Discover The Missing Key to Improving Your Health

Written by Shelley Hitz


Do you knowrepparttar top ten causes for death? You will recognize them all.

Here they are… 1. Heart disease 2. Cancer 3. Stroke 4. Lower-respiratory diseases 5. Injury (mostly car accidents) 6. Diabetes 7. Flu and pneumonia 8. Alzheimer's disease 9. Kidney disease 10. Infection Source: 1999-2001 mortality statistics fromrepparttar 115082 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Most of us want to live long, productive, pain free lives. So, then, why are so many people dying from heart disease, cancer and strokes - most of which can be prevented through lifestyle changes?

***Health Is More Than Just Physical***

Health is defined in Webster's dictionary as "sound physical or mental condition". Did you notice this definition only includes physical health and mental health? What about emotional health and spiritual health? So many times I separate my life into different "file folders".

I have a folder for exercise and diet, a folder for my relationship with God, a folder for my social life, and another folder for my emotions….can anyone else relate? I try to fix my exercise and diet without addressing my emotions. Or I try to overcome a difficult relationship in my "social folder" without addressing my relationship with God.

I try to separate myself -- my emotions, my mind, my spirit and my body into different parts. And it just doesn't work.

***Water, Ice & Steam - The Same Substance In Different Forms***

Let's takerepparttar 115083 example of water. It has different functions as water, ice and steam, but it is stillrepparttar 115084 same basic molecular substance. H2O.

Similarly, I believe each one of us has different parts - our emotions, mind, spirit and body, but they all interrelate to one another. They can't be separated. Picture three circles. Now picture them all overlapping. I believerepparttar 115085 three circles are your emotions, mind and body and where they all overlap -repparttar 115086 core of your being - is your spirit. Your deepest beliefs and desires.

Have you ever noticed that when you feel depressed it is harder to exercise? Or if you suffer from physical pain it is harder to concentrate mentally on your work?

ADHD and Food Allergies

Written by Anthony Kane, MD


ADHD and Food Allergies

by Anthony Kane, MD

Introduction

There are a number of controversial areas in medicine when it comes to ADHD. Food allergy is certainly one of them.

The classic allergic reaction, which is classified asrepparttar type-1 hypersensitivity reaction, can be elicited by food, but this is fairly uncommon. When we discuss food sensitivities in ADHD we are discussing a different, not well-defined, mechanism.

One ofrepparttar 115081 main progenitors ofrepparttar 115082 food allergy/ADHD connection is Dr. Doris Rapp. Dr. Rapp was a pediatric allergist who noticed that many children in her practice had significant physical and behavioral changes when exposed to certain foods. They may have red ear lobes, dark circles under their eyes, or glazed eyes after eating certain foods. These children could have tremendous swings in behavior. They can be calm one minute and wildly hyperactive a few minutes later.

To make it more interesting, children with food allergies usually craverepparttar 115083 food that affects them negatively. That means a child who is allergic to peanuts will demand peanut butter and jelly for lunch everyday, and forrepparttar 115084 rest ofrepparttar 115085 afternoon you have to peel him off ofrepparttar 115086 ceiling.

What is Food Allergy?

The classic allergic reaction operates through a very specific mechanism. The reaction is caused when a specific type of antibody, called IgE, reacts with a specific provoking substance called an allergen. The result of this interaction is an allergic response andrepparttar 115087 person is deemed allergic to that allergen.

The specific type of antibody involved in classic allergy is called IgE. The proposed antibody mechanism for this type of food allergy does not involve IgE, but a different antibody called IgG. This is significant because standard allergy testing tests only for IgE antibodies. If your child has IgG mediated sensitivity, his allergy test is going to miss it. That means that your child may have a severe allergy to a specific food, but your allergist will tell you he is not allergic to it.

Whyrepparttar 115088 Controversy?

Reason 1: Diagnosis

I said this was a very controversial area of medicine and here is one ofrepparttar 115089 reasons why. Food allergies are very difficult to diagnose. One reason is thatrepparttar 115090 symptoms wax and wane. When a child has a classic allergy, for example to bee stings, then every time a bee stings him, he will have a reaction. Food allergies don’t work that way. There seems to be a threshold that must be exceeded before there are any symptoms. In addition, this threshold seems to vary from day to day. On some days a food will affectrepparttar 115091 child, and on other days it won’t. Dr. Rapp explains this phenomenon usingrepparttar 115092 analogy of a barrel.

We can view each allergic child as if he has a barrel. As long asrepparttar 115093 barrel is empty or only partially full, your child will have no problems. Your child won’t become hyperactive until his barrel is overflowing.

Various things will fill your child’s barrel. Let’s say your child is sensitive to chocolate, cats, and peanut butter. Each of these things all can partially fill his barrel. As long as he only has peanut butter or only plays withrepparttar 115094 cat, his barrel is only partially full. That means that there are no symptoms and that his behavior is fine. Then, one day he has a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, has chocolate ice cream for dessert and plays withrepparttar 115095 cat all afternoon. These things in combination make his barrel overflow, and by evening he is out of control. Your child has food allergies, but sometimes they affect him and sometimes they don’t.

The barrel can change sizes. If your child has a cold or is upset his barrel gets smaller. It takes less to make it overflow. If he is happy his barrel is bigger. It takes more to make it overflow. If he isn’t eating well and that day he is low on certain nutrients his barrel gets smaller.

Many traditional allergists find this barrel concept ludicrous. It doesn’t fit intorepparttar 115096 pattern of how other allergies work.

Reason 2: Method of Diagnosis

The next problem isrepparttar 115097 way in which you test for food allergies. Dr. Rapp describes a technique called provocation-neutralization testing. This method works as follows: Say that a child frequently has headaches after eating eggs. The practitioner will give an intradermal injection of egg extract. If this elicitsrepparttar 115098 child’s headache, thenrepparttar 115099 child tests positive for egg allergy. Other signs of a positive test include an increase in pulse rate of 20 points, a large skin reaction (this indicates a classic IgE reaction), a change inrepparttar 115100 child’s handwriting, or some other physical or emotional complaint. This last criterion “some other physical or emotional complaint” is problematic. It is too vague. The result is that when studies compared how several physicians evaluatedrepparttar 115101 same group of patients, their results didn’t agree. For each patient if there were twenty different doctors with twenty different sets of findings. None of their diagnoses matched.

Reason 3: The Mechanism

As I mentioned before,repparttar 115102 proposed mechanism is an IgG mediated response. Some food allergists diagnose specific food allergies by measuring IgG levels. This runs counter to all of modern allergy practice.

Allergists give allergy shots to treat allergy. The way this works is they give a low level of allergen, which is not enough to elicit an IgE reaction. The dose is slowly increased until eventuallyrepparttar 115103 patient can tolerate a significant exposure torepparttar 115104 allergen.

This is how it works. The repeated low-level exposure torepparttar 115105 allergen inducesrepparttar 115106 body to make a different antibody torepparttar 115107 substance. This antibody attaches torepparttar 115108 allergen and deactivates it before IgE can causerepparttar 115109 allergy reaction. What is this antibody that allergists try to induce to cure their patients of their allergies? You guessed it, IgG. Sorepparttar 115110 very antibodyrepparttar 115111 traditional allergists have been inducing for decades to successfully treat allergies,repparttar 115112 food allergy people claim isrepparttar 115113 antibody guilty of causing allergies.

For a traditional allergist this is nothing short of heresy. IgG has been used for decades to treat allergies successfully. Comes along Rapp and her friends and they claim that IgG causes allergy? This is a little hard for some people to accept.

Just how strongly do allergists reject this idea? I once tried to contact an Israeli physician who was a food allergy specialist to discuss with him provocation-neutralization testing. I calledrepparttar 115114 hospital where he is on staff and asked to speak with him. For some reasonrepparttar 115115 operator instead put me through torepparttar 115116 head ofrepparttar 115117 Department of Allergy.

I began discussing with himrepparttar 115118 theory of food allergies, provocation-neutralization testing and IgG testing. He told me that he wasrepparttar 115119 head of a committee of allergists who were inrepparttar 115120 process of testifying beforerepparttar 115121 Israeli Knesset to get legislation passed to make IgG testing illegal in Israel.

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