Testing It Up

The compulsion to overeat is most prevalent during special occasions; when there is a feast laid out in front of you, it is so easy to fall into the trap. It is for this reason that one of the more common maladies that we experience during the holidays involves our stomachs. WebMD shares a few of these conditions – and what you can do to overcome them.

Heartburn. When everything on the buffet or the dinner table smells and tastes so good, there is a tendency to consume more than what ought to have been your normal meal portions. This is especially true when you are eating at someone else’s table – especially if that table was at Grandma’s.

Unfortunately, this leads to indigestion, or acid reflux, or heartburn. Symptoms include nausea, belching, and a sour taste in one’s mouth. Heartburn can be addressed by taking an antacid, such as Pepto-Bismol, Maalox, or Tums. If you already know that you are prone to suffering from heartburn after a hefty meal, then you can also choose to take a stomach-acid blocker such as Pepcid Complete or Tagamet HB200, half an hour before indulging.

Another tip is to resist the temptation to take a nap immediately after a big meal.

Food poisoning. The holidays are all about togetherness and community, and it is not uncommon to get invited to school parties and church potluck dinners. Unfortunately, we do not have control over how the foods contributed by others are prepared, and one can contract food poisoning or stomach flu from such gatherings.

Symptoms include abdominal cramping, vomiting, diarrhea and fever. When this happens, you are at risk for dehydration, so ensure that you drink lots of water or non-caffeinated sports drinks such as Gatorade. The symptoms can also be managed with Pepto-Bismol and Imodium, but if symptoms do not subside after three days, you need to get in touch with your physician.

Summer is here, and people are taking out the light shirts and tank tops, shorts and minis, sandals and flip-flops. Some of us may even be packing in the two-piece and heading for the beach. While it is healthy to slow down, take a break and get away from it all, watch out for a few things that may end up becoming spoilers to your summer of fun in the sun. Here are a couple of those. Jellyfish and stingray stings. Jellyfish tentacles contain venom that can cause a painful and potentially life-threatening sting. Reactions vary from person to person, and intense pain, rashes and welts can progress to vomiting and muscle spasms. Extreme cases can even lead to breathing difficulties, coma, and sometimes, death. Box jellyfish stings require immediate medical attention. Until help arrives, flood the affected area in vinegar. People may also be stung by serrated spines on a stingray’s tail, which also contain venom. This causes sharp pain, bleeding from the wound, chills and paralysis, and requires immediate medical attention. While waiting for professional medical help, soak the affected area in warm water, remove the stingers, and scrub the wound with soap and water. Allergic reactions. Be wary of allergic reactions and food intolerance symptoms, especially when traveling. Think twice before getting Henna tattoos as the FDA has reportedly received complaints of allergic reaction to such. Those who choose to head for the mountains instead of the beach need to be careful about irritants such as sap from poison ivy, oak and sumac. Trying out new dishes, especially when visiting a new place, is also a great adventure; but be careful about its ingredients. It may be beneficial to ascertain which food types and ingredients you may be allergic an intolerant to prior to traveling, to ensure that you do not unknowingly indulge in something that will make you sick.

Yesterday, we did a feature pointing out the differences between food intolerance and food allergies, as the two are normally mistakenly taken as one or the other. While the symptoms of food intolerance are not as immediate and severe unlike food allergies, the two conditions have one thing in common — they can both be prevented through the diligent avoidance of intake of the foods that cause them. There are no medications to treat food allergy or food intolerance, and as previously mentioned, the only way to prevent its occurrence is by diligently avoiding these foods. However, due to the common nature of the symptoms – nausea, abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea – which are usually unpleasant but not necessarily viewed as harmful, it is often difficult to associate these symptoms with food intolerance. In this case, it may be beneficial to undergo a food intolerance test to identify the food types and ingredients that one is intolerant to, so that these foods can be cut from his or her diet. Once the offending food types are known, these can be removed from a person’s diet. At this point, it is important to be careful about the specific ingredients in the food that one is taking in. Food labels should be scrutinized carefully, and when eating out, be sure to inform the waiter about cases of intolerance so that the establishment will be able to recommend dishes that you can order without getting sick. Nowadays, however, food intolerance no longer necessarily equates to food deprivation, as there are now food intolerance products or “free-from” products. You can now purchase “lactose-free” milk and other such products, which will allow you to indulge your food fancy without worrying too much about intolerance.

Clara Ogren, a Baltimore Examiner, shared helpful information on the differences between food allergy and food intolerance. Most people use these two terms interchangeably, probably because they use the same method of prevention of the appearance of symptoms — staying away from the food that cause them. Needless to say, the two conditions are different from each other and it is rather important that one is able to distinguish between the two. Food allergies are responses of a person’s immune system to food. People who have an allergic reaction to certain foods do so because their body incorrectly identifies an ingredient in the food – usually a protein – as harmful, so as a reaction, the body generates anti-bodies against it. Allergy symptoms are usually immediate and dramatic, and in some cases can be life-threatening. Among the symptoms mentioned by Ogren in her feature are coughing, wheezing, runny nose, difficulty breathing, tingling in the mouth and throat, swelling of the lips, face, tongue and throat, rashes, hives, eczema and anaphylactic shock, which will require emergency intervention. Aside from these visible symptoms, gastro-intestinal symptoms such as vomiting, cramping and gas may also occur. The occurrences of true food allergies are considered a rarity. It reportedly affects 2 to 4% of adults and 6 to 8% of children. In comparison, food intolerance is considered more common. Food intolerance or food sensitivity, on the other hand, is the response of a person’s digestive system to food, as opposed to the immune system in the case of food allergy. People who are intolerant to certain foods either have their digestive systems irritated by these foods, or their bodies are unable to properly digest these foods due to a lack of certain enzymes. As opposed to the immediate and dramatic reaction seen in food allergies, reactions as a result of food intolerance can take hours or even days before they appear. Symptoms are typically gastro-intestinal in nature — heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, nausea and abdominal pain, including gas, cramps and bloating. Migraines, irritability, anxiousness, exhaustion and nervousness were also listed as possible symptoms. Another interesting fact shared by Ogren is that some people can get a certain “high” from eating offending foods, so it can actually lead to people being “addicted” to food that they are intolerant to. Another difference between allergies and intolerance is that symptoms due to allergies can normally be triggered even after the consumption of small amounts of the offending food, while intolerances can normally still manage to consume certain amounts of the offending food without exhibiting symptoms, although the amount can vary from person to person.