how did you link the two together to find this out?
So basically I am allergic to dairy & grains (including gluten). I lump allergies into 3 categories:
1. Internal reactions
2. External reactions
3. Death
Internal reactions are stuff like anxiety, panic attacks, stomach pain & cramps, asthma, depression, headaches, back & joint pain, nausea, constantly running or stuffy nose, poor memory, ADHD, no energy, "brain fog", feeling cold all the time, being tired all the time, insomnia, restless leg syndrome, etc. External reactions are like eczema on your skin, dry skin, rashes, swelling, etc. Those are more considered intolerances than allergies, I guess, or like a low-level anaphylaxis...there's a lot of crossover. Death is when you're really severely allergic, like when you get anaphylaxis & hives and die if you don't get an Epipen, like if you eat peanuts or get stung by a bee & you're super allergic to that.
It was about a 5-year process for me to learn about my food allergies; it was very difficult. I had no concept of food allergies or that they applied to me. Now it's easy - you just tell someone to go on the elimination diet, which I'll explain later. Anyway, for starters, I had a normal childhood until I had some kidney problems & needed surgery; after that, I was sick all the time. Dairy allergies are common after major invasive surgeries; gluten & grain allergies are common after heavy doses of antibiotics, which sometimes kills the good gut flora in your upper GI tract. Sometimes it's hereditary, sometimes you simply eat too much of something & develop an allergy as you get older. The origin story is pretty much all over the place & can happen at any time. Plus it varies - sometimes you're born with it and it goes away or lessens over time, sometimes as you get older, you develop sensitivities. It's a real mess to diagnose, haha.
Anyway, I have internal reactions. The only really visible issues I had growing up were dark circles under my eyes, which no one ever noticed because I wore glasses, and pale skin and a bit of eczema on my upper arms (small red bumps, nothing major). Also had acne issue, which flares up if I eat certain foods on my no-no list. But it wasn't anything crazy visible like not being able to breathe, or my lips swelling up, or getting a huge rash or hives, or anything like that. By the way, dark circles under the eyes are called "allergic shiners" and are an easy way to tell if you have some sort of food intolerance...when you're just tired, your eyes usually only get puffy, not dark. Allergic shiners are linked to sinus issues, which may be noticeable or may not be - stuffy nose, runny nose, always clearing your throat, one nostril always gummed up, that sort of thing.
Internal reactions are the most difficult to diagnose because a lot of them affect behavior, mood, or your ability to think. And the same foods can affect people differently. For example, if I drink milk, I get a whole slew of problems: sinuses go bonkers, super nauseas, panic attacks, etc. However, I know a guy who swells up like he was in a boxing match - turns purple & red all over, puffy lips, major breathing issues. So I have an internal reaction, he has an external reaction plus some anaphylaxis - has to carry an Epipen everywhere just in case.
But it's different for different foods - if I eat gluten, I get ADHD, brain fog, feel cold, have RLS, lose all motivation & don't care about anything, it's basically like flipping an emotional switch - I get scatterbrained & my endorphins quit pumping so I don't feel happy (or sad, really). I struggled with depression for a long time & was labeled "clinically depressed" - was never really suicidal or anything, just didn't give a crap about anything, felt like nothing mattered. Going off my allergens for a week was like being born again - an enormous night & day difference in my energy, my ability to care about things, my ability to stick with things consistently, etc.
I see the cause & effect very clearly now because I've spent years tracking my diet vs. my physical & emotional results, and have been able to match them up with allergens. But if you show up to a doctor and say "I feel depressed, I'm tired all the time, I have trouble sleeping, I don't feel good, etc." they have no idea that it's food allergies. They usually give you some pills for depression or want you to work out more, go to sleep earlier, and eat better.
What makes it more difficult is that diagnoses tests are not 100% accurate. Because my allergies are internal, NONE of my allergies show up on any blood test, skin-prick test, or any other type of allergy test. Like if you're Celiac & are eating gluten, you can do an IgE test and it will show you right away that you're allergic. But I have a gluten intolerance - that that causes brain fog (hazy thinking), ADHD, and depression - and my IgE test showed nothing. I've done endoscopies, I've seen regular & alternative doctors, I've tried medicine, everything - getting the right diagnoses was all I needed. It was mostly self-diagnosed too...I literally spent thousands trying to fix my issues since I was about to get diagnosed as a hypochondriac, when in reality a mix of food allergies was directly causing all of my issues. Another part of the issue is the time delay. There's basically 3 time delays:
1. Immediate (either instantly or within like 10 minutes)
2. Hours (hits you later, once it starts digesting)
3. 24-hour (delayed reaction)
It partly depends on what I eat. If I eat gluten straight up, like a piece of bread, my IQ drops about 50 points within twenty minutes...I can't think straight, I can't put things together in my head, I get super super tired, etc. But if I have a small amount in other foods, like soy sauce (most soy sauce contains wheat) with a sushi roll, then it can take a couple hours before it hits me. I saw amazing results within a week of being off gluten, although allergists will tell you that it really takes about 3 weeks for your body to clear all of the gluten completely out of your system.
One clue for me was that I always felt better when I didn't eat. Not that I was anorexic or anything, but sometimes I'd get busy and skip breakfast or lunch, and be feeling pretty good by the end of the day. Waking up groggy is a huge red flag...if you don't get enough sleep, you should only wake up tired, not groggy. If you're not awake instantly when you wake up, that almost always means something is wrong with your diet. Also, I had good days & bad days...I didn't know it, but it depended on what I ate, and sometimes it wouldn't hit me until the next day, so I'd have eggs for breakfast and then start feeling crappy later, even though it was the bread I had had with dinner the previous night.
If you have any of those laundry-list of symptoms on a recurring basis, the two easiest ways to get diagnosed are to do an allergy test & to do the elimination diet, keeping in mind that allergy tests are not 100% accurate, it's more like reading tea leaves than an actual medical test because they can't test for everything there is - only stuff that can show up on a blood test. A true elimination diet is really hard. I did a basic one halfway through my own medical research, but as it turns out, I'm allergic to grains, which includes corn - and corn is in literally EVERYTHING! Even if it's not labelled...a lot of oils, even 100% olive oil or canola oil, have corn mixed into them in some way.
The elimination diet is basically going off the top allergens for a month or so. You basically have to eat really bland food for awhile - as easy as that sounds, it's not easy at all. A lot of times you crave what you're allergic to, partially because you're not absorbing what's in the food, and partially because your body produces a reaction, which makes you feel good temporarily, so you subconsciously associate eating your allergen with feeling "better". One clue here is if you have a favorite daily food that you eat a lot of - for wheat & sugar, that could be beer, pasta, bread, or maybe popcorn or anything like that. They've actually started calling the mental side of the reactions "brain allergies" in some cases:
http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/brainallergies.htm
I'd be willing to be that a large majority of people with mental health issues are actually just on a recurring diet that contains their allergens. A lot of kids with aspergers or autistism get a lot of relief when they go off dairy, for example. I read a few studies that said that sugar doesn't make kids hyper...I didn't really believe it until I learned that my hyperactivity was a result of food allergies, which includes sugarcane, which is a grain in the grass family. I can have a cup of beet sugar (used interchangeable with sugarcane) without feeling wired at all, so when you see certain kids go bananas when they eat sugary treats or have stuff with lots of preservatives, I'd say that's almost always a food allergen reaction.
Anyway, I could go on forever about this stuff. I was a mess for most of my life. School was horrible, work was horrible, going out into public was horrible, being social was horrible. Went off all allergens, did a complete 180. I work an average of 60 hours a week now and still have plenty of energy to do other things. Studying is easy. I feel good all day long - no more headaches, stomachaches, feeling nauseas, feeling depressed, not being able to focus, and on and on and on. Crowds don't bother me at all. I don't feel bad all the time anymore. It's not clear-cut until you get the right diagnoses & learn all of the buzzwords to avoid...for example, corn has at least 60 product names I'm aware of, such as dextrose, so I have to avoid regular salt that uses dextrose as an anti-clump ingredient. It's real fun :awe: