2 Simple Ways to Soothe Gut Food Allergy Reactions Part 1

Eggs – A Common Food Allergen

Recently my sister sent me a note asking me to look at an IgG food allergy blood panel that her doctor had ordered. Her body had manufactured high levels of antibodies to some of the foods that were tested.

In my prior clinical practice I would tell people to stop eating the foods that showed high antibody levels and rotate their other foods so they were not eating the same foods every day. Some practitioners even advised their patients to utilize a 4 day rotation diet in which they could only eat from a food family every 4 days. Now that was tough to follow.

Unfortunately when we retested folks’ food allergy panel several months later they now were making antibodies to the foods that they had switched to after eliminating the prior “allergenic food”. So we seemingly weren’t really accomplishing anything.

What’s the actual underlying problem then? Is the immune system out of whack? Or does the gut need healing? Looks like healing the gut is the basic underlying issue in dealing with food allergies. Currently doctors are discovering more and more about the gut “microbiome”, the organisms that should inhabit our guts. But antibiotics, medications, poor food choices and other inflammatory substances have damaged the microbiome and the lining of the gut making it a leaky gut as well as decreasing the ability to digest food down to the smallest particles acceptable to the blood stream.

So here’s what I told my sister:

Here are my thoughts on your food allergy panel:

Some food that is not fully digested is slipping into your blood stream as larger molecules which the immune system recognizes as something foreign and so makes antibodies to them. The ultimate goal then is to improve digestion and heal the gut lining so it is not leaky.

This scenario is happening to many Americans, even our children. And so I have been focusing my research on these two areas – healing the gut and improving digestion. I have found some natural ways to do that – things that have been known for a long time.

Improve digestion and heal the gut:

Drink gelatin with each meal. The gelatin makes a colloid solution that keeps the digestive enzymes in contact with the food longer thus facilitating improved break down of the food into its basic components of amino acids, glucose and fatty acids. The gut absorbs these small basic components as intended so the immune system is not stimulated to “attack” and produce antibodies that then damage other body tissues as well as the gut.

How to make the gelatin drink:

Dissolve 1 tablespoon of plain gelatin (Knox packets contain 1 tablespoon) in about ¼ cup of room temperature water. Add a hot liquid such as an herbal tea or even better your homemade bone broth. Consume this gelatin drink with your meals. This drink can be quit filling, so if one tablespoon of gelatin makes you feel too full reduce the gelatin to 1 or 2 teaspoons per meal.

Homemade bone broth provides many nutrients, especially minerals in the form our bodies can easily utilize, which help heal the gut as well as other body tissues. Review these two articles for information and tips to stimulate your creativity in making your own bone broth:

https://www.drjomd.com/2014/08/gut-health-bone-broth-2/

https://www.drjomd.com/2014/08/benefits-of-bone-broth-gut-health-3/

I highly recommend making your gelatin drink with homemade bone broth, but NOT store bought broth. They are not the same at all.

In my experience it feels like the gelatin helps heal the leaky gut problems somehow sealing up those bonds between cells that have loosened and allowed larger food particles into the blood stream. However, I have not seen any research to confirm my impression. Often in the past I have developed a sense of how something is functioning or dysfunctioning and eventually I come across the research that confirms my sense of the situation.

So add this first step to healing your leaky gut that contributes to food allergy problems. But don’t stop there. Also incorporate step 2. It’s even easier than this first step.

 2 Simple Ways to Soothe Gut Food Allergy Reactions Part 2

Abundant blessings for you.

Dr. Jo