An individual can have an allergic response to almost any food, inhalant, or physical substance coming in contact with the skin. One can even become sensitized to invisible electromagnetic fields. The Big Six allergens are gluten, corn, dairy, soybeans, peanuts and eggs.
Gluten can cause serious damage including migraines, neuropathy, erosion of the digestive tract, and increased risk of dementia. Dairy products are more likely to result in congestion, breathing difficulty, and diarrhea.
Physicians will often ask patients to avoid these six foods for a period of time. This is called an elimination diet. It may not result in avoidance of all allergens, but it can lighten the load on the immune system if one is sensitive to one or more of these foods.
The barrel illustration has been used to portray the nature of allergy. Symptoms are not evident until the barrel overflows. In other words, the body is tolerant to exposure to allergens until we carry a load which is too heavy to handle. We then become ill. The severity of the response depends upon how great the total load exceeds coping capacity.
The value of good nutrition and supplementation is that it increases the size of the barrel allowing us to have a greater tolerance for toxins and allergens we experience on a daily basis.
