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Food Intolerance Testing
Food intolerance is a major source of discomfort and illness for many people and it is often undetected.
Food intolerance testing is routinely used by Hydes Herbal Clinic to establish the underlying cause of many people’s
illness. We test on site using kits with which we believe work very well and give you results which you may take to
your GP or which you may use to reconfigure your diet in order to improve your health and well being.
Where problems are more complex we also have a range of other diagnostic techniques and tests, including
sophisticated blood testing which we use as appropriate to help us get to the bottom of your medical issues.
As well as help with your diet we can also provide the Herbal medicines and diet supplements that support
you’re living with food allergy or intolerance. If you wish us to work with you on an Herbal approach we
will begin with a full health history and physical examination and any necessary allergy or intolerance
tests to really get to the bottom of your problems.
At Hydes we successfully treat and test patients for both allergies and intolerances and their associated
symptoms and conditions. It is important to understand that intolerances are often defined by a threshold
which means that you do have the option of not completely excluding problem foods if you keep you consumption
within your tolerance. This is important to understand because the foods you are intolerant to in one aspect
may have very desirable nutritional values as well. Also it is often difficult to completely exclude certain
things if you eat in a family or community where this would inconvenience fellow members. In these cases
it is very useful to know your limits and regulate intake to it.
We can prescribe herbal medicine to dampen down or stop the inappropriate immune response that causes the
symptoms such as inflammation in your digestive or respiratory membranes.
We will also include herbs in the medicine to reduce the symptoms that you are suffering such as itching/streaming
eyes, rhinitis (irritation of the membranes of the nose), sneezing, asthma, eczema, wheezing, rashes, swelling,
hives, headaches, bloating, constipation or diarrhoea, nausea, indigestion, acidity, sluggishness, joint
pains, dry eyes etc.
We also always give dietary and lifestyle advice alongside the herbs based on our consultation and any test results.
What is the difference between food allergy and food intolerance?
Both can cause life affecting symptoms as a result of your immune system reacting to something that does
not affect the average individual.
Food Allergy:
Allergy is an illness following the response of the immune system to an otherwise harmless substance.
Common ‘allergens’ (triggers) include peanuts, milk products, gluten, yeasts, etc. The triggers may often be hidden
as additives in prepared foodstuffs and preserved foods. They are hypersensitivity reactions that involve ‘IgE’
antibodies and histamine, which cause a rapid response; in severe cases this is anaphylactic shock.
Symptoms of food allergy
include itching/streaming eyes, rhinitis (irritation of the membranes of the nose),
sneezing, asthma, eczema, wheezing, rashes, swelling, hives, and headaches and maybe followed later by digestive upsets.
Food Intolerance:
Intolerance is most commonly associated with food intolerances. This is an inability to properly process a particular
food which can lead to it sitting in the intestines poorly digested, fermenting and irritating the digestive system lining.
This can trigger an immune response with IgG antibodies which cause a slower, less severe response, than IgE but one
that can lead to chronic discomfort, digestive upset and wider spread symptoms.
Symptoms of food intolerance
include bloating, constipation or diarrhoea, nausea, sluggishness, inability to lose
weight, excess wind, indigestion, and acidity and can also have wider spreading effects on mood, cause joint pains,
sore eyes and more.
Please call us to see how we can help you with your food allergy, food intolerance or any other health concerns
and the use of Herbal Medicine. Our Herbalists would be please to speak with you for free on 0116 254 3178.
We have clinics in Leicester and Derbyshire.
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