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Food Allergy Symptoms 101 |
 Almost everyone has had the experience of feeling a little discomfort, gas or pain in your digestive system after eating. We often dismiss it by saying that the food just "didn't agree with me". And while it is wise not to over react to indigestion, it also pays to be aware of common food allergy symptoms so you can be aware if you are developing an allergy to something you eat often and take appropriate action.
Most people have some foods that they are not able to tolerate as well as others. A food intolerance is not the same as a food allergy. For one thing, a food intolerance can occur several hours after you eat the offending food or even the next day. Food allergy symptoms are generally more likely to happen either the minute you eat the food you are allergic to or no later than an hour later. Food allergy symptoms happen because your immune system sees the food that you are allergic to as something dangerous. So the immune system over reacts to the food being in your body. The reaction of your immune system is what causes the food allergy symptoms.
Some food allergy symptoms are the kind of unpleasant phayical reactions that you would not normally associate with a digestive problem. If the immune system reacts to the food as it passes through the walls of the stomach and intestines, the food allergy symptom will generally be digestive in nature. Digestive types of food allergy symptoms include stomach cramps, vomiting, constipation of diarrhea or other related symptoms of extreme nausea.
However if the immune system reacts to the food that you are allergic to once the food enters the bloodstream, the variety of food allergy symptoms can be much more diverse. If this is the kind of food allergy symptoms you are experiencing, they may surface as a skin rash, a runny nose, other kinds of itchyness, aches and pain in the joints, hives, headaches, breathing problems, depression, an inflamed throat or dizziness and fatique.
If you suspect that you are experiencing food allergy symptoms, it’s a good idea to get help from a qualified allergist or from your doctor. This is especially crucial if your food allergy symptoms are severe or could be life threatening. If you are in that smaller set of the population would could experience a deadly food allergy symptom, your doctor can give you some resources to use if an allergic episode sets in that could save your life.
Along with identifying that the health problems you are experiencing should be handled as an allergy, the second more crucial information to learn is the source of the food allergy symptom. The most effective way to avoid any food allergy symptom is to avoid that food entirely.
Only by knowing specifically what kind of food allergy you are dealing with can you develop a plan to eliminate that food from your diet. In the case of some very basic foods like dairy or wheat, the dietary adjustments you may have to make to eliminate the occurrence of food allergy symptoms can represent a big change to your lifestyle. But to eliminate the potential recurrence of unpleasant or dangerous food allergy symptoms, those lifestyle changes are entirely worth the effort.
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