Food Allergies? Diagnose Yourself Fast
Often a bad reaction to a food is nothing more than a digestive problem and is not a food allergy. If you are having problems with certain foods, you’ll need to monitor your symptoms and when they occur so you can find out if you have a real food allergy and get the correct treatment.
The most severe reaction with food allergies is anaphylaxis which can be fatal if not treated right away. This is a rare reaction that occurs when several symptoms occur at once and it happens quickly. This kind of reaction is what many people think of with food allergies but usually food allergy symptoms are much milder. Depending on how severe your food allergy is, you may not even realize that it is the cause of your symptoms. The following are food allergy symptoms that are likely to occur.
- Feeling scratchy and itchy
- Developing a rash
- Head pain
- Watery and scratchy eyes
- Nausea
With food allergies, you may not experience all the symptoms at once. They may come on one at a time as the food is digested and processed through different parts of the body. It is not uncommon to have little or no symptoms until the food is being digested in your intestines.
Keeping a food journal where you note what you eat and how it makes you feel is a good first step in figuring out if you have food allergies. You can refer to the journal to see what foods gave you trouble and what symptoms you had. You may be able to narrow your problems down to a specific food this way.
Take your food journal with you to the doctor and let him see what you have found. He can tell you more from looking at your food journal than you could figure out. Sometimes, the doctor is able to run tests that will determine what foods are causing the reaction. It can be hard to determine when large meals with many different foods cause a reaction. A doctor knows what questions to ask to get to the bottom of the problem.
Doctors will usually want to do a skin allergy test which consists of putting an allergen in a liquid form on your skin to see how you react. These tests should not be tried at home because you may need immediate assistance if you have a bad reaction so don’t think you can test yourself.
After doing some research and seeing the doctor, you may find that you don’t have any food allergies. It may just be that certain foods do not agree with you and are difficult for you to digest. You need to get properly diagnosed so you can get the best treatment.
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