How do I know if I have food sensitivities?
Let’s review a few questions to see if food sensitivities could be a cause of your symptoms.
- Do you experience gastrointestinal symptoms after eating?
- Do you have joint pain?
- Do you feel stimulated or experience fatigue or sleepiness after eating?
- Do you notice difficulty concentrating?
- Do you have skin rash?
- Do you have frequent headaches?
- Do you have cardiac symptoms after eating?
- Do you have seizures?
- Do you cough often after eating or get shortness of breath?
The Environmental Health Center-Dallas specializes in diagnosing and treating food allergies and sensitivities. The Environmental Health Center-Dallas recognizes that there exists food allergy, food intolerance and food sensitivity. We are skilled in determining and treating those issues which can be part of the problem you experience with food.
How does the Environmental Health Center-Dallas diagnose food allergy, food sensitivity, and food intolerance?
Your history and physical and interview with the physician are vitally important in diagnosing food sensitivity as it relates to your disease process. We use blood tests which evaluate your nutritional status and digestive issues. We investigate your immune system as it relates to allergic responses.
Our most important and accurate tool for diagnosing food allergies and sensitivities is preservative free intradermal testing of the foods and spices in your diet. This very accurate form of testing allows you and the physician to qualify your allergies and sensitivities and determine which foods need to be eliminated from the diet and which foods can be eaten on a rotary diet schedule. Foods are tested one at a time so both symptoms and skin response can be evaluated. Sometimes a person keeps a diary of foods eaten with notes regarding problems which arise on particular days.
How does the Environmental Health Center-Dallas treat food allergies and food sensitivities?
When it is determined that an allergy or sensitivity exists with foods, a rotary/diversified dietary pattern is constructed. This allows the immune system to recover from an adverse response before the food is repeatedly eaten. The most common timing for this schedule is a 4 day interval. In this manner some mild food allergies can be managed.
This treatment approach of the Environmental Health Center-Dallas has created a new standard in the treatment of food allergies and food sensitivities. The Environmental Health Center-Dallas creates its own antigens in a sterile, clinically approved setting. The presence of any chemical in a food brings another dimension to the diagnosis and treatment of food allergy and food sensitivity. To this end, the Center uses only the purest available organic form of any food in its testing and treatment antigens.
The individual testing of each food and the treatment dose achieved which reflects both the skin response and the symptoms produced by the skin testing of a particular food adds a critical ingredient to the complete and accurate treatment of a food allergy. In more serious cases of those who experience multiple food allergy and sensitivity responses, immunotherapy based on this comprehensive treatment approach enables them to achieve adequate nutrition which otherwise would have been impossible. This therapeutic approach allows the individual to eat the allergic food on a 4- or 7-day rotary schedule without serious problems. Those with severe and numerous adverse responses require numerous treated foods to attain a balanced diet. These patients usually need a longer rotary diet pattern of 7-14 days. This lengthy dietary pattern can only be achieved through the comprehensive treatment approach of multiple food allergies, sensitivities and intolerances as provided by the Environmental Health Center-Dallas.
Any dietary pattern and treatment program for food sensitivities and food allergy must be founded in the knowledge that only organic foods can be eaten. Allergic responses to additives and preservatives can occur negating the testing and treatment for the food.
In extreme cases of food allergies, food sensitivities, and food intolerances in combination with severe gastrointestinal irritation and distress, a form of tube feeding or hyper alimentation can be necessary. The staff of the Environmental Health Center-Dallas recognizes this need and is skilled in using this approach. The advantage of using this approach at the Center is the ability of this facility to skin test and treat the nutrition provided by this type of feeding. This enables the extremely ill patient to receive nutrients without encountering any allergic reactions. Healing is provided and the patient is able to move toward the goal of recovery and the establishment of adequate oral nutrition.
Digestive problems are evaluated, and intestinal health is assessed to ensure that bowel dysbiosis, fungal infection, or parasites are not contributing to the food allergy or sensitivity issue.
All the issues which revolve around nutrition and nutritional status, a backbone of health, is strengthened and enhanced by consultation with our clinical nutritionist, Ron Overberg, Ph.D.
This comprehensive program has been successful in helping many improve digestion, manage weigh, improve nutrition, and attain a diversified diet of multiple food items.