Many doctors and nutritionists are finding that anxiety attack symptoms and some types of depression are the result of food allergies. Correct the diet and the person’s unwanted mental and emotional symptoms disappear.
This research flies in the teeth of psychiatric claims that only anti-depressant drugs can address these anxiety attack or depression symptoms.
Anxiety attack symptoms, often called “Panic attacks” can cause someone to feel he’s going to die from lack of oxygen or that he’s having a heart attack. They can be frightening and last up to 30 minutes. Common symptoms are:
. Pounding heartbeat
. Chest pains
. Shaking, trembling
. Dizziness, lightheadedness
.
Difficulty breathing
. Flushes or chills
. Fear of losing control and
doing something embarrassing
. Fear of dying
Taking a variety of drugs doesn’t seem to help. One patient reported taking many different drugs prescribed by psychologists before getting addicted to Ativan. (This substance is in the same drug class as Xanax – benzodiapines.) Ativan’s side effects include depression or severe confusion and trouble breathing – not things one would want to experience during an anxiety attack.
After going through rehab to get off the drug and a decade of searching, this patiient found a book called “The Missing Diagnosis” by Dr. Orion C Truss. She was able to trace the source of her anxiety attack symptoms to disrupted neurotransmitters caused by Candida overgrowth and sugar addiction. . By handling food allergens she found total relief and has had no more panic attacks.
Stephen Gislason MD believes knowledge once known by physicians has been lost. He writes that Dr. Water Alvarez, who worked at the Mayo Clinic and wrote medical articles for many years there, knew about allergies of the nervous system. He and his colleagues knew that allergies were implicated in depression, anxiety, and a host of other
emotional problems. The Mayo Clinic defines Anaphylaxis as “a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction. It can occur within seconds or minutes of exposure to something you’re allergic to, such as a peanut or the venom from a bee sting.
The flood of chemicals released by your immune system during anaphylaxis can cause you to go into shock; your blood pressure drops suddenly and your airways narrow, blocking normal breathing.”
Today this medical condition will be labeled an anxiety attack symptom or a panic attack and could land a person in the psychiatric department with a drug prescription.
Types of “depression”, another psychiatric label, are definitely relieved when food allergies that cause the depression are located and handled.
Theron G. Randolph, M.D., and Ralph W. Moss, Ph.D have written a book called “An Alternative Approach to Allergies” Dr. Randolph states depression when accompanied with allergy symptoms may indeed be caused by the food allergy. He has worked with patients having various types of depression since the 1950’s and has seen cases who suffered from depression their whole life be totally cured of it once the allergens were found and removed from their diet and environment.
Another M.D., Abram Hoffer states that he often finds depression and allergy together and that “When one is relieved, so is the other. Treatment of the allergy will, in most cases, ‘cure’ the depression. I have seen this in several hundred patients over the past six years and can no longer doubt this conclusion”.
The Journal of Biological Psychiatry published a report from a study of 30 patients suffering from anxiety, depression and other symptoms. A placebo controlled trial was done. They learned that certain foods created mental symptoms: severe depression, nervousness, anger, loss of motivation and severe mental blankness. The placebos, however, did not create any of these conditions.
The foods and allergens found to be the culprits were wheat, milk, cane sugar, tobacco, smoke and eggs.
Over in the UK, Patrick Holford is the President, of the Institute for Optimum Nutrition and also is the Director of the Mental Health Project. In his article called “Brain Allergies” he describes a patient who at age 15 was labeled manic-depressive and put on a cocktail of three drugs – Lithium, Tegretol and Zirtek.
Fortunately this patient found a nutritionist who discovered a wheat allergy and some nutritional deficiencies including zinc. With wheat out of her diet and proper nutrition she quit all medications and took her final degree exams. No more manic attacks. Only when she inadvertently eats some wheat does she experience a shadow of her depression for a few days before returning to normal.
Holford writes that both early studies, as well as current research, have found that allergies can affect any system of the body, including the central nervous system. “Allergies to food can upset levels of hormones and other key chemicals in the brain, resulting in symptoms ranging from depression to schizophrenia. They can cause a diversity of symptoms including fatigue, slowed thought processes, irritability, agitation, aggressive
behaviour, nervousness, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, hyperactivity and
varied learning disabilities.”
Persons with anxiety attack symptoms and types of depression can benefit from allergy tests and nutrition analysis first and save themselves the agony of mind altering and addictive drugs.
http://denver-nutrition.com/panic-attack.htm
http://www.holistichelp.net/holistic-treatment-for-anxiety.html
http://www.personadigital.net/Persona/HumanBrain/BrainAllergy.htm
http://www.wholeapproach.com/newsletter/archives/2003/04_April.html
http://healinggourmet.com/article/are-food-allergies-causing-your-depression-846/
http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/brainallergies.htm
Can Anxiety Attack Symptoms Be Caused by Food Allergies?
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I am unsure about whether the descriptiopn of panic attacks I read here matches even remotely my experience. I experience TERROR, pure, unmitigated, unadulterated and so intense I would sometimes prefer to die on the spot than to continue experiencing it. No shortness of breath, no palpitations or sweating but not sure about blood pressure as I have not had this monitored during an attack.
Indeed the medical profession keeps peddling the “psychological nature” of these attacks, yet they only ever happen if I have some kind of cheese products. When I eliminated dairy from my diet the attacks ceased. The other day I had a a modest amount of cheese, rich in protein, and only 5% saturated fat, and yet I had the usual reaction: terror and a “closed” throat, that makes swallowing hard.
Until this last attack I had become persuaded the mechanism was the release of Choleocystokinin (CCK) – the Bile precursor that from the duodenum seeps intol teh gallbladder to stimulte bile production – into my bloodstream, from a bile duct trapped in the exit scar of my Choleocystectomy (gallbladder removal). CCK is used in animal experiments, where it is injected into laboratory rats to generate panic attacks, to test pharmaceutical products, so it is KNOWN to be panicogenic, and this persuaded me that this is a hypothesis worth investigating
Though it seems to me a plausible mechanism, but it would not account for people experiencing panic attacks who have not had a Choleocystectomy.
I have been visiting family in Italy and saw a Hepatologist here, who prescribed Deursin (“ursodesossicholic acid”) that emulsifies fats, one 450 mg capsule to be taken after lunch.
I have taken this after every fatty meal I have consumed, and have had NO SYMPTOMS WHATSOEVER!Not even after consuming a considerable quantity of saturated fats.
I have taken NO other medication and yet none of the panic symptoms have manifested, even after eating fried foods, THE king of triggers for my attacks.
I think THIS conclusively proves my point!
Since posting the above, I have travelled to Italy to visit family and took the opportunity to see a hepatologist here, who prescribed “ ursodeoxycholic acid”, as DEURSIL 450 mg to be taken once a day, after lunch.
In spite of eating pretty fatty, saturated foods, I have had ZERO PANIC ATTACKS!
I think this neatly proves my point and that quacks don’t know what they’re talking about and prescribe pills without understanding the underlying condition they seek to treat!
Your terror- could it be from unprocessed trauma? Ptsd or Cptsd could be the culprit…
I’ve had this terror feeling you’re describing and I think mine is from soy. I’m going to see an allergist tomorrow morning so I’ll hopefully get them to test this without me having to eat any. I hate the feeling so much.
I suffered from severe panic attacks for many years, and was prescribed Buspar, Zoloft, and Xanax. None of them stopped the panic attacks, though Xanax could shorten the attack. I had developed a wheat allergy, and went to a nutritionist who did muscle testing. She informed me that I was also allergic to milk products. I eliminated these, with the result that nine days later my anxiety level had been cut in half. I was able to get off of Xanax (in about six months), and have never had another panic attack–and that was fifteen years ago! Using NAET I have reduced the intensity of my food allergies, and while I still stay away from wheat completely, I can eat hard cheese without problems. However, if I stray into milk or cottage cheese I immediately start feeling the anxiety building, and once almost had an attack.
Yes, allergy shots work for, I believe 90% of patients. I had them over a period of years after testing for allergies. Unfortunately after all of that time and $$$ – my physician said that I fit into the 10-11% whose allergies become WORSE. I never knew that could even happen, but it has. Every year it seems I add another food to my DO NOT EAT LIST. I break out in hives, and wonder how SMALL my “can eat” list will be in a few years.
Removing gluten from my diet has been the best thing I have ever done for myself. I was advised by a very respected physician who did DNA testing on me, and said I was HIGHLY allergic to it. Removing it from my diet has worked wonders. Sugar is another big issue, and especially around the Holidays when we are all so tempted. I often wonder if that adds to the depression so many experience.
Best of luck to all on your journey to wellness. Trust your own intuition. Pharmas exist primarily to make money, and they make it beneficial to Physicians to write those prescriptions.
I’ve been seeing a NAET practitioner for my allergies and it’s worked wonders for me. I can now eat tons of foods,that I previously had gotten bad reactions from.I would get muscle Tightening in neck and other places,severe arm tingling,hard sometimes to breathe because of muscle tightness.
I did gaps diet also,but wasn’t getting the healing I needed. Some I think do better on gaps,other on NAET,and others both!
Shots might seem like an unusual way to treat allergies, but they’re effective at decreasing sensitivity to triggers. The substances in the shots are chosen according to the allergens identified from a person’s medical history and by the allergist during the initial testing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversees the standards used in preparing the materials for allergy shots given in the United States.