Can Food Allergies Be The Cause Of Your Chronic Muscle And Joint Pain?

When it comes to back pain, there are dozens of causes. Your chances of getting an accurate diagnosis increase when you are informed of all possible causes. One often-overlooked cause of chronic muscle and joint pain is diet.
Allergies and Pain
A food allergy is present when your immune system perceives a component of the food, usually the protein, as a threat and attacks it with the inflammatory response. Allergies differ from intolerances, which are digestive rather than immunological reactions.
Histamine is an inflammatory substance released during an allergic reaction. The inflammatory response attempts to block off threats from the rest of the body, kill the threat and promote healing. In the case of an allergic reaction, however, the inflammation caused by histamine is excessive and attacks the body itself. Any of the body's muscles and joints can become inflamed during an allergic reaction, resulting in pain and soreness.
If you have a food allergy you're unaware of, you may be in a state of chronic reaction. This can be the source of your chronic muscle and/or joint pain.
How To Identify And Rule Out Allergies
Of course, there are many other causes of muscle and joint pain. If you have chronic muscle or joint soreness that is not attributable to repetitive use, overexertion or poor posture, diet could be a factor.
Arthritis is a main cause of joint pain, and many forms of arthritis involve joint inflammation. Diet may not be the sole cause of arthritic joint pain, but identifying any food source that may increase inflammation in your body can help relieve pain.

One simple way to identify if you have a food allergy is to participate in the "elimination diet," which requires removing the suspected food from your diet for a week. If symptoms reside, you likely found the food you're allergic to. This can be confirmed by reintroducing the food back into your diet and seeing if symptoms reappear. Keeping a dietary diary is a great way to help you identify food allergies. Keep track of what you eat and the presence and severity of your pain.
Knowing the most common food allergens will help to narrow down your experiment. The most common are milk, egg, soy, wheat, shellfish, seafood, tree nut and peanut allergies. First, identify which of these allergens features prominently in your diet. Check food labels, as many store-bought foods contain soy, tree nuts, wheat and dairy.
Blood tests can be done to identify allergy-related immune substances in your blood. A blood sample is taken and different foods are used to test its reaction in a lab. Blood tests are not always accurate when looking for food allergies, however. Making dietary changes and monitoring their impacts are your best diagnostic tools.
Dietary changes may be the answer to resolving your chronic back pain. Eliminating common allergens from your diet can help resolve inflammation in both muscles and joints.

By Amee LaTour

Tingling Sensation Every Morning? Is It Arthritis?

The aging process brings many unpleasant things, like developing poor eyesight, feeling sore and achy in the morning and having thick, unsightly toenails thanks to nail fungus. It can also bring mysterious symptoms that seem to pop up out of nowhere. Morning soreness and stiffness is pretty common, but what if you wake up with a burning or tingling sensation in your feet or hands? That could be a sign of something more serious that you really should see your doctor about.

This tingling sensation is one of the many symptoms associated with rheumatoid arthritis. This is a bit different from osteoarthritis, which occurs when your joints experience wear and tear with age. Rheumatoid arthritis is actually a long-term autoimmune condition that develops when your immune system sees healthy tissue as an enemy and attacks it. With rheumatoid arthritis, this ends up causing inflammation in the joints and the tissues around the joints. In more serious cases, it can lead to inflammation in the organs as well. You don't necessarily have to be older to get this condition, but it does tend to occur more in people, especially women, who are middle aged or older. No one knows exactly what causes rheumatoid arthritis, but it might have something do with genetics, hormonal changes or infections.

A tingling sensation in your feet or hands usually isn't the first sign of this condition. You might have experienced earlier signs of it without realizing it. The first signs of rheumatoid arthritis are typically mild pain and stiffness in the joints in certain areas on both sides of your body, like your feet, fingers, knees or wrists. Your joints might also feel a little warm to the touch when you first wake up. The pain and stiffness usually lasts for about an hour in the morning. Fatigue is also another early sign of this condition. Tingling and burning can gradually develop over time, as well as chest pain when you're breathing in, burning or itchy eyes, trouble sleeping and a dry mouth and eyes.

Making an appointment with your doctor is very important since rheumatoid arthritis needs to be carefully managed in order to avoid serious complications, such as organ inflammation and permanent joint damage. Your doctor will run tests to see if you have this condition. If so, your doctor will recommend a treatment plan, which generally includes antirheumatic or anti-inflammatory medication, regular exercise and physical therapy. Even if you haven't experienced any of the other symptoms of this condition, it's still a good idea to make an appointment with your doctor. This kind of tingling can also be caused by other conditions, including carpal tunnel syndrome, diabetes and nerve disorders.

Having a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis doesn't mean you're doomed to a life full of joint pain. The earlier you start managing this condition, the better off you'll feel overall. So, don't ignore that morning tingling in your hands or feet. Set up an appointment with your doctor, so you won't have to keep worrying about what's causing it.

By Sandy Getzky

Arthritis Relief and Your Diet

Arthritis affects more than 40 million Americans and is referred to as the most common chronic disease in people over 40. Doctors believe there are over 100 different forms of arthritis, all sharing
one main characteristic: they all cause joint inflammation.
What can you do to relieve the symptoms of arthritis? A lot.
There is a great deal of debate in the medical world about the effects of overall
diet on arthritis and using diet toward alleviating the condition. Doctors have known for a long time that diet affects gout, a specific type of arthritic condition, however the jury remained out for a long time on other
common types of arthritis such as rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. What is known however, is that overall dietary health is important and does come into play. Weight and nutrition are two factors that play a role in arthriticpain.
Being overweight can affect certain arthritic conditions, forcing some joints to carry more of a load. This added weight stresses the joints, causing overuse or more wear to components, and pain, especially in the knees.
If you suffer from arthritis make sure you eat good foods and get help from healthcare providers to create and follow a well-balanced dietary plan.
To begin with, here are some vitamins, minerals, foods, supplements and herbal applications to consider.
Vitamins that have shown to reduce tissue swelling or provide relief include Vitamins B5, B6, B12, the antioxidant vitamins C and E, and vitamin K, which improves bone health.
Several independent studies have found that rheumatoid arthritis patients given increased doses of zinc showed marginal improvement. Other minerals to consider include Boron, Calcium, Magnesium, Manganese (not to be taken with calcium), Copper, Germanium and Sulfur.
The National Institutes of Health is studying the food supplements, glucosamine and chondroitin, for use in relieving symptoms of pain and stiffness for some persons with osteoarthritis.
Patients with osteoarthritis taking blood-thinners should be careful taking chondroitin as it can increase the blood-thinning and cause excessive bleeding.Fish oil supplements have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties.Increasing dietary fish intake or fish oil capsules (omega 3 capsules) can relieve
inflammatory conditions like arthritis. For more information, see Omega 3 Fats
Glutathione is an antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties and can be safely boosted by consuming its precursors available in the supplements, N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC) or undenatured whey protein.
For more information, see Glutathione.
Quercetin is also known to help reduce inflammation, while Type II Collagen plays a role in growth and repair of joints, articular cartilage and connective tissue. Because of the risk in overdosing, one should be discouraged from taking doses of vitamins that are higher than recommended without a physician's direction.
Some vitamins and minerals can actually worsen certain conditions, and the concentration that can be attained through vitamins can be dangerous. It is always better to increase in vitamin or mineral intake through your normal diet.
Foods To Avoid
There are many factors to consider with regards to arthritic diets and nutritional healing, and each factor may not apply to each individual. For example, certain people are allergic to specific foods, and these allergies
can indeed worsen arthritic conditions. The best way to approach the situation is to examine each arthritic condition and tailor one's approach based upon the specifics.
Ingesting foods that contain sodium nitrate or tartrazine can inflame rheumatoid arthritis, while ingesting foods containing a substance called hydrazine can contribute to an arthritic condition connected to lupus.
Black walnuts can cause flare-ups in people a rare type of arthritis called Behcet's Disease.
With osteoarthritis, deterioration of cartilage is a concern. Since there is some evidence that Vitamin A, contributes to cartilage deterioration, those with osteoarthritis should avoid large doses of it.  Although clinical proof is not available, anecdotal evidence suggests that in the case of fibromyalgia, eliminating wheat, dairy, citrus, sugar, aspartame (Nutrasweet), alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco can provide relief.
Many nutritionists and naturopaths suggest that those suffering with rheumatoid arthritis avoid dairy products all together, as they seem to exacerbate rheumatoidarthritis flare-ups.
The report "ICured My Arthritis You Can Too" suggests that white flour aggravatesarthritis symptoms.
Disclaimer: The information here is not provided by medical professionals and is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. Please consult your physician before beginning any course of treatment.
By: Priya Shah