WHAT CAUSES FOOD INTOLERANCE? REBECCA’S STORY
Rebecca began to have problems with severe sore throats when she was in her teens. At the same time she suffered ‘swollen glands’ (swelling of the lymph nodes) producing painful lumps in her groin, armpits and neck. The pain was often so bad that she had difficulty in walking. She also felt bloated, with a noticeable puffiness around her face and neck, and she suffered spells of dizziness when she would sometimes pass out. Eventually her tonsils were removed, but this did not bring much improvement: her throat was less sore, but it was still painful and swollen. In her early twenties, Rebecca married, and although she was very happy with her new husband, her symptoms began to get worse. She frequently felt as if she had flu
coming on, with aches and pains, headaches and swollen glands. Severe catarrh, recurrent mouth ulcers and stomach pains were also making life difficult.
All these problems came to a head when she was 25 and they moved house. Looking back, Rebecca thinks it was the stress of moving which precipitated a crisis in her state of health. All her symptoms became more frequent and more severe, and she felt as if her body was ‘totally out of control’. She also developed some new problems, including aching joints and bouts of severe depression. She had to give up her part-time job and even simple tasks around the house became impossible.
Rebecca had seen many different specialists over the years, and none had been able to do much for her. But at this point she heard something about ‘food allergy’ from a friend, and asked her family doctor if he thought this might be worth investigating. The doctor was sceptical but made an appointment for her to see a specialist, who put her on a strict diet, starting with a three-day fast. Then she went on to a diet of lamb, pears and mineral water. Within a week she felt so much better that she could scarcely believe it. Almost all her symptoms had gone, except for a few aches in her joints. ‘I had been ill for so long, I’d forgotten what it was like to be well – it was an amazing feeling,’ she recalls.
The long process of testing foods then began. Eventually Rebecca identified the following culprits: most types of additives, wheat, oranges, lemons, butter, strawberries and alcohol. Eating any of these would produce swollen glands, depression, headache, stomach pains, aching joints and general flu-like symptoms within a few hours. It took her a long time to test all foods and establish a workable diet, but she now enjoys very good health and can eat a variety of foods. She can even tolerate small amounts of wheat and her other culprit foods occasionally, but has to avoid additives.
Cases like Rebecca’s are rare but they raise some interesting questions about what causes food intolerance. The swollen lymph nodes suggest that her immune system was affected by her reactions to foods, even though her symptoms were not those one would associate with allergy.
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