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Allergies are a hyper sensitive reaction of your body, to an allergen. Put another way, your body over reacts and creates inflammation in response to an allergen. Common allergens include: cats, dust, perfume and environmental allergens.

What are some typical symptoms of environmental allergies?

When your body is exposed to allergens, an allergic reaction can be the production of histamines, which give you itchy swollen eyes, runny nose and sneezing. These symptoms can become very uncomfortable, if you continuously scratch your eyes, or are unable to sleep because of feeling stuffed up.

What are some typical symptoms of food allergies or food sensitivities?

One example of a food allergy is a dairy allergy, where you may experience diarrhea. A food sensitivity is sub-clinical, where it is not a full blown allergy, but it causes inflammation. and the result is usually your body wants to evacuate the allergen. as quickly as possible. So a symptom of a food allergy can be loose stool, diarrhea and lots of mucous in your stool. Wheat and dairy are common food allergies. In North America, dairy is not in it's natural state- it's contaminated with hormones and antibiotics. Wheat has also been genetically modified considerably. So, a lot of people tend to react to wheat and dairy. There has also been research linking wheat with psoriasis or eczema.

There are dietary links with inflammatory diseases and these foods.

Dr. JJ finds that when he travels outside of North America, that he can eat wheat or dairy and he doesn't react as much as he does here at home.

Detoxification/Cleanses- Most people that have a hypersensitivity reaction find that they have their symptoms relieved after being on a bland diet, which eliminates common irritants, for 1 week. An example is the elimination diet, where you eliminate wheat, dairy, sugar, processed foods and other common allergens from your diet. Then after 1 week, you re-introduce one food back into your diet at a time, and monitor your body's reaction.

We value and respect the experiences of all of our HERWriters, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.

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It would be helpful if most of these were called a food "intolerance". I say this because I have food allergies that are deadly, and people tend to think "oh, you're allergic to nuts? So you can still have a couple because it'll just make your stomach hurt, right?" when really, it will make my face puff up and turn red, my eyes swell shut and my throat close as my body is desperately trying and failing to vomit it out, thus suffocating me in my own filth.

I agree with you that people should learn the difference between food intolerances and food allergies. I have a number of food intolerances, and some that cause an allergic - but not anaphylactic - reaction. To have as serious a reaction as yours is something to be taken very seriously.

Just as you have that reaction to nuts, I had an anaphylactic reaction to the curry in the food at an Indonesian restaurant and wound up in the hospital. Because curries can be so different, the only curry I can safely use is the very mild American type (tumeric is a good substitute).

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