Ground Floor Health

Food allergies and food sensitivities have been considered a culprit when it comes to stomach pains and indigestion for many years. The conventional medicine community has recently adopted this idea, after many years of denying a potential “allergy” without a positive allergy test.

Many individuals seek medical help each year with various gastrointestinal complaints ranging from gas and bloating, diarrhea, constipation, irritable bowel, and abdominal pain. Alternative practitioners have held to the belief that the gut can become reactive to commonly consumed foods, especially if there has been a breakdown of the protective barrier in the small and large intestines.

The lining of the small and large intestine contains many protective antibodies, IgA type, that can become deficient. This deficiency can allow compounds in foods to get past the barrier and results in systemic symptoms. As well certain conditions result in a breakdown of the thick mucosal layer of the intestines, another aspect that weakens the barrier.

One of the most commonly accepted food allergens is cow’s milk. There are small samples of the population that actually lack the genes necessary for digestion the milk sugar lactose. Other individuals who have a milk allergy may have sensitivity, or some conditions that has caused the barrier in the gut to be inefficient. Other foods that are common allergens include wheat, soy, corn, and eggs.

A study was published in December that documented various gastrointestinal complaints that occur with a positive immunological reaction. Cows milk, as well as other common allergens was examined.

From a total of 827 subjects with GI complaints, a total of 49 had a clinical exam and blood test to determine immune reaction. A total of 10% of the participants had GI symptoms that were directly food related. Positive allergens were cows milk and wheat for the most part, but interestingly the majority of the food related complaints were not due to cow’s milk.

This study showed that food allergies do in fact exert an immunological response in 10% of individuals. However, in this population cows milk was not the most common allergen. This may be applicable to those who believed they had a milk allergy, but withdrawal of milk from the diet did not completely resolve symptoms. Perhaps they should try a different allergy.