There’s no topic in the field of allergy as controversial among doctors as the notion that allergic reactions can have a direct impact on your brain. I’m amazed at the controversy, because I’ve seen the effects of brain allergy in so many of my patients, children and adults alike. The reactions have ranged from spaciness and lack of concentration to depression, anxiety, and mental confusion. Patients of mine with brain allergy have often been previously diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, autism, and bipolar disorder. For these patients, eliminating the allergic trigger can often help relieve the mental disorder.
Research on Brain Allergy
The earliest published report on brain allergies appeared in the Southern Medical Journal in 1943. Dr. Hal Davison, an Atlanta physician, made the following observations:
For a long time it has been noted that symptoms of bizarre and unusual cerebral disturbances occur in allergic patients. . . . Later it was observed that when the allergic symptoms improved, the cerebral symptoms improved also. . . . Further observations and experiments showed that at times the cerebral symptoms could be produced at will, by feeding patients certain foods. It was also observed in rarer instances, that ingestion of a drug, inhalation of powdered substances or even odors would produce these symptoms.40
Davison then described 87 patients seen in his allergy practice over an eight-year period with symptoms that included blackouts, insomnia, confusion, and changes in personality, all clearly provoked by specific foods or inhalants. As is always the case with allergy, different triggers affected different people. One of the patients, a lawyer, had a progression of symptoms that would start with a headache, followed by itching and hives, then blurred vision, drowsiness, and impaired speech, ending with loss of consciousness. The food triggers were eggs, crab, oysters, and strawberries. Avoiding these foods completely resolved his symptoms.
Medical journals today rarely publish the kind of detailed clinical observations made by Dr. Davison, although they are real and reproducible. In 1985 I spent a day with Professor Roy John, founder of New York University’s Brain Research Laboratory and a pioneer in the creation of electronic maps of brain activity. He told me that when patients were connected to his brain mapping device and then injected with extracts of foods, molds, or chemicals to which they were allergic, the injections produced dramatic changes in brain electrical activity, accompanied by the symptoms for which the patients had initially sought care.
Later in this book, in the chapter on nasal and sinus allergies, I’ll describe experiments done in Europe in which pollen exposure provoked impairment of brain function comparable to the effects of sedative drugs or alcohol.
Allergy and ADHD
Important scientific research on food allergy and the brain comes from England. Dr. Josef Egger, a neurologist, found that food allergy could lead to ADHD.
Dr. Egger and his colleagues identified 40 children with severe ADHD whose behavior improved when they avoided specific foods.41 Half the children then underwent an allergy desensitization procedure designed by a colleague of mine, Dr. Len McEwen. They received injections of low doses of food allergens mixed with an enzyme that stimulates an immune response. The other half received injections of the carrier solution without the allergens; this was the placebo control. At the end of six months, 80 percent of the children receiving the allergen injections were no longer reactive to the foods that had caused behavioral changes. Only 20 percent of the children receiving placebo had become nonreactive to the foods they’d been avoiding. This clearly indicates that allergy—a reaction in which your immune system amplifies the response to a trigger—is an important mechanism of food-induced ADHD. Egger’s study was published in The Lancet, which is the oldest medical journal in the world and the leading medical journal in the United Kingdom. If you experience neurologic or psychiatric symptoms that you believe may be provoked by a dietary or environmental exposure, know that science is on your side. Find a doctor who respects your observations—and who understands that allergy comes in more guises than ever in our rapidly changing world.
Conclusion
In this chapter, I revealed the many and surprising ways allergy can impact health. Julia’s case showed us how a hidden allergy, in her case an allergy to sulfites found in food, can lead to unexplained joint pain, stomach pain, fatigue, and difficulty with mental focus.
For Cora, the attorney, an allergy to nightshade plants (tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes) turned out to be the surprising cause of her mouth sores, which healed when she avoided eating these foods. A mysterious case of hives was a real curveball for Bruce, the professional baseball player, until we discovered that the yeast in beer and wine was the cause.
These cases illustrate the Four Game-Changing Truths about Allergies that I believe can transform how we approach health. That is why it is so important that you bring this book with you to see your doctor, to share this information with him or her. Ultimately, it is for your doctor to evaluate and decide how the ideas in this book may inform your journey of healing.
Source: The Allergy Solution: Unlock the Surprising, Hidden Truth about Why You Are Sick and How to Get Well Paperback by Leo Galland M.D. and Jonathan Galland J.D. (Aug 2017)
