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This newsletter is about Allergies making you Fat.
April 22, 2012
Allergies make you Fat
Hi ,
Yes its true, allergies make you fat and keep you fat. They do so in many different ways, from the effects of the medications we use to fight allergies to direct inflammatory weight gain caused by the body's reaction to the substance itself. The most common type of allergy today is actually termed food sensitivity. While seasonal allergies are certainly a big problem for many people, they are generally short lived. Food sensitivity on the other hand is year round.
To us laymen, an allergy is when our immune system overreacts to some substance out there in the world. Medical doctors like to break this simple idea up into pieces based on exactly what part of the immune system is reacting. So to a medical doctor an "allergy" only applies to what are called IgE mediated reactions, meaning a reaction in which the specific immune protein Immunoglobulin E is the reactive substance. But there are lots of other reactions we get, but doctors generally ignore them even though we suffer just as much. These other reactions get labeled as sensitivities or intolerances. Whatever you want to call them, they all make us fatter.
So lets look at the ways allergies make us fat.
Interesting studies have found that the use of antihistamine drugs is associated with weight gain. Antihistamines turn on our appetite. In fact there are appetite stimulating drugs for children that are based on this fact. Antihistamines also make us drowsy so we don't move around as much and burn as many calories. So any type of allergy that prompts us to take anti-allergy meds also promotes weight gain.
Digging a little deeper we come across the addiction-allergy connection. It is now commonly recognized that foods that we are sensitive frequently manifest as addiction triggers. While on one hand the food is giving you reactive symptoms, on the other hand you crave more and more of these foods. Any time you crave foods for any reason other than natural and real hunger, you are going to overeat and that means weight gain. These foods will actually make you think you are starving and just have to eat, when in fact you are totally full and need nothing. These reactions are no different than the cravings of your every day street junkie trying to score some heroine or meth. We simply pretend it is not an addiction because after all "it is just food".
Going deeper still we hit the really dangerous aspect of allergic weight gain - inflammation. Whether you call them allergies, sensitivities, or intolerances, they all are really inflammatory reactions. Your body is being poisoned and your immune system is fighting back by producing inflammation. You hormones respond to the reaction stress by pumping out the hormone cortisol to control the inflammation the immune system is kicking up. And cortisol makes us fat. Abdominal fat in particular is the consequence of too much cortisol chronically.
Another consequence of inflammation is the water balance in the cells of your body is thrown off and your body stores excess water. Just taking a person off the foods they are reactive to without any dieting at all can cause them to lose 5 to 10 pounds of inflammatory water weight in only 2 or 3 days. Some people will carry 20+ pounds of extra water due to allergic reactions. All that water is heavy and puts strain on your hips, knees, and feet causing wear and tear and pain.
Inflammation of course also means damage is being done to your organs and nervous system. Every part of your body is sensitive to increased levels of inflammation, and depending on your nutritional status and genetics, various parts of your body will show the damage more than others. Everyone is different, so the symptoms of food reactions are extremely varied and hard to pin down. One study showed that 85% of migraine sufferers stopped having migraines when offending foods were removed from their diet. Another researcher found that 92.2 percent of hospitalized schizophrenic patients were allergic to one or more common substances. Most kids with ADD & ADHD are allergic to milk products and it will trigger their symptoms within a couple minutes of eating what is usually their favorite food - milk.
Food sensitivities are behind vast numbers of otherwise mysterious symptoms. The big symptom we are addressing here is stubborn weight gain.
So what can be done?
Bottom line is we have to discover what you are reacting to and eliminate it from your diet - sometimes forever and sometimes just for a temporary period. The simplest but rather pricey way to find out what you are reacting to is the ALCAT blood test. With a simple blood draw they can test up to 200 foods as well as a load of other chemical additives and environmental toxins. This testing is available through our office.
A completely free method of testing is what I am doing right now as I am typing. I went onto a water fast for 4 days to clear my system (which caused an immediate water weight loss of 8 to 9 pounds) and then I add one type of food back into my diet each day in very small amounts. I check my weight the next morning each day and see if my weight has jumped up due to water weight gain. Normally with water fasting I should see a one half pound loss each morning (after the initial big water dump.) If a food causes a reaction I have to back up and let the reaction settle down before continuing. This is called provocation testing and is considered the gold standard for testing in the allergy world.
Why am I doing this type of testing? I have done ALCAT testing several times in the past and each time different foods showed up. This is because most of the time, if you avoid a particular food for 6 months your sensitivity will calm down. The exception is the IgE "true" allergy reactions which tend to hang on. But beneath the food sensitivity problem is a deeper problem that often causes the reactions in the first place - leaky gut. As long as a person has a leaky gut, they will keep on forming new food reactions. The leaks in the gut allow foods to get into the blood stream where the immune system freaks out and attacks them as foreign invaders... thus forming a new "allergy". But the only way to truly heal a leaky gut is to avoid all reactive foods. This is a vicious cycle. The easiest way to break this cycle is to avoid all foods and let the gut heal. So if you are the type of person that always has lots of food sensitivities or chronic gut inflammation, something similar to this may be appropriate for you.
For patients I can often use an allergy clearing technique called TBM to calm down the reactions, but I can not treat myself. So I have to do things the hard way.
Another basic test is to go on a diet that avoids the common food allergens for a month and see how you feel. The common allergens are grains, dairy, soy, legumes, nuts, eggs, nightshades, fish, and shellfish. Think in terms of meat, chicken, fruit, and vegetables (except tomatoes and peppers) for a month.
In researching this article I came across an interesting test you can all do to see if you have food sensitivity reactions to foods that are associated with symptoms right after you eat. Combine ¼ teaspoon baking soda and ¼ teaspoon of buffered vitamin C in a glass of water. Take this while you are experiencing a symptom, and if it calms down the symptom you can be pretty sure you are dealing with an allergy reaction.
If you have stubborn weight gain and simple dieting does not seem to work or works only temporarily, food allergies may be the culprit. Until these are addressed, weight loss is just an exercise in frustration. Weight loss is simply much more complex than the popular press would like you to believe. It is much more than just cutting out the fats or the carbs or the whatever. It is more of a puzzle mystery that is unique to each person and has to be unwound to find the solution that works for you.
It can be done. At this point I am down 90 pounds from my heaviest weight a couple years ago. My key seems to be the gluten and dairy sensitivity, the carbs, and the leaky gut/food sensitivities. Everyone is unique. What is your key?
Take care,
David
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Added Tai Chi Classes
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We have added an additional class on Mondays at 4:30 p.m. and on
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Thank you and Happy Easter!
Kathy
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Patients are reporting great results with the new back strengthening program I wrote about in the March 18th newsletter. I highly recommend this program for everyone as we all need stronger backs to counter the effects of too much sitting. If you missed this information here is a link to that newsletter.
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Ouestions - if you have questions of
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