Allergies

The first time I encountered anyone with an allergy was at school. A young girl who was covered over every inch of her body with little tiny flesh coloured spots beneath the surface of her skin. Every day cream was applied but never did I here her complain about the inconvenience, discomfort or unfairness of her lot.

Indeed, at one time it was a rarity to have an allergy. Now it seems, not only are the variety of allergies growing so are the people who develop them. How do you know if you have an allergy? Well it seems that any symptom could mean that you have one. The obvious being a rash - the less obvious could be anything from an ache, bloating, pain, blister, general feeling of ill health to gut problems.

Doctors do not always recognize allergies immediately. In fact, it has been reported that people with coeliac disease may not be diagnosed for up to thirteen years. Coeliacs cannot digest foods containing gluten so have to exclude many grains from their diets and also many standard products can be off limits as well from various chocolate bars, cans of soups, the more obvious cakes, bread and biscuits. Some people find themselves suddenly becoming allergic to a food stuff that they have eaten every day of their lives and never had problems with before. It is probably sensible therefore to vary the diet as much as possible as it can be inconvenient and possibly upsetting if a person suddenly finds that they are unable to eat a particular item. It may also take a very long time before their particular food intolerance or allergy problem is diagnosed. There could be people who have minor food intolerance problems that are never diagnosed. For instance there are those who suffer from acid or indigestion which leaves them feeling that they have a food intolerance of almost every food item. Whereas the problem may be being caused through possible shortage of stomach acid that may merely be cured by a spoonful of honey in hot water first thing in the morning. According to health articles, a person can check to see if they are producing enough stomach acid by placing a level teaspoonful of bicarbonate of soda into half a tumbler of water. It is said that with normal acid production of the stomach, a burp is released almost instantaneously - if a person has to wait quite a while for this reaction then they may not be producing sufficient stomach acid in which case they should seek medical advice. Such advice never seems to be widely given - imagine how many gallons of stomach medicines and how many pounds of indigestion tablets are sold on a daily basis which if a person were not making enough stomach acid could possibly worsen a condition even if bringing temporary relief.