Food sensitivities and allergies are two different problems. While an allergy can cause a life-threatening reaction that you won’t get with a sensitivity, food sensitivities lead to problems you won’t experience with allergies, like body-wide health conditions. Leon Baginski, MD, FACOG, in Mission Viejo, California, has extensive experience determining the problematic food so you can get relief from your symptoms. To schedule an appointment, call the office or use the online booking system.
A food insensitivity, or food intolerance, develops when your body can’t digest a specific food. You can develop this problem for many reasons. You may:
Many people are sensitive to chemicals commonly found in some foods, such as monosodium glutamate (MSG), amines produced by bacteria in old food, and caffeine.
Whether or not you develop symptoms depends on the severity of your sensitivity. If your intolerance is mild and you eat a small portion, you may not have any symptoms. It’s also common for symptoms to be delayed, so you may not associate them with eating.
When symptoms do appear, you experience one or more of the following.
When food sensitivities go untreated, toxins can get into your bloodstream, travel through your body, and trigger chronic inflammation. Then you can develop more serious problems such as muscle pain, anxiety, migraines, and brain fog.
Food and histamine are connected in two ways. First, many foods contain histamine, which you digest, and it enters your bloodstream. The two are also connected through mast cells.
Mast cells are highly specialized immune system cells found nearly everywhere in your body, but especially in your gastrointestinal tract and respiratory system. They guard you against harmful substances by releasing chemicals.
Histamine is one of the chemicals mast cells release. In some cases, foods can trigger mast cells to over-release histamine.
When high levels of histamine overload your body, you develop many possible symptoms, ranging from hot flashes, skin lesions with itching and redness, and the burning of acid reflux, to headaches, gastrointestinal pain, and a frozen shoulder.
Dr. Baginski performs a food sensitivity analysis to identify which food is responsible for your symptoms. He begins by evaluating your diet and symptoms to narrow down the possible culprits.
If he suspects lactose or fructose, you take a quick breath test to confirm they’re a problem. He may recommend an elimination diet that removes the suspected foods then gradually reintroduces them to see which, if any, cause symptoms.
Depending on your symptoms, Dr. Baginski may perform one of several lab tests as part of your food sensitivity analysis, such as:
If you struggle with gastrointestinal or skin symptoms, call the office of Leon Baginski, MD FACOG, or schedule an appointment online for a food sensitivity analysis.