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If you suffer from a chronic disease like arthritis, migraines, depression or Irritable Bowel Syndrome...Did you know that your daily dose of milk (or other foods you consume) could be the underlying source of the problem?

In a true food allergy, your immune system mistakenly identifies a specific food or a substance in food as harmful. Your immune system triggers cells to release antibodies to fight the culprit food or food substance (the allergen). The next time you eat even the smallest amount of this food, the antibodies sense it and signal your immune system to release a chemical called histamine, as well as other chemicals, into your bloodstream.

These chemicals cause a range of allergic signs and symptoms. They are responsible for causing allergic responses that include dripping nose, itchy eyes, dry throat, rashes and hives, nausea, diarrhea, labored breathing, and even anaphylactic shock.

Allergies to commonly eaten foods are not so readily detected or avoided, however. Let us say, for instance, that you developed an allergy to milk early in life. At first, this may have resulted in acute reactions, such as a rash, cough or frequent ear infections. In time, if the allergy was not recognized and controlled, the symptoms may have become more generalized and less easily detected. Since you probably went on drinking milk or eating milk products almost every day, one day's symptoms blurred into the next day's. You developed a chronic disease, such as arthritis, migraines, or depression, or suffer from unexplained weight gain. It never occurred to you that your daily dose of milk was the source of the problem.

Usually, neither patients nor their physicians have suspected food allergy as the root of their problem becausemost food allergy, by its nature, is masked and hidden. It is hidden from the patient, hidden from his or her family, hidden from the medical profession in general. It is said that often the solution to a difficult problem is right in front of your nose, but you cannot see it. In the case of a food allergy, the source of the problem is literally in front of you, in the form of some commonly eaten substance that is bringing on and perpetuating chronic symptoms.


Approximately 25% of the population of the United States suffers from some form of environmental allergy or food allergy.


The proportion of people with food allergies is not known with precision because of differing definitions, but it is between 2% and 10% and is more common in children than adults.
 
While most food allergies start in childhood, they can develop at any time in a person's life. So it's possible to develop a food allergy as an adult. It's not clear why or how this happens, but allergies occur when the immune system mistakenly identifies a harmless substance as a dangerous invader.
 
An allergic reaction can range from sneezing, runny or stuffy nose, itchy, watery eyes, gastro-intestinal symptoms and hives and skin rashes to the extreme: severe symptoms or even a life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis. Symptoms can also be those not recognized as allergic reactions, such as headaches, fatigue, brain fog, aches and pains, weight gain, irritability, hyperactivity or depression.
 
Your body's immune system is designed to fight harmful germs, but in the case of an allergic reaction, your body is over-reacting to a false alarm.


According to Mayo Clinic, Food Allergy Risk Factors include:
 
■  Family history. You're at increased risk of food allergies if asthma, eczema, hives or allergies, such as hay fever, are common in your family.

■  A past food allergy. Children may outgrow a food allergy, but in some cases it returns later in life.

■  Other allergies. If you're already allergic to one food, you may be at increased risk of becoming allergic to another. Likewise, having another type of allergy, such as hay fever, increases your risk of having a food allergy.