By: Jeanette Teh
As you sit waiting for your daughter to finish her piano lesson, your head starts to pound warning of an impending migraine and you feel that familiar cramp rise in your stomach. Recognizing that same feeling you have been having after meals lately, you dash off in search of a restroom while muttering the list of items you ate at lunch, trying to figure out the offending ingredient.
Allergy or Intolerance – What’s the difference?
Although the terms ‘allergy’ and ‘intolerance’ are sometimes used interchangeably due to their having similar symptoms, the underlying causes of each differ.
“Allergies are caused by an overreaction of the immune system to a particular substance. While allergies are caused by an immune system response, food intolerances occur when the digestive tract lacks enzymes for proper digestion, as in lactose intolerance when the body lacks the enzyme lactase. Food sensitivities are a personal oversensitivity to a certain type of food, and initially may be unrelated to an immune system response,” explains Dr. Parviz Rashvand, Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine at the Synergy Integrated Medical Centre in Dubai.
In
addition to rashes, swelling, diarrhea or constipation, nausea or vomiting, stomachaches, asthma, and hives, a food allergy may also result in an anaphylactic reaction. This potentially life threatening response includes swelling of the lips, tongue or face, inability to breathe, constriction of the throat, a loss of consciousness, and even death in the most severe cases. The most common allergens are shellfish, fish, corn, citrus fruits, nuts and berries, eggs, milk, and sesame.
Symptoms of food intolerance tend to be associated with chronic inflammatory illnesses, ranging from bowel-related problems, migraines, rashes or other skin problems, headaches, lethargy, and bloating. Studies have also found that hyperactive children tend to have food sensitivities. Common foods to which people are intolerant are dairy, gluten (in pasta, breads, cereals), caffeine, as well as additives, chemicals, and pesticides in processed foods, fruit drinks and wine.
The Food Intolerance Epidemic
According to medical charity Allergy UK, one in four people in the U.K. will experience an allergy at some point in their lives although only about 2.5% of people are diagnosed with true allergies. A recent Canadian study, the first nationwide study of its kind, found that 7.5% of its population suffers from a significant food allergy, with shellfish and fish more common among adults while peanut and tree nut allergies were more prevalent among children.
While true allergies only affect a small number of people, several studies have found that approximately one in three respondents claim to have some sort of food ‘allergy’, or perhaps more accurately, an intolerance. Allergy UK estimates that a staggering 45% of the U.K. population has food intolerance.
A finding by the European Food Information Council that 70% of the world’s adult population (particularly in non-European countries) do not produce sufficient lactase, thereby causing them to have some lactose intolerance, explains why dairy is one of the most common trigger foods for intolerances. Gluten is the other top offender.
Why are food intolerances so common these days when it was practically unheard of in our parents’ generation? “Food quality today is not what it used to be 20 or 30 years ago. There are mass production facilities, food is genetically modified, and there is an excessive use of hormones, antibiotics, and chemicals in food processing. All these toxins and strange forms of foods that cannot be digested by our bodies become a problem to our digestive tract”, says Dr. Rashvand. “The high levels of chronic stress in our lives also contribute to and exacerbate all food intolerances since emotions are often stored in our gut.”
To eat or not to eat? – How to test for allergens
While allergic reactions tend to be instantaneous and dramatic, occurring seconds after the consumption of the allergen and could even cause death, food intolerances are less obvious and may present symptoms up to 48 hours after consumption. Because of the delay in symptoms and since there is a generally a host of ingredients in any one dish, it is sometimes difficult for a person to recognize that they have an intolerance or to determine what the exact trigger food is for the intolerance.
A common tool used to determine intolerances is the elimination diet where you go on a simple bland diet and then slowly re-introduce suspected foods one at a time. As this could be time-consuming, a more advanced technique has emerged using quantum physics.
With the Quantum Machine, Dr. Rashvand measures the frequency reactions of his patients by sending energy signals of the trigger foods since, as he explains, “the human body is a complex electrical entity, even a single cell and every object has a voltage”. Hence, the machine mimics the energetic signature of the milk or gluten products, for example, with the frequency of the person and the reactions provoked in the client are measured to determine if the patient is intolerant or allergic to dairy, gluten or other things.
Other testing methods include skin, urine or blood tests that also measure a person’s intolerance to various trigger foods, producing a list of foods to which one is considered intolerant or allergic.
Remedying the delinquent stomach
Once a patient receives the test results indicating the trigger foods or allergens, Dr. Rashvand recommends that she eliminate these 
offending food items from her diet for a period of 2 weeks to 3 months, before gradually re-introducing them again.
Because people with food intolerance have abnormal intestinal flora (which causes improperly digested food particles to be recognized as foreign substances and thereby attacked by the immune system), Dr. Rashvand also prescribes natural-based specific nutritional supplements to not only improve the digestion of the patients, but also to enhance the absorption. Rectifying immune system imbalances to get rid of active microbes and elimination of toxins are also very important parts of his work. Desensitization can also be done via Quantum machines or Vibrational Frequency Generators to support a faster recovery.
For more information about Dr. Rashvand’s practice, see http://www.synergyctrdubai.com
Originally published in 2010 in You! Magazine by Expat Woman.
Jeanette Teh is a legal and corporate trainer, adjunct (assistant) professor, non-practicing lawyer, writer, coach, and founder of Kaleidoscopic Sky. You can find more about her at: http://linkedin.com/in/jeanette-teh-601115.
Images courtesy of http://www.pixabay.com