A combination of factors such as these make it very difficult for doctors, however open-minded they may be, to accept many of the effects now being claimed for food sensitivity. Dr Doris Rapp describes in her book Allergies and the Hyperactive Child, how she became a ‘convert’ to the idea that foods and inhalants could cause hyperkinetic syndrome: T am ashamed to admit that from I960 to 1975 while in practice as a paediatric-allergist, I seldom recognized or diagnosed this problem. Then, as often happens in medicine, my patients taught me.’
One of the patients involved was a five-year-old girl with nose, eye and chest allergies, for which Dr Rapp was consulted. The parents mentioned that she was also irritable, over-active, depressed and weepy, and suffered from stomach aches, headaches and diarrhoea. Dr Rapp suspected brain damage as the cause of the behavioural problems, which of course would be incurable. Her main concerns were the allergies, and these she attempted to treat with an elimination diet, plus suggestions for the removal of major allergens from the home. ‘In three days, her mother called to say she was extremely pleased. I assumed Paula’s hay-fever and asthma had improved, but her mother said no, Paula’s disposition and her activity were better. I was amazed and perplexed. The mother said Paula’s teacher had called to find out which “drug” the child was taking
A succession of similar experiences were enough to change Dr Rapp’s outlook. ‘How could I have missed it for so long?’ she goes on to ask. ‘The answer is that a doctor often sees what he wants to see and is trained to see. If parents noticed their child had a better disposition, stopped wetting the bed, or seemed less tired or less over-active after a diet, I always believed that it was because the nose and chest allergies were better
Many other doctors who work in the field of food sensitivity have similar tales to tell. Some have come to the idea because they themselves, or members of their families, were plagued by mysterious illnesses. In desperation, they tried an elimination diet and found that symptoms which had troubled them for years cleared up within a week or two. This encouraged them to look again at some of their long-term patients with unidentified illnesses, and when they began to try elimination diets on such patients they found that many of them responded very well.
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