When Food and Environmental Allergies Add Up

If you have food allergies, you’ve probably focused on avoiding the foods that trigger your symptoms. But have you considered that environmental allergies could also be contributing to how you feel? Understanding the connection between the two can help you manage your allergies, and feel better, year-round.

The Food and Environmental Allergy Connection

Very rarely are people allergic to just one thing. Though you may have determined which foods cause symptoms, there are likely environmental allergens that are also at play. Through allergy testing, exam, and thorough history, an allergy provider can determine which allergens you react to, and at what specific level.

Why is it important to investigate all of your allergies? When exposed to too many allergens at once, or when other factors like illness, hormone imbalance, stress, and chemicals are added into the mix, the Total Allergen Load “bucket” can overflow.

This is when allergy symptoms may feel more difficult to control. While environmental allergies don’t directly make food allergies more severe, increased inflammation and cumulative allergen exposure can make people feel like their allergies are worse overall.

Why Food Allergies Can Seem Worse During Allergy Season

Do you notice that your food allergies tend to cause you more issues during your peak environmental allergy season? There can be a few reasons for that.

Environmental allergies activate the immune system and cause added inflammation, and that can make food allergies seem more severe. With an already active immune system, adding another element to the Total Load can send your symptoms spiraling.

Another reason that you could feel extra mouth and throat itching, tingling, and stomach upset is due to Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS) – a phenomenon that can occur for people with environmental allergies.

Proteins on the surface of raw fruits and vegetables can mimic those of pollen, so when ingested, the body can interpret it as harmful, and the body can react with localized allergy symptoms. For example, someone with a birch allergy may have mouth and throat itching after eating an apple during tree allergy season.

How to Treat All Allergies Safely

Environmental allergies can complicate food allergies – and vice versa. Allergychoices recommends treating the cause of all offending allergens to lower the Total Allergy Load and help patients feel their best year-round.

Through allergy drop immunotherapy, food and environmental allergies are treated at the specific level the patient needs, as identified through testing, exam and history. The levels of allergens are custom to each patient and are high enough to help build tolerance, but not too high to cause unnecessary reactions.

Over time, immunotherapy aims to retrain the immune system to become less reactive to specific allergens, reducing allergic symptoms, and helping lower the overall allergic load. If you’re interested in seeing if treatment is right for you, find a provider near you.