Millions of Americans fight chronic pain and illness without realizing there's an easy solution--one that could end the suffering practically overnight.
You could even be one of them.
It could be your arthritis... your asthma... or even a stomach condition--and your own doctor won't tell you the answer because he doesn't believe in it.
Now, a new study sets the record straight, confirming that millions of Americans suffer from food allergies--and that those allergies cause very real illnesses, from breathing disorders to skin conditions.
Maybe now your doctor will listen!
Then again, that may be too much to ask for--because many mainstream docs have spent their entire careers in denial of food allergies as a cause of illness. One report earlier this year suggested that half of all food allergies were just made up.
Some doctors even believe that only children can have food allergies.
It's going to take time to change those attitudes, but the new study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology is a huge step in the right direction.
It finds that our most common allergy is peanuts, with 1.5 percent of us allergic to goobers. Another 1 percent were found to be allergic to shrimp, with 0.4 percent of us allergic to eggs and 0.2 percent allergic to milk.
The researchers also found that 1.3 percent of Americans are allergic to two or more of those foods.
Add it all up, and you get 7.5 million people fighting food allergies--and even the researchers behind the study say that's just a drop in the bucket, since they only focused on the most severe allergies to those four specific foods.
Throw in less severe allergies as well as allergies and sensitivities to other foods--including wheat, soy, fish and tree nuts--and there could be many millions more who are being hurt by what they eat every single day.
"It's among the most common chronic diseases in America," Hopkins Children's Hospital's Dr. Robert Wood, an investigator on the multicenter study, told the Los Angeles Times.
In fact, the new report acknowledges that food allergies can cause or worsen eczema, hay fever and asthma.
That's last one's a biggie--because doctors have been especially resistant to the idea of food allergies as a cause of asthma. But the study found a clear connection: Patients with food allergies have a dramatically higher risk of both asthma and hospitalizations due to asthma attacks.
"Our study suggests that food allergies may be an important factor, and even an under-recognized trigger for severe asthma exacerbations," lead study author Dr. Andrew H. Liu said in a news release. "People with a food allergy and asthma should closely monitor both conditions and be aware that they might be related."
Now that the mainstream is finally acknowledging the role of food allergies in asthma, maybe next they'll take a closer look at other the other diseases and conditions these allergies can trigger, including arthritis, fibromyalgia, insomnia, depression, and headaches.
But recognition is only half the battle.
The other half is the diagnosis and treatment--and, quite frankly, many doctors are neither trained nor equipped to handle either.
If you think you might be suffering from food allergies, or simply suffer from a chronic condition that has stymied your own doctor, find a good naturopathic physician with a proven track record in allergy testing.
In some cases, thorough tests will reveal the real culprit. In others, you might need to try a food-elimination diet. That's when you eliminate all the foods that might cause allergies and then slowly reintroduce them, tracking your diet and symptoms in a journal as you do.
I'm not going to lie: It can take a real effort and commitment.
But it's worth it--because if you can find that one food or ingredient that's making you sick, you can learn to avoid it.
And once you do that, you can live better than you have in years.
On a mission for your health,
Ed Martin
Editor, House Calls
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