Allergies, Immunology and…Digestion!

Allergies are often thought of overreactions by the body and in particular overreactions by the Immune system to proteins it encounters. These offending proteins could be from foods or they could be foreign proteins from the environment such as pollen or dust mites.

So far, so good.

What I want to do today is to offer a different way of looking at the allergy epidemic that engulfs us, a view which may give us different treatment options and even permanent cures for at least some allergies.

Allergies have triggers and we know that the triggers are food proteins and other proteins. Protein is the problem then? It certainly seems that way when we get an allergy test at a clinic. It looks like protein is the problem and immunology is the solution.

In short, that allergy is an immunology disorder or at least an immunology problem.

But is that really true?

Not necessarily!

It might surprise you to hear that some areas in Medicine are more glamorous than others. Immunology is one of the “glam” or “sexy” areas in Medicine and Digestion aka Gastro-Intestinal Medicine is certainly unglamorous and way out of the limelight.

Things look different when you are out of the limelight.

We are told that there are allergic reactions going on in the bloodstream and the allergy tests prove it. But why is it that these reactions are happening in the bloodstream? Why is it that proteins are getting into the blood?

The digestive system, we learn at school, breaks foods down into basic building blocks….Proteins into amino acids, fats into fatty acids and carbohydrates into simple sugars.

It is these building blocks that get through the walls of the healthy digestive system and into the blood.

All the action is going on in the digestive system – and proteins are not supposed to get out of the digestive system and get into the bloodstream, so what are they doing there?

Nobody seems to be asking why this is happening; why are proteins escaping from the small intestine without being digested?

What does seem to be happening is that “The Allergy Problem” or epidemic is being dealt with by Immunology experts rather than experts in digestion.

The obvious question is “Why are proteins not being digested?” and then once we figure that out we can see what we can do about it because if we stop the partially digested proteins getting into the bloodstream we stop the immune system from being involved at all.

Proteins are triggering the immune system at present and I’m asking what if we prevent the triggering?

In that case the allergy reaction simply does not happen.

We don’t oppose or lower the histamine we stop the histamine from ever being released.

How cool is that?

No symptoms of fatigue, pain, inflammation…no symptoms at all.

The next question is about how the proteins are getting into the bloodstream.

For years Nutritionists have been treating so called “Leaky Gut” syndrome. The purpose was to track down the cause of digestive problems such as severe indigestion, pain and many other symptoms.

The background idea is that if we clarify what is happening in the gut we can solve the problems with pain and gas.

Let’s just see a quick video on this then go into some detail

So a laboratory test was routinely done to diagnose leaky gut. In those days when I was first learning this stuff, back in mid 1980s, there was only one lab’ we knew of to do these tests – the Great Smokies lab’ and the test was pretty simple, just have the patient drink a mix of 2 very special sugars and then send a urine sample from the patient to the lab’. The ratio of the amounts of each of the sugars in the sample gave you a good guide as to the leakiness or not of the gut.

Where does this get us? Let me give you an example. You have a leak in a bike tyre and you want to find out where the leak is. You put the tyre in a bucket of water and see bubbles coming out – that is where the problem is and that is where the patch goes on to fix the leak.

After a “Leaky gut test” we know the patient has leaky gut, we now have to fix it. Unlike our bicycle example, where we have to the repair job, the body has systems in place to fix leaks and other problems and what Nutritionists and Naturopaths do is help those systems along in their work.

What the digestive system needs to fix the leaks is a particular amino acid called glutamine or L-Glutamine. This is in our foods of course but clearly if we were getting enough of this major gut repairing molecule we would not have leaky gut to start with.

So one simple treatment for leaky gut is to advise the patient to take a Glutamine pill or powder. Along with a good diet and probably other supplements as advised by a Nutrition experts Glutamine at a high enough dose helps repair the gut.

And as the gut repairs, the amount of protein leaking into the bloodstream goes down and at a low enough level the allergy symptoms will decrease and hopefully stop!

If needed the leaky gut test can be done again after a few months of repair work with glutamine therapy.

Is this the cure for all allergies? Probably not! It will help with food allergies and working with a nutrition expert along these lines, using Glutamine and other digestive supplements offers a simple drug free way to help the body heal itself of whatever damage caused the leaky gut in the first place. The initial damage may have been caused by a viral infection or parasites or one of many other agents that can damage the gut.

That damage may have occurred years ago and the effects on the gut overlooked. That hidden damage has persisted for years and is only spotted after years of symptoms and wrong diagnosis and treatment.

The immunologists have plenty to do as it is. They don’t need visits from folks with food allergies who are better advised going to a nutrition expert to help them.

If you’d like to learn more you might want to check out one of the books I bought on glutamine which helped me in my studies. The lead author is a Doctor and a Dietician which gives her lots of experience in working with digestion and allergies.

Do comment below on your own experience with leaky gut or glutamine…

Alex