You
May Have Hidden Allergies
By
Jimmy Scott, Ph.D.
As published in Health Freedom News, December
1984
Many
people suffer from distressing physical or mental symptoms for
which they have not been able to obtain relief. When they go
to a doctor, they may be told that their problems are all in
their imagination. Or, they may be diagnosed as having a certain
disease, but the prescribed treatment does nothing to help them.
For
many of these people, the real problem is allergy. In my nutritional
and health counseling practice, I have seen time and time again
that when an underlying allergic problem is identified and eliminated,
such illnesses simply go away. Unfortunately, many health care
professionals do not look for allergy in such cases, and even if
they do, they may not use the proper tools to analyze the situation.
Thus, for a number of reasons, many of us suffer from unrecognized, “hidden” allergies.
Originally,
the concept of allergy was limited to a small group of obvious
symptoms, such as runny nose, red eyes, sneezing, or skin rash.
Today, many physicians and alternative practitioners recognize
that a much wider range of problems may sometimes be due to allergy — including
digestive difficulties, headaches, muscular aches and pains, arthritis,
inadequate blood sugar control, addictions, and psychological problems,
among many others.
If
allergy is suspected in such cases, a variety of tests may be used
to try to identify the substances to which the individual is allergic.
In my experience, most forms of allergy testing are not sufficiently
accurate to identify most allergies, especially hidden allergies.
There
are three main reasons why allergies may be hidden: (I) the symptoms
may be masked by mucus in the system, (2) they may not be directly
observable, and (3) they may not be recognized as allergic symptoms.
Let's look at each of these reasons in more detail.
Mucus
Masks Allergic Symptoms
In
recent years, we have been discovering that many physical and psychological
problems may be due to food allergies. Besides the people with
obvious symptoms, many others have food allergies without realizing
it, because their symptoms are masked by mucus and other substances
secreted by the body.
To
understand how this mucus gets into the system, we need to understand
how food allergies develop. A primary cause of food allery is the
over consumption of a food. Any food which is eaten every day,
all year-round (especially if one feels one cannot live without
it), is a strong candidate for causing an allergy.
This
is especially true of foods which are nutritionally deficient.
Unfortunately, many ofthe foods we eat today, such as white flour,
white sugar, and processed fruits and vegetables, do not contain
the nutrients our bodies require. Even fresh foods often are nutritionally
deficient due to soil depletion, lengthy delay before eating, and
improper preparation. When a person habitually eats nutritionally
depleted foods, the body begins to deteriorate. The digestive system
begins to malfunction, and because it cannot digest food properly,
the undigested food particles get into areas of the digestive system
where they should not be. In an attempt to protect itself from
these irritating substances, the body secretes mucus. This intestinal
coating of mucus reduces the absorption of allergic substances,
protecting the person with hidden allergies from experiencing obvious
allergic reactions.
As
an analogy, think about what happens when you work in a garden.
The tool handles irritate the skin of your hands, and so you get
calluses to protect you from the irritation. Once you have the
callus you do not notice the irritation anymore, but the skin is
still being irritated or the callus would go away. In the same
way, when you irritate the digestive system by eating allergy-causing
food, the intestine secretes mucus to protect itself from absorbing
the offending substance.
In
the gardening analogy, the callus protects your skin, but you pay
a price for this protection —your skin gets dry, cracked, rough,
and less sensitive in the callused area. When you get an “intestinal
callus,” or mucus, you pay an even bigger price. The “callus” may
be preventing you from absorbing much of the substance to which
you are allergic, but you are also prevented from absorbing the
nutrients from foods to which you are not sensitive — and so you
are getting less of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients
that you need. As a result, you become more nutritionally deficient,
more allergic, and develop a bigger intestinal “callus.” You are
therefore absorbing even less of what you should be absorbing,
and so on, in a vicious cycle.
An
important part of my program for eliminating allergy is to clean
out the system — to remove this coating of mucus, so that nutrients
will be absorbed properly once again. But when the intestine is
cleaned out, you many seem to become more allergic than previously,
because you no longer have the "intestinal callus" to
protect you. Your hidden allergies are now revealing themselves.
It is important to totally eliminate all allergic foods while the
body is repairing the allergy.
One
way to clean out the system is through fasting. You have probably
noticed that many fasting regimens include elaborate instructions
on how to break the fast. One reason for this is that, with the
protective mucus eliminated from the system, allergic reactions
are liable to result when food is reintroduced. I have found that
if your digestive system is up to par, and if you do not eat anything
to which you are allergic, it is all right simply to eat a regular
meal after a fast. Unfortunately, hardly anyone's digestive function
fits this description, and many people do not know which foods
they must avoid.
Symptoms
Not Readily Observable
A
second reason why allergies may be hidden is that the symptoms
they produce are not directly observable. They may not be the kinds
of symptoms which would be evident on allergy testing, or they
may be going on in parts of the body which cannot be observed directly.
For example, the synovial membrane in an arthritic joint may be
undergoing changes, due to allergy, without any reaction being
felt. The arthritis may progress to crippling severity without
the individual suspecting that it is due to allergy. I have seen
clients transformed from prematurely aged, stooped, arthritis victims
to healthy, active, happy humans through the elimination of underlying
allergies and the proper nutritional program.
Uterine
fibroids and fibrocystic breast disease are other worrisome problems
which may be produced by allergy. Again, early fibroids or fibrocystic
disease are symptoms which may not be readily observable and would
not be recognized as a response to an allergic substance on conventional
allergy testing. In my practice, I have found that a very large
part of the basis for these problems and many others is allergic
in nature and that a key element in overcoming them is to determine
and eliminate the allergic reactions.
Of
course, not every case of arthritis or fibrocystic disease may
be allergic in nature. It is always important to identify allergy
positively, rather than run the risk of missing the real source
of the problems and the proper treatment.
Symptoms
Not Recognized as Allergy
Other
symptoms are more noticeable but may not be recognized as having
been produced by allergy. For example, it may surprise you that
high blood pressure frequently has an allergic basis. Blood pressure
often drops dramatically immediately after eliminating certain
foods from the diet. Other things besides food — such as inhaling
pollens or chemicals — may also produce allergic high blood pressure
reactions.
Muscle
tension can also be an allergic problem. One of my clients had
had muscle tension in her shoulders for years, so that she carried
her shoulders unnaturally high, attributing the problem to “stress.” I
ascertained that the tension in one shoulder was due to a legume
allergy, and when the allergy was eliminated, the shoulder on that
side dropped a noticeable inch-and-a-half. The other shoulder turned
out to be related to a chemical sensitivity, and when that was
corrected, that shoulder, too, dropped!
Today,
many physicians and alternative practitioners recognize that a
much wider range of problems may sometimes be due to allergy — including
digestive difficulties, headaches, muscular aches and pains, arthritis,
inadequate blood sugar control, addictions, and psychological problems,
among many others.
One
of the most important discoveries in the field of allergy has been
the connection between food allergies and a wide range of mental
and behavioral problems. It is quite common, for example, that
when people go on a fast, their psychological symptoms clear up,
along with other allergic symptoms. Over the past 25 years, the
Russians have been doing very successful research with therapeutic
fasts for mentally ill patients. As might be expected, the main
problem is how to maintain these recoveries once the fast is over,
since people are likely to consume foods to which they are allergic,
once they start eating again. I have observed spectacular changes
in some people with severe mental problems when the foods to which
they are allergic have been eliminated.
Emotional
and behavioral problems caused by food allergies may manifest in
many areas of our lives. It is now well recognized that hypreactivity,
delinquency, and other behavioral problems in children are often
due to allergies to foods and food additives. Everyday emotional
conflicts may also have an allergic basis. A number of marriage
counselors are now paying attention to the diet of their clients
as an important key to resolving their relationship problems.
What
You Can do
Do
you have a problem for which no one has been able to help you?
Perhaps your symptoms have been dismissed as “genetic” or “something
you will have to learn to live with.” If you suspect that unidentified
allergies may underline your problems, you will need to find a
health professional who understands allergy, and who uses techniques
which permit the identification of hidden allergies.
In
a subsequent article, I will describe sensitive, new, energy techniques,
using muscle testing, which are now being used to identify allergies.
These new techniques allow us not only to identify allergies but
to determine precise ways to eliminate them. Incidently, these
techniques have led to the discovery of at least 14 different ways
people can react to foods, which are not allergic reactions.
Once
the substances to which a person is allergic have been identified,
I set up a complete, multi-faceted program to take care of the
allergies. This program includes complete elimination of all allergic
substances from the diet; systemic cleansers to remove the mucus,
eliminate toxins, and promote absorption of nutrients; supplements
to provide the body with the materials it needs to repair itself;
and an adequate diet. On such a program, the body becomes healthier,
and the allergies are eliminated.
Simply
because you have been told there is nothing wrong with you,
it does not mean there really is nothing wrong! Also, if the
treatment
you are getting does not help, it does not mean there is
no possible treatment. There is a solution for many supposedly “untreatable” or “nonexistent” problems.
The answer often lies in the identification and correction
of hidden allergies.
