Over recent weeks the UK newspapers have been full of articles exploring the subject of food allergies and intolerances. Daily Mail’s Fiona MacRae reported that food intolerances may be all in the mind. She says that many people who claim to be intolerant to the milk sugar lactose, are more likely to be stressed, anxious or depressed than intolerant. MacRae continued by adding that as many as 10 million British adults claim to be unable to eat foods ranging from milk to mustard, however, in reality only a mere 2% actually have a problem. She reported that researchers were saying that parents were acting too quickly in deciding that their children had allergies or intorlerances when in fact many were perfectly healthy. She wrote:
Whilst the UK newspapers played down the subject of food allergies, blaming anything from faddy eating to mental illness and stating that the incidence of true allergies were actually very low, I found many professionals are saying food allergies in children are on the increase. They are attributing this to the amount of vaccinations being added to the childhood vaccine schedule. Is this why the UK media have come out in force to play this escalating problem down? I decided to find out.
Heather Fraser, MA, BA, B.Ed who wrote the paper, ‘The Man-Made Peanut Allergy Epidemic, A revealing history of a medical mystery’ is one of them and strongly believes that vaccines not only cause peanut allergies but other food allergies as well.
She wrote:
“In the US alone, 5.6 million people – 2% of the population – are allergic to peanuts and nuts almost all having experienced onset as toddlers. This epidemic tipped into critical mass around 1998 when the first flood of allergic children entered kindergarten sending a shock through education systems. Prevalence of the allergy increases with parental income, education and accessible health care. It does not increase with consumption. In developing countries where peanut consumption is high, the allergy is virtually unknown. In the west, children who have never eaten a peanut experience reactions on initial exposure to the food.Immunologists claim that this allergy is an immune system abnormality. This view is contrary to that of Dr. Charles Richet, who identified and named the condition anaphylaxis in 1901. Richet proved that anaphylaxis is an inevitable side effect of vaccination” http://www.whale.to/vaccine/fraser.html
In the recent book that I co- authored with Dr Harold Buttram, ‘Shaken Baby Syndrome or Vaccine Induced Encephalitis – Are Parents Being Falsely Accused?’ I wrote the last two chapters on the 5 in 1 vaccine. In chapter 7, I wrote about Heidi White, a pharmacist who wrote a paper in 1999 linking the Hib vaccine to asthma. She explained how different studies in rats, mice, and guinea pigs supported her theories. http://www.whale.to/vaccines/hib2.html.
It is highly probable that her studies were correct, as some manufacturers use yeast as an ingredient of the Hib vaccine and an allergy to yeast is known to cause asthma and breathing difficulties in some children. Severe asthma attacks can and do lead to death.
Lauren DiMiceli and associates agreed. They carried out a study using the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System database as a tool. They reported that some children had reacted adversely to the yeast used in vaccinations. The problems they found were mostly linked to the Hep B vaccine, which has been known to be given to babies alongside the Hib vaccine. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16154669
A food allergy is an adverse immune response to a food protein. The immune system plays a central role in the health of the individual. It protects the body from disease by recognizing and eliminating or removing foreign material. If our body sees a substance that it believes to attacking it will act immediately to get rid of the substance. This is what happens to a person who suffers from a food allergy, their body sees the food as a foreign substance.
According to the facts that I found, food allergies are becoming a major concern. It seems that more and more children are suffering from severe problems from one or more foods.
Around 2.5% of children in the USA suffer from a dairy allergy. A dairy allergy can cause a wide range of symptoms. A large proportion of children suffering from severe eczema are said to suffer from a dairy allergy or a dairy intolerance. About.com http://foodallergies.about.com/od/foodallergybasics/a/Top_Food_Allergies_Children.htm
Egg is the second most common food allergy in early childhood. Approx 1.5 to 3.2 percent of all children under 3 have an egg allergy. It is fast becoming a recognized fact that those with an egg allergy should consult their doctor before receiving a vaccination. This is because occasionally vaccines are grown in cell cultures of chick embryo’s and may cause a reaction. An example of this is the MMR. http://calorielab.com/news/2011/01/01/big-8-food-allergies/
http://www.whale.to/m/mmr11.html
Children appear to have become allergic to just about everything from dust to sunlight. For some children their food allergies are so bad that they cannot eat ANY FOOD at all.
One such child is an Australian five year old Kaleb Bussenschutt. If Kallab eats any food at all he suffers the most terrible stomach cramps and even stomach ulcers. In fact the only food that this young boy can eat is ice cubes. This is because he is allergic to everything except water and one brand of lemonade. Kallab survives through nutrients that are pumped into his stomach 20 hours a day through a small tube inserted directly into his stomach. http://www.youtube.comwatch?v=8cNcVZNZq5c
Foodsmatter, a site dedicated to food allergies, have hundreds of articles and thousands of research reports on allergy, intolerance, sensitivity and related health problems. In an article written in February 2011 entitled ‘Allergy statistics from the EAACI: 17 million Europeans allergic to food; allergies in children doubled in the last 10 years’ the authors studied food allergies in Europe and found an extremely worrying increase . They state the statistics for children with food allergies have doubled in the last ten years, and visits to A&E have increased seven-fold. http://www.foodsmatter.com/allergy_intolerance/miscellaneous/research/allergy_statistics.02.11.html
I spoke with Michelle Berriedale-Johnson editor at Foodsmatter.com and asked for her view on the sudden increase in the number of food allergies and whether she felt vaccination could be involved in the rise. She said:
“The last 20 years, and especially the last ten years, has seen a very significant increase in both the incidence and the awareness of food allergies and food intolerance.The increased incidence in food intolerance can be partly blamed on diets based almost exclusively on highly processed foods including excessive a mounts of gluten, sugar, fat and salt and general lifestyle issues. However, the increased incidence of food allergy (an immune system, not a digestive, reaction), especially amongst very young children, suggests that something is occurring to super-sensitise the immune systems of a these children and predispose them to allergy.Although the link between allergy and vaccination is still much disputed, the coincidence of a massively ramped up vaccination programme being carried out on ever younger children and an unprecedented rise in immune mediated allergies in that same group does force one to ask whether the two could not be connected.”
Intrigued by the sheer volume of people suffering from such debilitating allergies I traveled to London to visit the ‘Allergy and Gluten Free Show’ held at the Kensington Olympia on May 6th, 7th and 8th 2011 .
As I walked in I was astounded at the enormity of the exhibition. There were at least 100 stalls on everything including peanut allergy, gluten allergy, dairy allergy, egg allergy, the list was endless. There were cook books, food stalls and even a children’s sweet stall selling mountains of dairy free chocolate. Allergy is certainly big business.
One of the stalls I visited was called BANT which stands for The British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy. BANT is the professional body for Nutritional Therapists, a little like the General Medical Council for doctors. I spoke to Natalie Gillan a member of BANT. Natalie runs Nutritional Energy or NRG . NRG is an organization promoting ‘Nutritional Therapy’. Nutritional therapy is ‘holistic’ meaning that it involves the entire body as a whole, rather than with individual parts of the body in isolation. The NRG site says:
‘Nutritional Therapy looks at the core of: ‘why you have a CONDITION’ vs. ‘how can we ease the SYMPTOMS’
http://www.nutritional-energy.co.uk/NutritionalNRG/Home_Page.html
Ms Gillan is an experienced, qualified and registered Nutritional Therapist. She told me that she has seen a distinct rise in patients who are saying that they are suffering from food allergies over the past ten years.
I asked Ms Gillan if she believed that an increase in the number of childhood vaccinations may account for this. She told me that she was not qualified to say but continued by adding:
“According to the hospitals’ statistics, food allergies are on the rise. According to NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) , there is a 500% rise in hospital admissions of children due to food allergies in the past 20 years (NICE).”
This appears high but of course it does depend on the number of patients they are basing their statistics on. For example if you began with one patient then a 500% increase would be six.
Gillan felt that such a significant rise may be due to more awareness in a combination with misdiagnosis. She said:
“Even if a child or adult is “diagnosed” with some kind of reaction to food, it is often not an allergy but a “sensitivity/intolerance”.
She added that food allergies are completely different. She felt a lot of people may be having inadequate and untested testing which may cause even bigger health problems and doesn’t help in the long run when they begin to avoid a large number of foods.
She continued:
“Real allergic reactions happen immediately and the symptoms are quite pronounced. Intolerance/sensitivity may manifest within 72 hours and cause IBS, bloating, rash, fatigue, ‘brain fog’, joint pain, mucus over production and other symptoms.I can say that food sensitivity/intolerance is escalating and is experienced by many people now, according to the evidence.The cure for true allergy, like allergy to gluten, eggs, peanuts and shellfish is food avoidance. Food intolerance could be dealt with by addressing underlying causes like digestive tract issues, over-consumption, stress etc.”
http://www.forbes.com/2007/09/11/allergy-food-health-forbeslife-cx_avd_0912health.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1384996/Intolerance-lactose-Why-aversion-dairy-foods-mind.html