Allergy Part 2: How Allergy and Digestion are Linked

Many people in the spring run around with symptoms of seasonal allergies saying, “I am not sick, it’s just allergies.” Blaming their symptoms on the pollen that is floating about.

Well, that’s not entirely true. There is really no, ONE cause of allergy.

Actually, it is an accumulation of many factors that have overwhelmed the bodies’ protective mechanisms and the pollen is just the trigger that broke the camels back!

Did you know?

• That 1 out 3 surgeries in the United States is related to digestive issues

• 1 out of 10 deaths are related to digestive disorders

Shocking, right?

Often times people don’t think they have digestion issues because they don’t have pain or discomfort in their stomachs. They don’t attribute the acid reflux, gas, bloating, feeling heavy after eating, nausea, diarrhea or constipation, among so many others, with digestive issues.

These symptoms are not normal and ARE signs of digestive issues.

It is a guarantee that if you eat a typical North American diet you will develop a chronic degenerative disease like heart disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, stroke or mental illness.

But, even if you eat a fairly “healthy” diet, you could suffer from an unknown intolerance or allergy.

Ok so whats the link between digestion and allergy?

Here are 2 scenarios:

1) Perfect Digestion: The digestion process goes perfectly and the body is able to break down the food you have eaten into its smallest parts. These tiny molecules enter the blood stream and the body recognizes these nutrients as the building blocks that help with all thing living. The body uses these building blocks to repair, replenish and grow new cells, tissues and organs, no problem, life is good.

2) Not So Perfect Digestion: Digestion, for many reasons, is incomplete. The food you have eaten is NOT fully digested. Due to inflammation of the gut, these large undigested chunks of food enter the blood stream. The body does not recognize these chunks of food, as nutrients. So the body reacts accordingly to this foreign invader and attacks it. This sets off a natural and normal immune response that includes inflammation, pain, redness among others, allergy!

Chronic poor digestion, leaky guts and other stressors will put your body on a state of high alert all the time, and this will exhaust the body’s resources putting your body’s overall health in jeopardy. Your body is trying to maintain homeostasis with all of its resources, but can’t keep up. So, when the pollen starts to fly, your body just can’t deal with another foreign invader. Hence, seasonal allergy symptoms, we all know about.

It is so important to take care of our digestive system. Here are a few tips on how to be kind to your digestive system:

1. Chew your food properly

2. Eat slowly

3. Eat without distractions

4. No cold beverages at meal times

5. Try to manage your stress as well as you can.

In the final part of this series I will shed some light on the steps you can take to avoid, or at the very least reduce your allergies!

Often times when the issues of the digestive system is addressed and fixed, allergy tends to disappear.

Thank you for reading, if you want to learn more about how your diet and digestion is affecting your health please reach out to me, I am happy to help.

Take care,

Sarah

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