Role of Food Sensitivities in Asthma and Inflammatory Bowel Disorders
Michael Radcliff and other speakers emphasized the importance of food in unexplained illness. 50-60% of brittle asthmatics will improve when their food sensitivities are addressed. Pediatric asthma is an epidemic occurring in one in four to one in seven children. However, breast feeding for a minimum of 15 weeks and not introducing solid foods before this time can reduce its occurrence.
Double blind food challenge studies have shown beyond doubt that idiosyncratic food reactions can provoke a wide range of symptoms in patients suffering from a wide variety of illnesses.
Also supporting the important role of food was a paper by Elaine Gottschall. She has developed a low disaccharide diet for treatment and elimination of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and celiac disease. This diet eliminates not only glutens, but most starches with a high disaccharide content, such as all cereal grains (including corn, rice, etc.), potatoes, soybeans, and many others. The specifics of this diet are explained in her newly revised book. [We have recently made this book available to our patients at COEM.]
The Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine has used a similar protocol for many years and has found food to be a major critical factor in these diseases.
Reference: Radcliffe M. Unexplained illness: the role of the reproducible idiosyncratic food reaction.