Mind your Allergies ........

A lot of people believe they have allergies. Its common to hear, Owh, I'm allergic to so and so and so. Thus, they avoid certain foods and things due to some experiences in the past. But how allergic are you really to the things that you believe you are? Hmmm.... Before we can answer that question. First of all, let's understand what allergies really are.

According to Wikipedia : Allergy or Allergies is defined as a damaging immune response by the body to a substance, especially pollen, fur, a particular food, or dust, to which it has become hypersensitive.

In medical terms, we describe allergies as an abnormal response of the immune system towards certain triggers termed allergens which can be anything from food, dust, mites, items in contact, heat cold et cetera, et cetera. For some reason, these allergens trigger a misguided immune response that causes physical symptoms on to a person that sometimes can be life threatening.

How I explain in to my patient is it basically like, you pinching someone and the person slaps you back. The trigger can be small, but the counter effects can be really extensive. There is a genetic link that causes allergies. Usually if a parent has an allergy, there is a 15% chance of the child having similar allergies. Some quote 30-60% chance if both parents have allergies. However, the environment still plays a major role in determining how bad your reaction would be.

The most common allergies are hay fever (which is all the seasonal flus and nasal related allergies), eczema (skin), allergic eyes (usually related to hay fever), hives (which are those wheals that form on your skin when exposed to allergen), asthma which is quite common in children and in severe cases anaphylaxis which involves severe allergic reaction that causes mucous membranes inflammation and may lead to breathing difficulties and death.

The trend of allergies seem to have increased over the years, and some believe it is due to the amount of processed diet that we are consuming daily. Certain chemicals in processed foods and colouring trigger an IgE response (immunoglobulin that reacts to allergens) thus making us more and more sensitive to certain allergens.

So how do we tackle this issue? The only way is to figure out which allergen is affecting us, and avoid it. Sounds simple? Well, not exactly. Like I always say to my patients, we do not live in a bubble. Everyday, we are exposed to pollution and the environment so there is always a chance to have an allergy. 

The mainstay of being healthy is to look after our gut. Even if you ask old Chinese traditional medicine people, or the indian Ayurvedics, they will always put a strong priority to gut health. And why is that so? In the recent years we have discovered that in adults 80% of our immune system is produced in the gut. So if the gut is not healthy, thus our immune system will not be healthy. And how do we keep the gut healthy? It all comes back to what we consume. Which is why I totally love the hair profiler epigenetics test, because it gives me an idea of how healthy a person's gut is.

But the hair profiler is just a screening device that is non-specific. So, what else can we do? In the past, we use to do skin prick Rass Test to test for allergens that may affect a person. It involves pricking the skin with the allergen and waiting for a reaction which is usually observed after a few days. However, some patients are not keen for this sort of testing that requires skin pricking and maybe uncomfortable. Luckily, with advancement of technology, we can just do a simple blood test to determine allergens. Based on which part of the world you live in, different allergens would be tested. 

In the Asean Panel we test 36 different allergens which are:

1. Total IgE               10. Milk                        19. Codfish                       28. Cladosporium

2. Latex                     11. Chocolate                20. Tuna                           29. Penicillium

3. Banana                  12.  Egg Yolk                21. Salmon                       30. Dog Dander

4. Orange                  13. Egg White               22. Mucor                         31. Cat Dander

5. Rice, White           14. Chicken                   23. Timothy Grass           32. Cockcroach

6. Wheat, Food         15. Beef                         24. Bermuda Grass          33. Housedust

7. Sesame Seed         16. Clam                        25. Alternaria                  34. Mite farinae

8. Soybean                17. Crab                         26. Aspergillus                35. Mite pteronyssinus

9. Peanut                   18. Shrimp                     27. Candida                     36. Blomia Tropicalis

Don't worry too much about the weird names, your doctor will be able to explain (hopefully) what they are. And all it takes is 5 mls of blood and 5 working days and you can get your allergy profile done. The cost for the test is around RM 600 together with consultation and the blood taking service. This is mainly for external allergens taht causes immune response. There is another test called food intolerance test which tests out around 100 different food substances but that is for a blog on another day.

Interested to do the allergy test or want to know more, feel free to contact us at drmmclinic@gmail.com or call 03-21106608. 

3 Strands of Hair is All You Need..... Hair Profiler

It is so amazing what technologies can do for us today. I came across this technology a year ago when I was doing a training at my friend's center for thread lifts. It was a semi-invasive procedure where the patient usually needed to be sedated at least to reduce pain. This was when I met the wonderful Dr Radha who introduced me to this new technology from Germany. A hair profiler using Tesla technology that can help scan the hair and read out the information contained in the hair root. 

Initially I was skeptic, but when he explained about how it was done I was excited. In the past, the hair has been used to collect information on people with chronic exposures to certain environment conditions, toxic metals and also it was already used to detect mineral deficiency. And here is a small device that is hooked to a computer and has the capability to do the same in a few minutes. The best part, the analyzed sample is then sent immediately to a server in Germany, and thus you will receive your information in 15-20 minutes.

It took us almost a year to understand the true potential of this device. There was a lot of clinical correlation that had to be used to understand what was going on with the patient. Yes, just by reading the results chart we may be able to understand the deficiencies mention and what to avoid, but sometimes the solution is not just to supplement and avoid, but a more sinister problem that needs further investigations and a few other lifestyle adjustments. You see, the question wasn't about what deficiency you have and what to take, but rather, why were you having this deficiency in the first place? Was it due to nutrition intake, or was it due to a poor absorbing bowel also termed leaky gut, or are your other systems having a pathological disease (or going towards having) that is exhausting your stores? Because of all these questions, continuous doctor training was implemented to teach the doctors how to interpret the results more accurately and save lives. 

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For the patient, it actually gives you more information than doing a blood test. With just 3 strands of hair, we can see nutrient deficiencies for the past 3-6 months, exposures to toxic metals, radiation exposures and also other information that you will not pick up from a blood test. A blood test only gives you the now reading, except for the very few like HBA1c that shows a 3 months picture. To do a blood test for every parameter tested it would cost you a few thousand ringgit, but to do this test its only a few hundred. The main value of doing this test is to get a doctor who is able to intepret and correlate clinically based on the results given, lest it will just be another deficiency avoidance supplementation.

So instead of having to swallow so many different types of vitamins and supplements, at least you know what you really need for your body. The report also comes with some dietary advices that encourages you to take real food instead of pills.

You also get a PDF version of the report that you can read through and understand with some suggestions of dietary changes to make to supplement the deficient nutrients. This is how my report looks like :

Pretty cool huh? It simple, non-invasive and easy. And now I know what type of food or supplements I need to optimize myself.

Interested to try? Don't hesitate to contact us at drmmclinic@gmail.com or whatapps to 0123301585. See you soon.