Allergic airway disease may be due to food intolerance as well as airborne allergens.
The general belief is that these conditions are caused almost exclusively by inhalant allergies. By excluding a diagnosis of food/chemical intolerance from the possible causes of respiratory ailments, doctors could be allowing several million people to suffer more than is necessary each year. But, for many people, some doctors do take the link between food/chemical sensitivity and respiratory problems into consideration.
Asthma, hay fever, and sinusitis are among the most common allergy complaints today. Asthma, in particular, is on the rise. This potentially dangerous disease is thought to be compounded by our increasingly polluted and chemically adulterated modern world. Mortality has doubled since 1978, with people who live in cities being the hardest hit. The characteristic symptoms of asthma, which include wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness, are produced by a constriction of the air passages.
This happens when an allergen triggers lgE antibodies in the mast cells of the bronchial tubes, which lead from the trachea to the lungs. The antibodies cause the mast cells to release their powerful chemicals - including the well known chemical mediator histamine. This causes inflammation of the membranes lining the tubes. The tubes then become thicker and produce more mucus, which restricts the passage of air. A full-blown asthma attack occurs when so many chemicals are released from the mast cells that the smooth muscles of the bronchial tubes contract and become narrow, making a fresh breath of air increasingly difficult.
Today's medical treatments for asthma are surprisingly disappointing, considering asthma's prevalence and rate of growth.
Therapy typically involves a series of drugs including bronchodilators and anti-inflammatories. However, among the drawbacks of these medications are their short-lived effects and serious side effects, including fogginess and fatigue. Long-term use of steroids poses serious risk of adrenal suppression and other complications, including weight gain.
Along with asthma, two other respiratory conditions - hay fever (also known as allergic rhinitis) and sinusitis - are common. Hay fever, which is caused by pollens such as ragweed, affects as many as one in five. In hay fever sufferers, pollen triggers the mast cells of the tissues that come into contact with the environment (including the nose, throat, and eyes) by releasing mediators that cause inflammation of the delicate tissues. Sufferers experience this reaction as red, itchy, watery eyes, and a runny or congested nose. Although usually seasonal, affecting a person when his particular allergen or allergens are in season, hay fever can also be exacerbated by food.
Sinusitis is an unpleasant and often painful infection of the air-filled bony cavities that surround the nasal passages. It is caused by the inflammation that occurs with hay fever and the common cold. The main symptoms of sinusitis are a severely blocked nose, headache over the eyes, or an ache in the cheeks.
Food intolerance triggers the body by different mechanisms than traditional airborne and traditional food allergy. One theory is that in a person with food intolerance the food allergen, combined with an airborne allergy, puts additional stress on the body.
Among the many interesting research results on the effects of food intolerance and respiratory health problems are the findings of two studies conducted by Drs. Peter Fell and Jonathan Brostoff. Both studies are based on the results of testing people for food intolerance. In the first study, conducted in the UK in 1988, Drs. Fell and Brostoff reported that all eight patients who had suffered for more than three years with hay fever were successful in reducing or eliminating their upper respiratory symptoms. The researchers reported that although many of these patients were skeptical that their condition had a dietary cause, the results were clear-cut improvements due to the elimination of reactive foods. By sticking to their designed diets, patients maintained positive results through their follow-up exams.
In a second study conducted in 1990, Drs. Fell and Brostoff found slightly less dramatic results for patients with asthma and rhinitis, but nonetheless significant to the many people seeking non-pharmaceutical treatments to their chronic upper airways diseases. Of the patients studied, whose symptoms included sneezing, running noses, coughing, wheezing, and headaches, four of the 17 completely improved and maintained their improvement with a change in diet and only an occasional need for an accompanying treatment such as a medication or inhalers. The study's authors note that these results are not surprising considering that inhalant allergens also play a major role in these conditions.
Christian Mayer, world class athlete, is among the benefactors of the attention given to the relationship between food intolerance and respiratory problems. This Austrian skier, who won the World Cup in the Giant Slalom two years in a row and a bronze medal at the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, suffered every season with breathing problems. The stuffy air in airplanes and hotels exacerbated his condition when he had to travel to competitions. Needless to say, his coach was not happy about having one of his top skiers waylaid by a health problem. He sent Christian to an Austrian physician, Dr. Stephen Shimpf, who specializes in immunotherapy and preventative medicine in Salzburg.
As he does many of his patients, Dr. Shimpf tested Christian for food intolerance. The results of the blood test showed that the skier was intolerant to rice, milk products, wheat, apples, bananas, and beer, most of which he consumed every day. Once he removed those foods his stuffy nose cleared up. In addition, he was able to avoid (unlike some of his team members) the usual seasonal colds and flu. As an added bonus he lost the extra ten pounds he typically gained in the off-season and he had more energy. But this world-class athlete says the most important benefit is this:
"I'm winning. Right after the test I won my first World Cup in America. I was surprised by the test results because I'd always thought foods like apples and bananas are healthy, but they're not for me. I avoid my reactive foods and I feel better."
Dr. Shimpf, however, was not surprised by the results.
"I've got used to great results with food intolerance testing with my patients, so amazing results like this no longer astonish me."
He has found food intolerance testing to be a big help in treating patients who suffer from respiratory conditions among other problems. Besides Christian, Dr. Shimpf points to a particularly "interesting case" of a 30-year-old woman who had endured severe asthma for years. After he tested her blood and she eliminated her reactive foods for three to four months, she was able to significantly reduce her intake of cortisone, which she'd been taking for years to deal with debilitating asthma attacks. "This reduction of intake of a pharmaceutical as strong as cortisone alone had an additional positive impact on her health," notes Schimpf.
Several research studies have also shown that food does indeed have a significant impact on airway conditions. These findings clearly show a promising treatment for the millions around the world who long to breathe free once again.
Dr. Solomon also found mixed, but overall hopeful, results in her study of 172 patients with 11 different conditions. Among them were 20 patients with recurrent sinusitis, 108 patients with hay fever, and 18 patients with asthma. All the patients were put on diets that eliminated their allergenic foods. Within a ten-month period, Dr. Solomon found that with diet alone, 59 percent of the people with recurrent sinusitis improved, 42 percent of the patients with hay fever improved, and 30 percent of the patients with asthma improved.
Many other studies have found that food allergy is an important cause of asthma and hay fever. Among them are two relatively recent studies, including one in 1987 by Zdenek Pelikan, director of the Department of Allergy and Immunology at the Institute of Medical Sciences in the Netherlands. Pelikan investigated the role of food allergy in patients with rhinitis, some of whom had accompanying symptoms of sinusitis and headache. He found that the role of foods was confirmed in two-thirds of the patients with hay fever where an allergic component was suspected. Further, in 19 percent of these cases, food was found to be the sole cause of the patients' hay fever. In half these patients, the hay fever was caused by various inhalant allergens with foods also having an effect (known as ‘secondary' food allergy). Pelikan commented that "the role of food allergy and of food in general in subjects with allergic disorders, especially in those suffering from rhinitis, otitis media, and sinusitis, is still underestimated by clinicians."
In the second study, Dr. D.G. Wraith, consultant physician with the Allergy Clinic in London, tested several aspects of food intolerance in a number of patients with asthma in 1987 and concluded that "food allergy is very important cause of asthma but is often overlooked." Further, he reported,
"Avoidance of the cause would prevent much disability and also lessen the amount of drugs needed, which is important considering their expense and potential side-effects."
These studies are just a few of the many going back several decades that clearly point to the relationship of food intolerance to respiratory conditions.
A growing number of people who were victims of inhalant allergies for years before finding a doctor who was experienced in finding the source of respiratory problems by testing a patient's blood against a battery of food allergens. Test also for sensitivities to molds and chemicals such as preservatives and food dyes - all of which can contribute either directly or indirectly to respiratory difficulties. As many doctors believe, these intolerance's represent more load on the body, and the air passages are a likely target for a system compromised by the elements.
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