Food for thought? allergies vs sensitivities
 

I just read an article (http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/12/26....ap/index.html) about treating children with life-threatening food allergies with miniscule amounts of the allergen, until over time, they are able to tolerate a small amount of the allergen. This seems like a great idea if a tiny piece of a peanut can kill you. But how does this treatment compare to celiac and gluten (and other) food sensitivities?

I know people that swear by NAET. Its some form of alternative treatment that is supposed to "cure" food allergies/sensitivities. One mom I know took her child for NAET treatments which resolved eczema caused by (they thought) wheat and dairy. The child now eats wheat and dairy. This too sounds great! But on these boards, I've learned so much about long-term health problems, auto-immune conditions, etc. stemming from leaky gut. Is NAET (assuming it really does work?) safe for food sensitivities that aren't related to gluten? or dairy? :o

I've restricted dairy, egg, gluten, corn and soy from my son's diet, yet I listen to these other mom's say their children can eat foods x,y,z now with no problems. :confused:

This is my take on the matter: If it is something that has a serious possibility of causing damage, especially to someone other than myself, I need to have some serious science done to prove it's safety first. If it is costly, then I'd like to know there's some double blind studies that prove it is efficacious. Anecdotal stories are acceptable to me for things that aren't too pricey or unlikely to be dangerous. But I also like to think about how far I've come since changing my diet and how little I would want to undo any of that...

The thing is...some allergies can be monitored by symptomatic response. Other sensitivities (Like gluten) cause damage which is not comparable to the symptoms. There can be mild flattening of the villi with major quality of life damaging symptoms. There can be NO noticeable symptoms and total villous atrophy.

With mild symptoms, sure...NAET or acupressure or other experimental medical treatment might be worth a shot. But, first you need to correctly identify the cause of symptoms and method of reaction.

I'm very interested in what goes on with research into corn allergy...since I believe (as was speculated by a dr of mine) that corn causes the same damage in some people that gluten causes in celiacs. From my research, the offending protein theoretically is zein. However...people who react to corn also react to derivatives not containing the corn protein. Which means there's a different principle at work. Until they (we) identify that principle, treatment attempts are just the proverbial shot in the dark.

I just wish they knew more. While I agree that relieving outward symptoms sounds great (and I admit that we only 'mostly remove' cow's milk from my daughter's diet even though we know she reacts to it)... I do worry about the other 'hidden' affects of longstanding adverse immune response... that doesn't necessarily show outwardly until it is too late~ and autoimmune disease or other complications are present.

My son received allergy shots for his environmental allergies and they seemed to really work~ so???? Might they work for food sensitivities, too? I don't know the answers here, and I think about it too. Meanwhile, avoiding the foods seems to make the most sense, but I like to at least think about other possibilities for treatment.

Cara

Maybe part of the answer is in the difference between allergies and intolerances. I do know as of now, it's too risky for me to think about trying.

Thanks for all your thoughts on this. I'm not willing to try an unproven (to me) treatment either, but it does make me wonder! We're eating very well but do sometimes miss the spontaneity of being able to grab a bite to eat somewhere if we're out longer than planned (and therefore without a cooler of food in the trunk!). :p

I know I've read (somewhere - here?) that people with gluten sensitivity often find other food intolerances after being gf for a while (this seems to be true with my son), and that oftentimes they can resume eating those "other" foods after abstaining from them for months. It make me wonder if some of these "treatments" speed up that process. But alas, how to tell which foods are health-threatening and which ones aren't?! :confused: :o

I'm in the middle of a treatment called BioSET. It is similar to NAET, but taken one step further to include allergies to other things besides foods. I am on to the food clearing level. So far, I've been cleared for walnuts, pecans, soy, corn, and quinoa. We are working on gluten right now, as well as almonds and pistacios!! I have tested the walnuts, soy, and corn, and I appear to be ok with them, but I'm not eating any major quantities of them out of habit and fear! I also don't miss a lot of these foods, with the exception of soy sauce, that I was happy to reintroduce into my diet! I no longer am getting the abdominal pains I used to, but I also got rid of my bacterial overgrowth with the treatment that my acupuncturist has been giving me. What I don't know is if any of these foods might still be causing me fatigue or brain fog, but that could be due to other things, like the fact that my husband accidentally put cheese in the pesto we had yesterday (haven't gotten to dairy yet). At least I don't worry so much about getting food contaminated with soy, corn, and nuts as I used to.

Like you said, we are eating plenty well, and I have to say that all my food sensitivities caused me to eat a lot better! So, I don't want to fall back in the habit of eating out more than I was cooking for myself. But I was also desparate, and I didn't want to be so limited I could never have a nice meal out with my sweetie. My acupuncturist was honest about the efficacy of this treatment. He said that it's usually 60% effective. He said the only negative side effect is on your pocketbook. That was good enough for me to give it a try. He told me it would be 8-15 treatments, and I've had 6 treatments so far.

I'll be providing more updates here and there, probably on Roll Call or whereever it seems appropriate on a thread. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

Claire