How do food allergies impact fertility?
When considering healthy eating it is very important to factor in how food allergies impact fertility, your ability to conceive, your pregnancy and the health of your offspring.
Your immune system and fertility are closely related. More and more research shows that what we eat not only directly correlates to how fertile our bodies will be, but also dictates the health of our offspring and subsequent generations.
In fact, more and more studies are discussing the concept of immunological infertility. One of the causes of immunological infertility is food allergies, which illustrates the profound effect of food on our ability to conceive and maintain a healthy pregnancy. Since more than 65% of our immune system ‘lives in the gut’ it is no wonder how much food impacts our health and fertility.
A conception arouses an immune response because the body initially perceives the embryo to be foreign. An ‘over-reaction’ of the immune system may translate into a defence mounted against the developing embryo.
Some researchers believe that increased irritation and inflammation of the gut (possibly due to allergies and other aggravating substances), combined with an overactive immune response, may damage the embryo and possibly even lead to miscarriage.
Another important point regarding food allergies is that research now shows that an allergic parent may pass his/her allergies onto a developing baby, thus contributing to an allergic child.
So, constant immune assault from toxins or allergens may turn the body against itself, leading to auto-immune antibodies and conditions that affect fertility. The mere possibility of this leads me to recommend to my patients that all known allergens be totally avoided in the important time prior to conception and during pregnancy. The message is simple: Why should you risk it? Your general health will be so much better off anyway.
Sometimes people don’t connect unpleasant symptoms with their allergies, so, to be safe, it is always best to investigate via comprehensive allergy testing. Checking for food allergies is vital because they are so prevalent (see below):
| Most Common
Food Intolerances and Sensitivities |
Prevalence | |
| Dairy
(including lactose intolerance) |
~75% | 3 in 4 people |
| Yeast
(e.g. Candida infections) |
~33% | 1 in 3 people |
| Gluten
(including wheat intolerance and coeliac disease) |
~15% | 1 in 7 people |
| Fructose and/or sugar | ~35% | 1 in 3 people |
| Miscellaneous foods | ~1% | 1 in 100 people |
Source: www.foodintol.com
The most conclusive way to find out whether you have allergies or not, is by having a comprehensive food allergy test, with a referral from your health care practitioner.
Most basic (i.e. dairy, gluten eggs) allergy tests are too basic to show you the entire picture so it is important that you find a practitioner who knows how to order and interpret comprehensive tests (90+ foods), or you may waste your money and lose the opp0rtunity to transform your health.
If you choose to have a food allergy test you should only begin avoiding the foods you think, or know, you are allergic to AFTER you have completed testing. Otherwise, your allergens may not show up in the test and you will not have an accurate report on which to base future eating habits.
Obviously, the benefit of a food allergy test is that it eliminates the trial and error method of figuring out what to avoid. Why do you need to avoid allergens completely? Well, why would you want to (even slightly) provoke your immune system, particularly when the health of your unborn child is at stake? For more information, join the next free 7 Day Fertility Challenge.
