Very often intolerance to allergy is associated with making a mistake because the underlying mechanisms are very different.

Allergy is caused by the introduction into the body of a foreign body that is not recognized by the immune system, which reacts by attacking it and thus triggering serious complications up to anaphylactic shock.

Food intolerances are food-related disorders that are not caused by the immune system, as is the case with allergies. They are very common in the population and a good part suffer from them, but once we have identified the foods we are intolerant to, we can change our eating habits to get better, thanks also to the variety of products that the market offers today.

Intolerance is caused by a malabsorption of food caused by the inability to metabolize substances introduced into the body; like gluten for example. Therefore, the reactions are less severe and are more manifested by intestinal symptoms such as abdominal pain, He retched, diarrhea and / or blood loss in the stool.

In addition to food intolerance, there is the pharmacological one which is linked to the presence of some molecules present in foods that are used as added additives in drugs, but the symptoms are mostly similar and intolerance is not always chronic.

However, the diagnosis is not simple and immediate. Although there are many tests available, these do not have great reliability; in fact, they are based on the analysis of IgE in the blood. IgE are immunoglobulins closely associated with allergic reactions and therefore do not intervene in intolerances, making these tests obsolete.

So how is the diagnosis of intolerance made? It goes by exclusion! First, through tests, it is excluded that it is a food allergy and then, a suspicious food is excluded from the diet, and then reintroduce it after a certain time. If the symptoms reappear after reintroducing it and any type of allergy has been ruled out, then it is about intolerance.

There are different types of intolerances: the most common are lactose and gluten and of these it is possible to make a specific diagnosis but we will talk about it in the next article!

 

Source

https://www.epicentro.iss.it/intolleranze/

https://www.epicentro.iss.it/intolleranze/pdf/Intolleranze_Tabella1.pdf

https://www.epicentro.iss.it/intolleranze/pdf/Intolleranze_Tabella2.pdf