THE ECOLOGY UNIT IN THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF ALLERGIES: COMPLICATIONS OF TREATMENT

The complications of this hospital regimen are strikingly few. Occasionally, a patient may decide voluntarily to leave the hospital during the fasting period. This may be the result of an inordinate fear of fasting, the iron grip of some addiction, or an inability to cope with the withdrawal symptoms. There have been a few such instances in which patients left in the midst of acute reactions, following the feeding of a suspected food.

Pregnancy is no problem, however, and pregnant women have been successfully fasted for a few days. Diabetics can also be handled, although in advanced cases the fasts cannot be complete.

In all, patients ranging from young children to elderly people have fasted in our program. Although reactions to foods can be troublesome, it is important to note that no deaths or irreversible complications have ever resulted from this program. Contrast this record to that of conventional medicine, with its emphasis on surgery, radiation, electroshock, and drug therapy. The clinical-ecology approach to chronic illness is logical, effective in many cases, and, above all, safe.

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OTHER FORMS OF FOOD ALLERGY: THE RADIOALLERGOSORBENT TEST (RAST)

The radioallergosorbent test, or RAST, measures the level of IgE antibodies that a person has to a specific substance, such as a food protein or a pollen. There are four stages to the test:

1. An extract of the food (or other potential allergen) is applied to beads made of a substance called sepharose. This is an inert substance that simply acts as a surface on which reactions between the allergen and the antibody can take place. The food molecules remain attached to the sepharose beads throughout the test.

2. A sample of the patient’s serum (the liquid part of the blood) is allowed to flow over the beads. If the blood contains IgE antibodies to that food, these will bind to the food antigens on the beads. The beads are later rinsed to remove everything that is not bound – only the IgE molecules should remain.

3. Another liquid is poured over the beads. This contains a special type of antibody called anti-lgE, which binds specifically to the stem of IgE molecules. If there is IgE stuck to the beads, these anti-lgE antibodies will bind to them. If no IgE is present, then all the anti-lgE will be washed away.

4. The anti-lgE was previously marked with a radioactive marker or a coloured marker. This means that the amount of IgE present can be worked out by measuring the radioactivity or colour given off by the beads. The amount of anti-lgE present is a measure of how much IgE (specific for that food) there is in the patient’s blood.

Of course, the test will also give a positive result if the food contains something that specifically binds to IgE (as long as there is some IgE in the blood). This does indeed happen, in some patients with false food allergy.

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THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTHERS – MRS. ‘D’ CASE (CONCLUSION)

The case of Mrs D. shows how inevitable and necessary it is for the doctor to become ‘entangled’ in the patient’s problem, allowing herself to feel in response to the patient, as this provides valuable clues to what is really going on in the patient’s mind. The doctor must be aware of what she herself feels in order to be able to use the feelings to help the patient to understand herself. In this case the contradictory feelings in the doctor, of being a warm supportive mother and yet also a destructive baby-hater, accurately mirrored the patient’s conflict in relation to her mother and babies.

*16/197/1*

ALLERGY TREATMENT: REFLEXOLOGY AND AROMATHERAPY

Reflexology

Reflexology is a form of foot massage which claims to alleviate and resolve illness. There are various systems of reflexology, but all have in common that they divide the foot into zones which correspond to organs or systems of the body. Reflexologists claim that massage of specific areas of the foot, and of the feet in general, addresses organic disorders and restores overall equilibrium.

Some people with allergies and sensitivity find reflexology very helpful, in particular finding it relaxing and invigorating. It is noninvasive and requires taking no remedies, oils or creams. It rarely causes adverse reaction. Some practitioners use special talcum powder. If this upsets you, ask for massage to be done without, or to use magnesium carbonate powder (available from pharmacies).

Aromatherapy

Aromatherapy is a form of therapy which combines massage with the application of oils from plants. The oils are chosen for their ability to stimulate certain systems of the body, and to alleviate specific symptoms.

Aromotherapy can be relaxing and helpful if you have mild sensitivity, but it can sometimes be troublesome if you have skin problems, and if you are chemically sensitive. The oils used, although from natural sources, are complex chemicals and can cause or aggravate chemical sensitivity. You should do a Patch Test or Sniff Test on individual oils before using them. Only use oils which do not upset you and make sure the practitioner knows that you are prone to allergy and sensitivity. It is probably best not to use the oils on a highly sensitive baby or child.

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ALLERGY\MEDICAL HELP: SODIUM CROMOGLYCATE

Sodium cromoglycate is a drug which works by stabilising the mast cells which are the cells primarily responsible for releasing histamine and other chemicals during an allergic reaction. Stabilising the mast cells reduces the amount of histamine released. It works best for people who have true allergy but can be effective sometimes in cases of food intolerance or chemical sensitivity. It is almost totally free of side effects. Adverse reactions to it are extremely rare.

The drug can be given as eye-drops for conjunctivitis (e.g. Opticrom), as a nasal spray (eg. Rynacrom) or in a spinhaler or pressurised aerosol for asthma (e.g. Intal). It can take from a few days to several weeks for the drug to take effect and needs to be taken continuously during the period of exposure.

It can be taken as a powder by mouth with water to block food sensitivity reactions (e.g. Nalcrom). Large doses of the drug may be needed to make this effective. It can also take a time of experimenting with Nalcrom to find the right dose (usually 6-10 capsules 30 minutes to an hour before a meal) as individuals vary in the dosage that they need. So most people who take it reserve its use for special occasions -for children to go to birthday parties for instance, for family celebrations, or for meals out. It is not usually prescribed for anyone who has had a violent, immediate allergic reaction to a food, who should avoid that food completely. The risks of the drug not working are very slight but not worth taking in these situations.

In clearly allergic cases, sodium cromoglycate is usually tried before steroid drugs are, and is effective in most cases, avoiding the need for steroids.

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ALLERGY: HOW TO DETECT SENSITIVITY TO WATER

If you suspect you are sensitive to your tapwater, try the following method of detection:

Avoid using unfiltered tapwater for four days, as far as you possibly can.

For drinking and cooking, use bottled water or filtered tapwater. (Borrow a jug filter if you can.) Remember to use your chosen water for hot drinks such as tea or coffee. Use it for boiling vegetables, pasta or rice, for washing vegetables before use, or for making soups, casseroles, or other cooking. Use it for cleaning your teeth, or for any water that you swallow.

Stick to the same water if you can throughout the four days, and avoid drinking any made-up or processed drinks – such as fruit juices, canned or bottled drinks, draught beers, lager and cider. These will have been made with tapwater from somewhere. (Most fruit juices are reconstituted with tapwater from concentrated fruit pulp.) Avoid likewise processed foods made up with water – canned soups, fruit or soya milk, for instance. Do not use hot drinks vending machines. Take your own hot drinks or soups to work or school if you need to.

Limit your exposure to water generally. If you can make the effort, use filtered water as much as you can for any use. Bathe and wash hair as little as possible. Avoid showers and baths. It is better simply to do a bodywash at the basin during the four-day test. Get someone else to do the washing-up so that you do not touch or inhale the water. If you have to use water a lot at work, do the avoidance test over a weekend, days off or holiday. Avoid going swimming.

After four days, you can then test your tapwater to see if your symptoms return. If your symptoms return on trying tap-water again, then you are sensitive to it.

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SEX AND ALLERGY: ASK FOR HELP AND SUPPORT

Sexual difficulties caused by your allergies and sensitivity can erode your self-confidence, destroy your ability to meet and relate to new people, and can eat away at an existing relationship. Sex is often an area of great loneliness and private grief for people with allergies and sensitivity. Little support or counselling is ever offered.

If you are a young person just starting out and need help to cope, you must not feel that you are left alone. Many schools or student organisations can put you in contact with groups that offer sexual counselling, and they will quickly be able to understand the special problems that allergies and sensitivity bring. Family planning clinics and GPs can also refer you to people who will help you. Ask for the help and support you need.

If you are in an existing relationship, and tensions result over sexual abstinence, ways of making love or methods of contraception, contact your local branch of Relate who can provide sexual and relationship counselling.

*380\117\8*

CHEMICALLY SENSITIVE PEOPLE AND CONTACT LENSES: SOFT LENCES

The chemically sensitive should be careful with the hygiene solutions they use on their lenses.

Soft Lenses

Soft contact lenses need particular care. The material of the lens acts like a sponge and takes up fluid from the eye, and from cleansing and soaking solutions. A significant proportion of the volume of the finished lens can in fact be fluid and any chemical in the solutions used on the lenses will be absorbed into the lens itself, and be held in contact with the eye.

Older preservative-based soft lens cleansing systems use a wide range of chemicals as germ-killing agents. All are liable to cause irritation and symptoms in the average soft lens-user, not just in the chemically sensitive. You should look for a preservative-free system.

Some modern preservative-free cleansing systems use hydrogen peroxide as the germ-killing agent in an aqueous solution. If used properly, these peroxide systems cause no problems at all to the chemically sensitive. The soft lens is soaked in the peroxide solution overnight. In the morning, the lens needs to be rinsed to remove the peroxide which will cause smarting, but no harm, if it is left on the lens. A neutralising agent is therefore used in the morning to remove the peroxide.

*365\117\8*

FOOD SENSIVITY: MODIFY YOUR ROTATION DIET

There remain the rest of the vegetables, fruits, and the culinary necessities such as oils, sugars, herbs and spices, plus beverages, alcohol, yeast and vinegar. The allocation of these will be driven in part by taste preferences, but the food families will probably play a large role in where things need to go, plus the question of preferred food combinations.

It is a good idea, for instance, to allocate wheat and yeast on the same day so that you have the option of eating bread. Most people then allocate cow’s milk to that day as well, plus beet or cane sugar, so that they can use butter on toast, scones or bread, or can bake wheat cakes, biscuits or puddings. However, once cow’s milk is allocated, it usually brings with it beef or lamb because they are related, and chocolate too, if you tolerate it, so that you can eat milk chocolate. Yeast brings with it cheese, mushrooms, yeast spread and vinegar, because they contain yeasts or moulds related to it. Alcohol, if you can tolerate it, must also accompany yeast, and it usually needs to go with grapes (for wine, port or sherry), apples (for cider), or grass family grains (base material for many spirits). Beet sugar is related to spinach and needs to be allocated in relation to that. Cane sugar is related to corn and the grass family..

So, pretty soon, after just a few decisions, major parts of your rotation will be set. Now allocate the rest of your foods to balance up the diet. Consult a food families list (>FURTHER READING) to check that you have allocated foods correctly. Some of the key foods to double-check since they have unexpected or multiple relations are:

Apple Lettuce

Berries Peanuts

Cabbage Pear

Carrot Peas, beans, pulses

Chicken Potato

Cucumber Sunflower

Dates Tomato

Foods that are particularly useful in planning a rotation are those that have relatively few or unimportant relations. They can be very useful for adjusting the balance of a rotation once the main food families and food groups are fixed. These include:

Avocado
Olive
Banana
Pineapple
Buckwheat
Pork
Coffee
Rabbit
Duck
Sesame
Fig
Sweet Potato
Ginger
Tapioca
Kiwi
Tea
Maple Sugar and Syrup
Turkey
Nutmeg
Venison
Allocate herbs and spices last since they, like oils, are largely dictated by food families of other important food groups. Herb teas can follow where culinary herbs are allocated.

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IN WHAT SITUATIONS DO CHEMICALS CAUSE ALLERGIC REACTIONS?

So where are all these types of chemicals found? Answer: in very many places in everyday life. Before coming to that, however, you need to understand a few more concepts about how, and in what circumstances, chemicals can cause trouble. Even if you are sensitive or allergic to particular chemicals found commonly in everyday life, you can function quite well and use things that contain chemicals to which you are sensitive, provided you take certain precautions.

Chemicals are most likely to cause you reactions when they are found in higher concentrations. If you use chemicals extensively at work, say as a hairdresser; in building and decorating; or if you work in a place where chemical vapours can accumulate (say, in a shop selling paper or new clothes with chemical finishes, or in an office with poor ventilation, new building materials, office machines, and lots of paper), you may have problems with these, but not elsewhere.

Where you have lower exposures, it is when chemicals give off vapour or fumes that they are most troublesome. This happens most commonly when things are new, or when they heat up or become hot. It also happens obviously when exhaust or combustion fumes are given off when things such as engines, fires, cigarettes or stoves burn.

To give an example of how this may affect you, the chemicals used in many plastics and foams used in the interiors of cars are known to cause sensitivity. Most chemically sensitive people, however, are perfectly able to travel in a car that is not new on most days of the year without feeling unduly ill, even if they are sensitive to those particular chemicals. Brand new cars, however, give off high levels of fumes as the chemicals air off, and chemically sensitive people are often made ill by a new car, until it has aired off for some months, sometimes even for a couple of years. Problems can arise again on a hot day in an aired-off car that is normally fine; the heat causes the plastics and foams to start releasing fumes again and people may react where usually they have no problems.

There are numerous other examples of this kind of situation – of chemicals only being a problem when things are new, or subject to heat. An unread newspaper or magazine can cause problems, while one already read and left to air will not. A newly painted room may make you ill at first, but not as time goes on. A new item of clothing that has been washed a few times will be virtually free of fabric finishes and cause no reactions, but if it is worn straight after purchase it may cause trouble. A new pair of shoes left to air will soon lose fumes and any chemical vapours. Some people cannot tolerate synthetic fabrics if they wear them or use them for bedding – when the fibres get warm and give off fumes – but can live with them very happily in carpets, curtains or furnishings where the fumes are much less intense.

*58\117\8*