Posted by bleauberry on November 20, 2007, at 18:05:27
In reply to How can food allergies lead to depression/anxiety?, posted by Jimmyboy on November 19, 2007, at 18:01:59
Food allergies cause depression bigtime. Probably a common cause that treatment resistant people, and their doctors, totally ignore. The word allergy though is a bit misleading. An allergy implies a fairly rapid effect and is usually something like rash, swelling, coughing, etc. But a lesser version of an allergy, called a food intolerance, or a food sensitivity, is really bad.
What happens is your body cannot digest a particular protein or substance properly, due to a genetic defect, a deficiency, or a total absence of the specific intestinal enzyme that breaks that substance down. The undigested substance gets in your blood and is like a poison. Another cause is longterm candida overgrowth. These bad guy bacteria are in everyone's guts, but they are harmless in normal healthy people. But when there is a lot of stress, depression, heavy metal burden, illness, antibiotics, sugar, high cortisol, or low cortisol, or weak immune system, they multiply bigtime and can actually grow roots through your intestinal wall allowing undigested food directly in your blood. Your body sees the substance as a foreign invader and attacks it with the immune system.
No matter. The usual result is a creation or release of acetyldehyde. This is the same chemical that causes hangovers. It is very toxic to the brain. It acts in several ways. One, it is opiate-like, though not in a good way, and makes one feel spaced out, tired, and depressed. It also attaches to existing serotonin and dopamine and contaminates them. But, it is only one of several neurotoxic chemicals from food intolerances. This post could go on for pages and pages.
I am gluten intolerant. If I eat a little wheat, oats, or barley (have to even be careful of a seemingly safe rice cereal that has "barley malt" as an ingredient), I tell you what, in about 24 hours and lasting for about 3 days I will be severely in the dumps in terms of mood, energy, and ability to function. It is like the flu, except I eat ok, or like a hangover without the nausea. Most people gluten intolerant also have a hard time with dairy, so I have switched to soy substitutes for dairy. I've found a ton of great foods, recipes, and flours that allow me to enjoy breads, pancakes, pizzas, cookies, cakes, etc, without wheat.
If someone is intolerant of one food, chances are very good they are intolerant of others they may not be aware of. An ELISA test (expensive) or a RAST test (expensive) can identify those foods. The cheap way is to do rotation diets where you eliminate certain foods for a couple weeks, then eat them again and see what happens.
Food intolerances/allergies can be genetic. They can also be a sign of a deranged gut environment. Or a sign of a weakened or confused immune system. Heavy metal burden, such as mercury from amalgam fillings, is notorious for causing food sensitivities. I would say 99% of people detoxing mercury have marked difficulties in what they eat.
If anyone knows they have an intolerance, there are ways to minimize it. For example, I can take several caps of a gluten digesting enzyme with any meal that has gluten in it. It supplies the enzymes my gut is missing, that most people have, that specifically digest gluten. A good overall strategy is to take healthy doses of good quality broad spectrum digestive enzymes with each eating. This breaks substances down before they have a chance to become toxic to you. Adding high dose Vitamin C (but not the buffered version) is helpful as it is very acidic and will help break substances down. As will HCL supplements. And helpful as longterm gut police work, a high quality probiotic at about 2X to 10X the dose suggested on the bottle is a huge help.
Sorry to go so long here. A food intolerance or allergy equals toxins/poisons in your blood, and believe me, your brain don't like that one bit. Can it make you feel depressed? Oh yeah. To me, a gluten reaction feels exactly the same as a severe major depressive crash.
poster:bleauberry
thread:796011
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20071115/msgs/796218.html