THE TWENTIETH CENTURY DISEASE: FOOD ALLERGY

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 563.

I met Julie at a friend's house. Among the people gathered round the table for dinner, she was the one out. She scarcely talked. When she did talk, she didn't smile. And after supper, when everyone else was involved in conversation, she sat with a book in the corner.

Just one week later, Julie rang me up. I didn't recognize the voice which came bubbling over the wire. It was so cheerful and alive. ‘I can't believe it', she said. ‘I feel like a new person, I haven't felt so well for years'.

Julie had turned out to be one of the millions who, without knowing it, are allergic to everyday foods and chemicals. The results can be serious. An extreme case, which was reported recently, is that of former pop-singer Sheila Rossall, who is threatened by contact with almost every product of twentieth-century life, she cannot even use a telephone because she reacts to the plastic it is made from. Sheila's case is extreme. But there are also millions of people like Julie, who are not ill, but who are not well either. ‘In a typical doctor's surgery, about one third of the patients are suffering from, allergic symptoms', says Dr. Richard Mackarness, ‘and another third have their problems worsened by allergy. Many of these people will end up being told that their problems are ‘psychosomatic' – in the mind. But they're not – they're caused by such everyday things as the food they eat or the air they breathe'.

Headaches, depression, tiredness, high blood pressure, stomach ulcers are just some of the conditions which can be caused by unrecognized allergies. Often avoiding a few things can improve a person's health greatly. When Julie stopped eating wheat and cheese and drinking coffee, her whole life changed.

But many doctors do not have the time for the training to recognize allergies. If you think you may have an allergy problem, the best approach is to read one of the books listed below and ask for the help of one of the groups whose addresses are given.