Allergies

With all the disturbance to the endocrine system, and the subsequent knock on effects to the gastro-intestinal system, it’s hardly surprising that the syndrome has implications for allergies.

Leaky gut syndrome comes along with insulin resistance, and its this which makes for problems with allergies.

In short, foodstuffs and other substances which would normally cause no problems are able to pass through a “leaky gut” into the body’s systems without proper processing, thus being seen by the body as an irritant, rather than simply a harmless substance with helpful nutrients. 

Furthermore, once inflamed or irritated by one substance, the body is therefore less able to cope with others, which leads to a cumulative effect of one irritant on top of another. 

The body expresses this irritation (if we are lucky) as an allergy - I say lucky because the implications of the body suppressing an allergic response in favour of something far wider reaching are even less helpful. There are a host of conditions which come cumulatively under the heading “autoimmune disease” and the effects of this can be highly debilitating. 

In my case, this lead to a whole host of bizarre intolerances which would otherwise have been avoided, these included:

• - yeast
• - massage oil, sun tan oil, aromatherapy oils
• - cucumber
• - certain washing powders
• - certain soaps/shampoos
• - anything highly perfumed
• - sporadic hay fever
• - sulphites (largely in cheap wine = don’t drink cheap wine, stick to the good stuff!!)

The entire list is long and in some ways quite bonkers, some substances are so commonplace and so innocuous that it would be difficult to envisage a reaction, but the reaction was plain enough whilst I suffered it and I wouldn’t want to go there again!

Symptoms can be quite acute too - exposure to yeast (whilst making bread, for example) can send me into a full-blown allergic response within minutes - symptoms include:

• - sweating
• - red face
• - sneezing and coughing
• - eyes watering
• - feeling sick
• - diarrhea

These can present within a matter of a few minutes, and subside as quickly once the irritant is removed from the environment (of course, if it’s something you've ingested it will take longer to clear).

In short, a body under this kind of attack is susceptible to all kinds of reaction - if you’re finding that you have odd allergies/sensitivities/intolerances, don’t think you’re going mad, see it as the body’s way of letting you know that things aren’t right and need to be fixed. It also doesn’t have to be forever - improving your gut flora, cutting out irritants and adopting a diet which supports the body rather than attacking it, is the best way to repair. 

It also doesn’t have to mean that substances which you have reacted to in the past, or react to in the present will have to be avoided forever. Often, as the body as a whole repairs, so the reaction to irritants becomes less, and in some cases diminishes entirely.