How to Arrange Food Allergy Testing

In casee4 you notice symptoms such as skin irritation, hives, rash, swelling, whenever you are eating certain foods, then you should suspect food allergies and ask for investigations. The main way to stay symptom-free is avoidance of the incriminated foods, so the sooner you know which are they, the better.

Food allergy testing

For identifying a food allergy, you need to go for special tests. After you have the list of substances which trigger allergic reactions from your immune system, you need to stay away from them. Repeated exposure to the allergen will only exacerbate your allergy symptoms. Eventually, it may even endanger your life, as death by suffocation is possible, due to the swelling of your airway passages.

Being allergic to certain substances (foods, pollens, dust or anything else) means that your immune system perceives those otherwise harmless substances as a menace to the body, and starts fighting to eliminate them. This body fight consists on releasing chemicals to neutralize the enemies, thus provoking you unpleasant and dangerous symptoms.

Food allergies testing can be done in two ways:

Food Allergies Skin Prick Test

A food allergy skin prick test is based on making a small prick on the skin using a needle and pouring a little amount of the allergen you want to test for. After a half an hour, in case you are allergic, your skin would have reacted and became all red and swollen around the prick. The bigger the reaction, the more severe your allergy to that substance.

If you are not allergic, there would be absolutely no swelling at all. The advantage of the allergy prick test is that you get your results very fast (immediately) and it is not painful.

There are yet some situations when prick tests are dangerous to be performed: if you had a very violent allergic reaction, then putting your body in contact with the allergen may cause you severe symptoms which are not local but generalized, so you may even die from such a test. In order not to threaten your life, you’d better go for the second type of allergy testing:

Food Allergy Blood Test

This test is safe, as it requires you to give a blood sample, which would be taken to the lab and put in contact with the suspected allergens. There, the level of histamines released by your blood would be measured and the values would be compared with the benchmark ones.
The results can take a few weeks until complete, but you’ll receive a long list with foods which you need top avoid in order to improve your life quality and even save yourself from death. Food allergies are not a joke at all.

Categories: Allergy Tips, Allergy general info, Food Allergy
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Is a Food Allergy Causing your Fatigue?

Tip! For the more serious form of bird allergies, the symptoms may vary. Take note that suffering from a severe attack of bird allergy can reduce your lung’s capacity, that may potentially pose a detriment not just to your health but also to your life.

When you are allergic to a particular food your body initially reacts with alarm and the symptoms are very clear.

You may notice headaches and migraines, abdominal bloating or cramps, frequent diarrhoea or constipation, eczema or other skin problems, painful swelling of joints, unexplained mood swings, depression or anxiety, swollen hands, ankles, feet, eyes, face, unexplained weight gain or loss, catarrh, sinus congestion, runny nose or constant fatigue.

The amazing thing about the human body is that it works remarkably well in coping with a food allergy at the initial time of reaction and after a short period the symptoms may not be as extreme or indeed the initial symptoms may not appear at all.

The problem is that whilst the offending foods are still eaten the body is having to cope with the food allergy on an ongoing basis and as part of this process the adrenal glands produce adrenalin and cortisone to keep the body working.

Over time the adrenal glands gradually become exhausted from the continuing effort of having to cope and this will leave you feeling exhausted and suffering from fatigue.

The other surprising fact about food allergies is that the sufferer typically feels BETTER when they eat the offending food, and if the allergen food is eaten regularly you may even feel a sense of “elation”.

Tip! When the person with an allergy, for example animal dander, comes in contact with the allergen, his body will experience different types of reaction. Depending on the type of allergy, the person can experience rashes, difficulty in breathing, sneezing, runny nose, watery eyes or involuntary bowel movement.

Unfortunately, this explains why the foods that are causing you the most harm are normally the ones that you crave to eat.

Not surprisingly, a result of this food allergy mechanism is a lack of energy and fatigue, as your body is constantly trying to deal with the food that is causing all the distress.

Once the body has run out of resources to fight and adapt any more you will enter a stage of exhaustion due to the immune system becoming damaged and the adrenal glands being diminished.

Many people visit their doctors or health care practitioner at this stage complaining of constant fatigue, bloating and depression without understanding that the cause may be a food allergy.

Tip! The cause of asthma allergy is similar to the causes of an allergic reaction in a person. Allergens include dust, chemicals, scents, odors and changes in temperature.

The important fact to remember is that a food allergy is often overlooked or missed in a diagnosis when fatigue or exhaustion is an issue. If you have tried all you can to improve your energy, even if you have no symptoms of a food allergy, it is worth testing for one on the chance the food allergy symptoms may be hidden.

If you do have a food allergy and you do not detect it you could face poor health and continued fatigue as a result.

For further advice on fatigue and allergies, visit Allergies and Fatigue.

For help, advice and support on coping with Fatigue and Exhaustion visit the Fatigue Treatment website.

Categories: Allergy Tips, Food Allergy
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