More Mechanisms
of Allergy
Pharmacological (drug) effects
Confusion can arise from the fact that there may be pharmacological
effects masquerading as an ‘allergy’. For example, the headache,
flushing, racing pulse and giddiness that can come on after
too much caffeine is really a drug reaction, not an allergic
one. Obviously individual variations in trigger thresholds
make this one sometimes hard to observe.
Few people understand the incredible range of
pharmacological substances that are to be found in plant substances.
Most “green-minded” people think of herbs as kind, nurturing
and gentle: wouldn’t hurt anyone, right? But, hey, I like to
point out that foxglove, hemlock, opium poppy, marijuana, deadly
nightshade and countless plants stuffs are dangerous, even poisonous.
“Beware the humble carrot” wrote Richard Mackarness; this innocuous
looking vegetable contains a neuro-toxin. Not relevant? I had
a patient in the 1980s, a young boy, who had epileptic fits
every time he ate carrots or anything from the same food family:
parsnip, celery, parsley, dill, fennel, coriander etc.
There
is no doubt that in the right hands, plants have healing power,
but they can also do great harm. Don’t confuse this type of
reaction with a true allergy or even intolerance.
Enzyme Deficiency
Finally, there is the phenomenon of enzyme deficiency,
often called ‘inborn errors of metabolism’. Some people are
made ill by their inability to detoxify or metabolize foods,
chemicals and drugs. An example is lactase deficiency, which
causes people to suffer unpleasant abdominal symptoms when they
drink milk. Children with phenylketonuria lack the enzyme phenylalanine
hydroxylase and are unable to dispose of phenylalanine, which
thus accumulates and causes mental retardation and neurological
damage.
But deficiencies are not confined to such named
disease conditions. There are thousands of enzymes in our bodies,
all working in concert. Many of them are dependent on vitamin
and mineral “co-factors” to function properly (for example alcohol
dehydrogenase, the enzyme which breaks down alcohol, needs zinc
and vitamin B1 to work efficiently). Considering possible variations
in inherited endowment of enzymes, complicated by missing nutrient
factors, the reader will be readily aware that enzyme deficiency
can be a very individual thing.
This subject of innate biological variation is
something which confuses the picture with respect to allergy
and overload. Doctors will insist on foolishly believing that
everyone is the same, we are all “average”. In fact only a tiny
percent of the population is “average”, no matter what criterion
you are measuring, the vast majority are all over the place,
some very far indeed from that average figure (taken to its
full absurdity this would be like saying the average height
for a man in 5 feet 10 inches, therefore people who are under
5 feet or over 6 feet 4 inches simply don’t exist! Can you imagine
tailors being as crazy as doctors are in this regard?).
Good reading: Biochemical Individuality
by Roger J. Williams
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