Allergies and Intolerances

Allergy is a sensitivity to some particular substance, called an allergen. The allergen may be harmless to some people but it can trigger a reaction in others.

Almost any type of food can prove allergic to some people. The allergic reaction can manifest with hay fever, asthma rash, high blood pressure, unusual tiredness, constipation, stomach ulcer, dizziness, headache, mental disorder, hyperactivity or hypoglycaemia.

Excessive tiredness, swollen stomach, palpitations, sweating or mental confusion may occur after meals.

Food intolerance, whose culprits seem to be the foods consumed more frequently, is a hostile reaction that occurs in the absence of a clear and unambiguous mechanism to which to attribute it, as instead occurs in the case of allergies.

In fact, intolerance can be determined by various and sometimes numerous factors, and this makes it relatively difficult to propose generalizations about the disorder; even the characteristic symptoms are not well defined and precise, due to the diversity with which the phenomenon is evident in individuals.

If the boundary line between allergy and intolerance is not always clear, it is however possible to describe the specific and sometimes similar traits of the two ailments.

Allergic reactions can affect different parts of the body and are always due to the encounter between an external element, the allergen (for example, pollen), and a specific antibody for that same substance, produced by the body.

When allergen and antibody come into contact, reactions are triggered that involve the immune system and involve the release of substances, for example, histamine or other similar substances, which can target the skin, head, intestine, lungs, the bronchi, mucous membranes, etc .; the pathological reaction can manifest itself with bronchial anxiety, rhinitis, urticaria, eczema and numerous other symptoms.

The allergic reaction is usually immediate, the intolerance reaction is more slowly outlined. In addition, intolerance can disappear if the responsible food is no longer consumed for a few months, even if it sometimes reappears by restoring previous eating habits, while the allergy can last for several years or, in some cases, a lifetime.

This section collects the articles with which the Nutritionist Dr. Paola Proietti Cesaretti intends to deepen the relationship between nutrition and food allergies and intolerances.