Food Sensitivity Testing

Date Aired: September 1, 2017

Episode Description

Every year, 12 million Americans have negative reactions to the food they eat – of which, 30,000 of them will have to see medical attention some reactions are food ALLERGIES like nut or fish allergies and they are pretty easy to diagnose. Food SENSITIVITIES, on the other hand, are much more complicated and often go undiagnosed. Food sensitivities can lead to chronic conditions such as migraines, eczema, arthritis, obesity, weight gain, Crohn’s disease and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), depression and chronic fatigue. Symptoms can occur several hours, or even days after exposure making it extremely difficult to pinpoint the cause. The delay between exposure and symptoms makes the Alcat Test an invaluable tool to identify reactive foods and substances.

Overlap with Leaky Gut

  • 70 – 80 % immune system is in gut
  • gut has 00 trillion microorganism
  • gut has one layer of cells which has a mucous coating
  • Is protected by IgA to trap items that aren’t supposed to come through
  • This is called barrier function
  • Gluten and poor gut health opens tight junctions allowing undigested food substances and microbes to enter the blood stream.
  • This can start an autoimmune reaction leading to food sensitivity.

Specific immune system (adaptive immune system)

  • Requires sensitization which comes from exposure

Innate immune system

  • First line of defense
  • Don’t need prior exposure
  • For example many Jewish children responded to pork although they have no eaten pork
    • Heart operations used pork heart valves
    • If something I similar then immune system reacts
    • Molecular mimicry attacks our own tissues
  • Can have a food sensitivity even if you never ate the food

 

Reaction to Chemicals in Food

  • Chemicals in food may be small molecules are too small to generate an antibody response
    • Some small particles generate food sensitivity
    • All foods contain toxins to protect itself from pests. WE usually adapt to these
    • If we introduce too many foreign toxins, they over load the detoxification pathways so the innate system kicks in

Ragweed might inhale one teaspoon ragweed pollen

With food

If we detox food without reaction, that is fine

If too much of one thing, we overload a particular pathway, then we have a toxin in or blood system and trigger the innate immune pathway

Most common food sensitivities

  • Before people thought that the main foods causing sensitivities: egg, soy, citrus, dairy and wheat
  • An individual may react to anything even if we never ate it before
  • There is no way to predict what food sensitivities an individual would have
  • Liver detoxification P 450 require certain nutrients
    • If deplete nutrients by stress,
    • Stress causes cortisol which causes intestinal permeability

Epigenetics

  • We are born with genes that predispose us to certain conditions and food sensitivities
  • Genes can be modified by diet, life style or psychological factors casing genes to be expressed or no to be expressed

Milk Helps Protect Against Allergies

  • Milk causes modification to gene which promotes maturation of a certain kind of a beneficial white blood cell (IL 10)
  • Mothers milk and farmed milk prevent allergies

Gluten

  • Is in wheat, barley, rye
  • Spelt has a form of gluten that has fewer carbon bonds and is more digestible
  • Gluten has a lot of the amino acids proline and glutamine meaning it is impossible to digest
  • Gluten binds with CCXR receptors on enterocytes the monolayer on the gut
  • Releases zonulin which cases the opening of the tight junctions
  • This does not seem to happen all of the time as some people don’t seem to be as affected by gluten
  • The gluten molecule comes through it is very big and immunogenic causes the very aggressive T cells to attack the enterocytes which release tissue trans glutaminase
  • The TTg binds with the gluten fragment which becomes more immunogenic (if you have the wrong genes)
  • If have the genes that predispose to celiac disease