Question:
Could these be signs of a food intolerance? (1) Dark rings under eyes
(2) Symptoms(some that come and go) including flu like
symptoms,itching,nausea,wooziness,sore tongue(tip of) like you have been
suck loads of acid drops,periodic yellowing of face,headaches(have to lie
down,feel washed out after,often weakness in arms),lethargy/drowsiness(that
quickly washes over you-one minute you are ok the next you are struggling to
keep focussed/awake),mucus going down throat(?post nasal),feeling that one
nostril has caved in,dry eyes,chest feeling tight/blocked,darting
pains,feeling of cold/warmth not justified by weather conditions,smelly
urine,.
If so are there any methods that one can use at home to assess more clearly
if not fully whether one has a food intolerance?
Answer:
First, take yourself in to your doctor for a very complete workup.
These symptoms can indicate a food intolerance, but they can also
indicate other diseases or conditions.
If your doctor excludes other problems, then you can try an elimination
diet and food diary to see if food intolerance is at the heart of your
problems. The way to do this is:
Week 1: Keep a comprehensive diary of everything you ingest, including
vitamins, medicines, drinks, snacks. In the same diary, write down the
state of your health every day.
Week2: Eliminate the most common allergens ruthlessly from your diet.
These include wheat, dairy, soy, nuts, eggs, shellfish. You may want to
eat only home-cooked foods during this period, as processed foods can
contain hidden ingredients which will throw off your experiment.
Continue the diary during this period.
At the end of week two, assess your health. If you're feeling better,
or have had no bad episodes, continue the elimination for another week.
Week4: One at a time, at 3-day intervals, reintroduce an eliminated
food into your diet. Continue the diary.
If you start to feel bad following the introduction of a particular
food, then remove it again for a week, then re-introduce it one last
time to see if the ill feelings were coincidence or real.
This method will work IF at least one of the foods that bother you are
on the list. If not, you'll have to try other foods, or else settle for
a different source to your problem. (Other sources can be dyes,
perfumes, cleaning fluids, or something completely different.)
Many of these can point to allergy (not just intolerance). As a previous
poster said, it's probably best to see a doctor to determine whether or
not allergy is involved, or if there is some other condition
complicating matters. Yeah, but there's probably more than that going on. Some of those
symptoms suggest fungal overgrowth in a variety of places, others
suggest liver damage or food malabsorption. Simply dealing with
the food intolerance might not get you more than half way. Beth covered that well. Unfortunately there are no simple tests for
some of the longer-term consequences - not much alternative to finding
a doctor who knows how to handle this sort of thing.
