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Learning about Allergy and Environmental Illness by Understanding the Load Phenomenon Think of the body as having to reach a threshold
above which symptoms occur. This threshold is not fixed and can be
lowered by stress, infection and general factors such as lack of
sleep. To reach the threshold, the effects are cumulative as the
body interacts with environmental agents. Once the threshold is reached,
symptoms will be produced and this is what we call The Load Phenomenon.
“Loads” include things like indoor
and outdoor air pollution, impure water and food. If a person is
sensitive to certain foods and chemicals in the environment, the
threshold is swiftly reached and symptoms produced. However, if a
person has few stresses, plenty of exercises, ample sleep and no
infection, despite encountering items to which he is sensitive, his
threshold may not be reached.
Foods eaten daily are sources of nutrients for
survival but they are also a major environmental stress on the body.
If a food is rarely eaten and one is sensitive to it, then it is
possible to discern that there is a problem when an acute symptom
ensues. Shrimps and strawberries are well-known offenders in this
respect. However, if a food is eaten frequently then it may only
be possible to identify a problem by avoiding it for a while and
then reintroducing it.
Continuously being overburdened by some foods,
particularly common ones such as wheat, milk, sugar, eggs and potato,
will mask the symptoms. Chronic symptoms may fluctuate on and off
depending upon the body's total load.
Food addiction is very common. If the body is
continually forced to accept a food, it adapts to the presence of
that substance, but this maladapted state leads to a state of physical
addiction, as the body requires the presence of the substance (as
in alcohol or cigarette addiction). If a feeding delayed, the body
will have withdrawal symptoms. Taking the food will temporarily relieve
the symptoms; therefore a food addict may crave the food that is
responsible for the chronic symptoms. Eventually, eating the offending
food may not relieve symptoms and more serious symptoms may be experienced.
A simple but slow method of identifying problem
foods is by avoidance followed by challenge. Avoid a food for five
days then eat the food on its own. If the food is capable of causing
symptoms, an adverse reaction will occur as an isolated flare up
of symptoms. Avoidance unmasks or converts a chronic maladaptive
reaction to an acute symptom on challenge.
Three to six months’ avoidance often lowers
the load so the body will not reach the threshold; hence long term
avoidance of particularly common foods can be therapeutic.
A rotation diet involves
avoiding repeating foods more than once in four days. This lowers
the load so that the threshold may not be reached. Once this treatment
diet is established, it may be easier to identify foods that cause
problems.
Controlling environmental illness can be
a challenge requiring patience and persistence. The goal is to
buy the body time to heal by avoiding chronic and acute reaction.
Accept the fact that environmental illness is present and may make
it difficult for you to do certain things, but do not let the illness
stop you living.
Treatment is rebuilding and healing, not just holding
ground against a progressing chronic illness of unknown origin.
With proper knowledge to help oneself, with the guidance and support
of the doctor, it is possible to regain true health.
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