Food Sensitivities
I have been struggling with a condition know as sebborheic dermatitis for several years now. It is a condition that is comfined to my scalp and manifests as little blisters that itch like crazy only to be painful as they develop. I've been treating it with strong steroidal solutions and special shampoos prescribed by my dermatologist. If I jump on treating it quickly it usually goes away in a a few days...
Backtracking to last summer....My 2 month journey to Bali. Being there was wonderful and I ate lots of exotic food and drink. One thing I didn't consume a lot of was dairy. It's not really prevelent in the standard Indonesian diet. During my time in Bali I noticed that my scalp condition basically went away. I began to make the correlation that maybe it was something I was eating that was the cause of my dermatitis.
When I returned from Bali, I went back to my old ways of eating and actually added another dairy product to my regimen. Kefir. I would drink Kefir each day for its probiotic health benefits. In addition to that I would occasionally drink milk, eat Greek yogurt a few time a week or have an occasional frozen yogurt. Sadly, my condition really began to flare up...so much so that it rarely ever went away.
Being enrolled in the Institute for Integrative Nutrition has opened my eyes to many things but it was when we embarked on the Food Sensitivities module that I realized that my condition was possibly due to a food sensitivity to dairy products. I decided to go one step further and have a blood screening panel done for 182 foods to see if I had a sensitivity to anything else.
The blood panel was done by a blood draw and the specimen is sent off to a lab. They rate your degree of sensitivity to a food from 1 to 3 stars. As expected, I tested sensitive with a rating of 3 stars for cow's milk and goat's milk, also yogurt, cheddar cheese and several other dairly products. I also tested sensitive to some foods I especially enjoy eating, like avocados and oysters. (Apparntly that is the case...sometimes it's the foods you tend to love that you're sensitive to.) Sensitivities to foods are not an allergic reaction, per se, because the symptoms are not life threatening but manifest themselsves in different ways after consuming the food. Another confusing thing is that I wouldn't have a flare up until about 24 hours after consuming the food which is quite common.
Believe me, I've tested the test by consuming things I shouldn't just because they were incorporated into a dish I may have ordered in a restaurant and didn't know it was part of the dish. Sure enough, the following day....a breakout.
Discovering this valuable information and changed my life...I no longer have breakouts and the discomfort that goes along with it. Plus, I have also discovered many delicious and nutritious alternatives to dairy that I never knew existed.
If you are having any skin conditions, or you are still having acne, even though you feel you are "too old" to, and want to explore whether or not you might be food sensitive, I'd like to invite you to contact me for a complimentary health history consultation. We can explore together what your issues are and work toward goals that can lead you back to becoming your best self...