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The stimulatory (plus) levels can all be considered, in a sense, adaptive responses by the body to some environmental substance(s). When the body can no longer adapt, it enters the various stages of maladaptation (see Chap. 11). These are the withdrawal reactions, also called hangovers or letdowns. Most people never identify their stimulatory (plus) reactions as symptoms until the bigger picture is pointed out to them. The negative reactions are clearly problems, however, and doctors’ waiting rooms are filled with the victims of such reactions.
Minus-one reactions are those symptoms, mainly physical, which are commonly called allergic reactions. They include running nose, coughing, wheezing, asthma, itching, hives, eczema, excessive gas, diarrhea, constipation, colitis, and other localized physical problems.
Because such reactions are ordinarily considered as allergic in origin and handled by conventional allergists, I have given little detailed attention to them in this book. It can be assumed, however, that they are often caused by allergies to foods and common chemicals.
Minus-one reactions (—) such as these may disappear, only to be replaced by even more troublesome minus-two (- -) reactions. Minus-two reactions are “systemic” allergic symptoms, affecting not just one but many parts of the body. A person in this stage of allergy is typically tired, dopey, sleepy, or mildly depressed. He is frequently plagued by painful syndromes, such as headache, neckache, backache, neuralgia, myalgia, and arthralgia. This is the phase in which chest pains and .cardiovascular effects are noticed. Cardiovascular simptoms can include rapid or irregular pulse or heartbeat, hypertension, phlebitis, anemia, or tendencies toward bleeding and bruising.
Typically these symptoms do not occur alone. That is, by the time a patient has fallen to the minus-two level, he often has many of these problems. Doctors like to deal with anatomically distinct problems: “Where does it hurt?” is a typical opening question. Few doctors like to hear, “It hurts all over,” or some such reply. In fact, as we have mentioned, many doctors are told in medical school to discount the statements of parents with many complaints. For this reason, patients in the minus-two and minus-three categories are often told, condescendingly, that their problems are “all in their head,” or psychosomatic. This may be due to the unfamiliarity of orthodox physicians with the findings of clinical ecology. In actuality, such multiple ‘symptoms are often the end result of a long process of developing allergy. The individual nature of the patient’s problem can usually be demonstrated through the methods of clinical ecology.
Minus-two (- -) is the stage at which we find such common problems as physical fatigue and headache (Chap. 12) and muscle and joint aches and pains, including arthritis (Chap. 13). Fatigue, when related to food allergy, tends to be worse in the morning, because this »s when the patient has been without his addictant for several hours. He needs, and craves, his fix. Fatigue on an allergic basis is usually quite different from physical fatigue resulting from exertion, which is relieved by rest and sleep- Allergic fatigue is seemingly without cause, and is not ordinarily relieved by prolonged periods of rest; it is basically quite unpleasant.
Minus-three (- – -) is the stage I call “brain-fag.” The term “brain-fag” is found in Webster’s dictionary as a synonym for mental exhaustion. It was suggested to me by a patient who suffered from this problem, and I have used it ever since. “Brain-fag” is more than just exhaustion. In this stage, thinking is confused, and people become indecisive, moody, sad, sullen, withdrawn, or apathetic. There is frequently much emotional instability and impaired attention. The “brain-fagged” patient cannot concentrate properly, and his comprehension and thought processes are impaired. This includes aphasia (the inability to speak, or to find words for things), mental lapses, and blackouts. A fuller discussion of “brain-fag,” with case histories, is given in Chapter 14.
As with the minus-two reactions, “brain-fag” is characteristically polysymptomatic. The patient has many symptoms and often has periods of physical illness (minus-one or -two) interspersed with his generalized mental exhaustion (minus-three).
Severe depression, or minus-four (- – - -), can be called the end of the line of this entire problem. This depression can be preceded by a superstimulated (plus-four) phase, as in manic-depressive disease, or by less severe withdrawal symptoms (minus-three).
While depression does occur in the young, it is most commonly found in the middle-aged or elderly, who have had a lifetime to develop to this stage. Such depression is often believed to be the result of unhappy events in the life of the patient, such as bereavement, retirement, or changes of locale. While such life events may contribute to the problem, usually mild depression and “brain-fag” precede them, and provide the underlying mechanism for the development of a crisis. Most often, in my experience, depression is caused by lifelong addictions to common foods, drinks, and environmental chemicals.
The severely depressed person may be unresponsive, lethargic, disoriented, and melancholic. While he may remain rational for long periods of time, he may eventually lapse into paranoid thinking, delusions, hallucinations, and sometimes even amnesia and coma.
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Tags: Allergies
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There are two major problems in choosing a filter. Firstly, it is impossible to tell if the product is working properly, without chemical analyses, although if it has a serious defect, a smell of chlorine in the filtered water might be noticeable. Secondly, there are no British Standards for domestic water filters at present. As a customer, you therefore need to be well informed about what you are buying. Some of the filters at present on the market actually remove very few contaminants from the water supply. Others may work well at first, but their performance drops off sharply – long before they have filtered the number of gallons claimed by the manufacturer.
The only country to apply consumer standards to domestic water filters is the USA, where the Environmental Protection Agency requires filters impregnated with silver to be registered and sets a limit on how much silver can leach into the water. In Britain, the Water Research Centre operates an approval scheme for some aspects of water filters, but not for their overall performance. It seems likely that the approval scheme in Britain will be improved in the next few years.
The vast majority of water filters bought in Britain are of the jug type. The advantage of these is that the initial outlay is very low (£10-15). The cost per gallon is between 12 pence and 30 pence, which is cheaper than bottled water, although the taste of the water is not as good.
The prime objective of the jug filters is to improve the taste and appearance of water, and to remove hardness (calcium carbonate or ‘chalk’) so that kettles do not
become lined with scale. They contain an activated carbon filter to remove chlorine and another component, an ion exchange resin, which takes out the calcium carbonate. The latter component also removes lead and some other metals. Calcium carbonate is not injurious to health and cannot cause sensitivity reactions, so it is the kettle that benefits rather than the drinker.
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Tags: Allergies
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Once you have felt consistently better for three or four days then you should start the reintroduction phase. Don’t delay doing this. Write down exactlv how you feel at this point – it may be useful and encouraging to refer back to this later if you suffer a lot of reactions during food testing.
Feeling much bettei- quite quickly
This can happen, especially in children and young people – they seem to miss out on the withdrawal symptoms. Go on to the reintroduction phase.
Feeling much better, but with one or two lingering symptoms It looks as if you have cut out your main offending foods, but are still eating something that is a problem (assuming that you have ruled out all other problems, such as candidiasis, airborne allergens, hyperventilation and environmental chemicals. Think again about your previous eating habits – is there anything you used to eat quite frequently and are still eating? Cut all these out.
If your symptoms clear, then go on to the reintroduction phase immediately. If they don’t, then the best option is to go on to a full ‘rare-food diet’, only eating foods that you have never eaten before.
If the remaining symptoms are mild, and fairly constant from day to day, then you could go on to the reintroduction phase – you may get some sort of useful result from testing. If you can discover which foods are the main source of trouble, and establish a diet on which you are reasonably well, then you are in a good position to investigate further. It could be that the remaining symptoms are due to some other problem – see below, under Feeling about the same, for a list of possibilities.
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Tags: Allergies
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One thing that is thought to trigger off food intolerance is a heavy exposure to toxic chemicals. Such exposures are usually accidental and unforseen, of course, but there are some avoidable ones. If a house is to be sprayed with insecticides to eradicate woodworm, or with fungicides for wet or dry rot, then it is advisable to move out for at least a week, to allow time for the fumes to disperse. The company doing the spraying may claim that this is unnecessary, but there are instances of both children and adults being ill after spraying, even though they were not directly exposed to the spray. The fumes travel throughout the house, so even if only one part is being sprayed you should try to find somewhere else to stay for a while. Another hazard that can be very largely avoided is direct exposure to pesticides used on crops. If you see fields being sprayed, keep your distance, especially if they are being sprayed by a plane. The spray can easily drift. If you have a choice, don’t buy a house next to a large arable field. Avoid using sprays in your own garden and keep household chemicals to a minimum.
Finally, the general health measures listed on p290 are recommended to anyone who might be at risk of developing food intolerance. Above all, don’t ignore symptoms such as recurrent headaches, regular bouts of indigestion or persistent fatigue. Living on aspirin, antacids, or strong coffee is going to make the problem worse rather than better, and experience suggests that the decline into severe food intolerance is a very gradual one that begins with symptoms of this sort. Treating a mild form of food intolerance – the early stages – is a great deal easier than trying to tackle entrenched symptoms and multiple sensitivities. The longer you leave it the more difficult it may be.
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Tags: Allergies
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It would appear, from more recent studies, that food additives are important in a great many children with hyperkinetic syndrome, but that it is unusual to find a child for whom additives are the sole problem. Most also show sensitivity to various commonly eaten foods, pollen, dust, other common allergens and chemicals. The role of natural salicylates seems to be a minor one. When food and other allergens are considered, as well as additives, 50-80 per cent of children respond, although not all of them are completely cured. Sensitivity to unavoidable synthetic chemicals, such as solvents and the contaminants of natural gas, may account for the partial success with some patients.
Although Feingold’s theory was not entirely right, he was correct to single out food additives for blame – they do seem to play a disproportionate role in hyperactivity, compared to other types of illness such as asthma or eczema. This suggests that enzyme deficiencies may contribute to hyperkinetic syndrome, because such additives need to be detoxified by the body’s enzymes. They may also prevent some enzymes from working properly. The involvement of additives may explain why the incidence of hyperkinetic syndrome seems to have increased dramatically in the last 20 years – a period that has seen the meteoric rise of junk food’, take-aways and instant-everything. All these convenience foods tend t6 be rich in colourings, flavourings, preservatives and other additives.
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Tags: Allergies
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Enzymes are specialized molecules found only in living things (the ones in biological washing powders are extracted from living things). They are absolutely essential to life, because they make specific chemical reactions happen. For example, they join other molecules together to build up the cells that make up living bodies. They also break down food (digestive enzymes), so that the energy it contains can be utilized, and break down toxins (detoxification enzymes) to make them harmless. They transform surplus food into fat stores, or break down the fat to yield energy when food is short.
Although they cannot be seen, even under a microscope, there are hundreds of thousands of different enzymes in the human body. Each enzyme has a very specific job to do: most of them only control one reaction, although others are slightly more versatile. For example, some of the digestive enzymes can break
down a variety of food molecules of the same general type. Enzymes themselves are controlled by smaller molecules which can turn a particular enzyme on or off.
Enzymes are just one type of protein molecule. Like all proteins, enzymes are made according to an inherited pattern which is passed on from parent to child. This pattern is stored in the genetic material, the DNA. In fact, DNA acts as a template, from which all enzymes and other protein molecules are made. If there is a change in the DNA – a mutation – then the enzyme which is coded for by that part of the DNA will be altered. Usually these changes are for the worse, and the enzyme does not work as well as the original version. What sort of effect this enzyme defect has will depend on how important the enzyme is, what sort of reaction it controls and how badly it has been affected. Defective enzymes may play a part in food intolerance.
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Tags: Allergies
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Organise and plan ahead as much as you can, even if it is not in your nature. Keeping a Foods Diary for the week ahead is a help for shopping and catering, especially if you have more than one household member on a special diet.
Do not go shopping for food when you are really hungry or withdrawing from a food. You are much more likely to buy forbidden things, break your diet or eat naughty snacks. Go shopping just after a big meal.
For running a rotation, if you tolerate frozen food well and you have a freezer, you can cook casseroles, sauces, purees or bakery in batches and freeze the surplus, labelled for each day of the rotation. This will help avoid food wastage, and save buying and cooking small amounts every few days. Use colour code labels for each day of the rotation. Frozen vegetables, although expensive, can save a lot of waste. Divide up fruit juice cartons and freeze them in portions for one day of the rotation.
Do not forget when working out a rotation diet to include things which can be eaten as snacks or fillers. These are particularly useful for babies and children. Use nuts, dried fruits, fresh fruit, seeds, rice-cakes, rice puffs, rye crispbread, oatcakes.
If running a rotation diet for people taking packed lunches to work or school, try to work out lunch menus which look as normal as possible. It helps psychologically to cope with a special diet if you are not too conspicuous in public.
Put herb teas or strange juices in thermoses. Mixed salads are useful, as are oatcakes, rye crispbread, ricecakes, and wholefood crisps.
Use colour codes if you are running a rotation diet. Use red jars and labels for Day One, and so on. Alternatively, keep separate shelves or cupboards for each day of the rotation and colour code them. Then you know that on a given day you can reach into that jar or that cupboard and eat anything in it. Particularly useful for hungry children just home from school.
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Tags: Allergies
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Start from zero. Put in the room only what you actually need to have. For most people, at first, this is a bed and a light. Start from that base, and then add to it. For testing and elimination purposes, move anything not essential out temporarily. Reintroduce them one by one to see if they cause a reaction. Only put in what you really want to have and things that are important to you for decoration and pleasure. Have the minimum of furniture and objects. If you put things in that are made of materials that can upset you, make sure they are not new and are well aired off. If you have a radio and clock, make sure they are aired off. If you have veneered chipboard furniture, for instance, it will probably not be a problem once it is a few years old and has gassed out the fumes. Keep pictures to a minimum, and make sure they do not smell. If you have toys, air them off and wash them well.
Keep things elsewhere if you can. Do you need to have all your clothes in your bedroom, for instance? Could you not keep them in cupboards or drawers elsewhere, in a passage or in the bathroom? Do you need a bookcase or toy shelf actually in the room? Keep toiletries and cosmetics in the bathroom cupboard or in another room. Do make-up in the bathroom or elsewhere. If you do keep things in the room or by the bed, keep them covered up in drawers or behind a cupboard door. Put things away when they are not in use. Put books and magazines in a drawer overnight and keep their number to a minimum.
Once you know what you react to, if you find that things already in your bedroom (such as the bed, carpet, curtains, bedding, furniture, or even building and decorating materials) upset you even when aired off, it may help to go further and replace them. Ban things that upset you from your oasis. Make your own rules about what comes into it. If you do not want perfumes, aftershave or hairspray in your oasis, or tobacco smoke, then people may have to stay outside, or change clothes or shower before entering. If you do not want polish or detergents, keep them out. Negotiate with family and housemates, but stick to your conditions if they are important to you. Be prepared to have to retreat to your oasis when other people do what they want to, elsewhere.
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Tags: Allergies
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Masonry paints
For exterior walls, it is not possible to find a masonry paint which is free of fungicide. If you have to use one, get someone else to apply it for you. The following are water-based acrylic masonry paints: Dulux Weathershield Fine Texture Masonry Paint or Dulux Weathershield Masonry Paint, Sandtex Matt and High Cover Smooth Acrylic, Crown Stronghold and Smooth Stronghold, and B & Q Textured Masonry Paint and Smooth Masonry Paint. The Sandtex paint has very low levels of fungicide and small samples are available from them for the matt paint. As an alternative, you can use a cement-based masonry paint, such as Snowcem Cement Paint.
For metal paint, you can use any exterior or interior water-based gloss paint, as above, provided that the metal has been properly primed. Livos sell Duro metal primer which is linseed oil-based, and can be used on iron and any other metals. You can obtain a water-based metal primer from B & Q, Dulux, Green and International Paint but it cannot generally be used on iron. It will cause the iron to rust unless the metal is very clean and totally free of any rust or corrosion. Water-based metal primers are thus best used only on non-ferrous metals such as zinc, aluminium, brass or copper.
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Tags: Allergies
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There are three basic types of air clearing and filtering device:
• air purifiers
• ionisers
• air filters and cleaners
There are also built-in, and radiator systems, discussed below.
Air Purifiers
Air purifiers are on sale in many High Street shops. They are small electrical devices, relatively cheap (about £15 at 1992) and work by drawing the room air in, and passing it through a thin fabric filter and over a perfumed insert. They are sometimes called fragrancers or vapourisers. Their main function is to mask smells and they are not very effective at removing either particles or vapours. They are generally of little benefit to people with allergy or sensitivity, and the fragrances can upset the chemically sensitive.
Ionisers work by producing negative ions. Dust and other particles have a positive electrical charge and are often suspended in the air. The negative ions from an ioniser neutralise the positive charge and the particles from the air are attracted to the walls and floor. The air is thus cleared by particles being attracted to other surfaces, not by them being filtered or removed. Ionisers do not remove chemical fumes or vapours.
Studies carried out on the effectiveness of ionisers in reducing the level of airborne allergens have failed to produce any evidence that they actually help allergic respiratory problems. The National Asthma Campaign does not endorse them. However, people who use them often do feel that they bring benefit. In March 1992, a Which? survey of 130 people who wrote to the magazine about ionisers reported that slightly more of them ‘thought that their ioniser helped them, compared with those who thought it had not’. Which? tests also found that ionisers can clear cigarette smoke much more quickly than allowing the smoke to disperse or settle naturally.
One major drawback of ionisers is that the dirt clings to walls behind furniture and around the edges of furniture and objects. The dirt is often greasy and difficult to clean, creating permanent dark marks for which the only solution is to redecorate – a serious disadvantage if you are chemically sensitive.
The simplest ionisers are relatively cheap (from £25 at 1992 prices), light and portable. They are usually of hard plastic cases which do not upset the chemically sensitive once aired. Ionisers are also often built into other filtering devices (see below).
The Which? survey (March 1992) found that a number of makes of ioniser did not actually produce ions on test. The Pifco 1072 (£25) performed best on their tests.
Ionisers are readily available from electrical shops and wholefood shops. They are also available by mail order from the Air Improvement Centre, Allerayde, The Healthy House, The London Ioniser Centre and Medivac.
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Tags: Allergies