaction involves your immune system. Your immune system controls how your body defends itself. Either a food triggers an intolerance in your digestive tract, where your body is unable to properly break it down, or the body reacts to a food you are sensitive to. With food allergies, an abnormal immune system response results in the body making antibodies to ‘fight off’ a food. However, some people suffer symptoms after eating certain foods even when they are not producing antibodies against them. Mile High Spine & Pain Center can help you determine if you have a food allergy, intolerance or something else going on that is causing your symptoms.
How Food Intolerance Impacts Your Overall Health
Sometimes food intolerance symptoms are masked as a chronic condition. Some patients discover that they have been suffering for years from conditions that could be solved by eliminating certain foods from their diet. Food intolerance symptoms can look like other issues which is why it is important to enlist the help when you are identifying the true causes behind your symptoms. Mile High Spine & Pain Center is equipped to help you identify your symptoms and get you back to your former good health.
The symptoms caused by food intolerance and sensitivities are varied. They usually cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as bloating, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, constipation, cramping, irritable bowel and can include skin rashes and sometimes fatigue, joint pains, dark circles under the eyes, night sweats and other chronic conditions.
Treatment for Food Intolerance
Mile High Spine & Pain Center is very interested in your total body wellness. The first step to helping you feel better is identifying the source of your symptoms. Some food intolerances can be treated and eliminated. Some you just have to avoid permanently if you want to feel better because science hasn’t found a way for you to be able to process those foods yet. Regardless of what you are dealing with–a food intolerance or food allergy–we can help you identify and treat your symptoms so you can feel better.
Your Free Consultation
Even if your symptoms have other causes, reducing foods you are intolerant to can reduce overall inflammation and reverse low energy levels. This makes it an ideal complementary treatment when undergoing care for spinal problems or nerve compression. If you are interested in learning more about food sensitivities and what you can do about them, the team at Mile High Spine & Pain Center is ready to help. Call (720) 507-0080 today to schedule your free consultation!