Could the food you're eating be making you ill? Food intolerances and allergies can throw up any number of symptoms that are not all gut related. So you might find that you are not sleeping well, have joint pain, headaches, sinus pain, anxiety, problem skin, shortness of breath or nausea.
So what's the difference between an intolerance and an allergy, and how do you know if you have one?
When you have an allergy it can be food or from an airborne substance and your immune system has a reaction causing excess histamine to be released into the body. We are not sure why people get allergies, but they are becoming more common with 1 in 4 people suffering with some type of allergy.
An allergy can bring on some pretty uncomfortable symptoms including nausea, red itchy skin, breathlessness, coughing, sore eyes and nose, not to mention anaphylactic shock.
On the other hand an intolerance doesn't effect the immune system and symptoms may develop overt time, and because you will probably be able to tolerance a small amount of the food in question it makes it hard to determine what food has actually caused it.
If you have an intolerance you might experience tummy pain, joint pain, headaches, insomnia, sinus pain and skin problems to name but a few!
So what can you do?
Many clients come to me not knowing if they have an allergy or intolerance, but we can usually determine which one it is in the first meeting. I'm then able to use the correct test using a small sample of blood to determine what might be causing the problem, and we can work together to make any lifestyle adjustments to help improve their symptoms.
If someone has an intolerance it's likely that they will be able to eat that food again in the future once we have their condition under control, but this won't be the case if it's an allergy.
If you are interested in finding out if you have an intolerance or an allergy then contact me for a free consultation using the link below.
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