Is there a connection between food sensitivities and infertility/miscarriage? Well, let’s break this down and connect the dots. First we need to distinguish a food sensitivity from a food intolerance and a food allergy. A food intolerance is a condition where you lack the enzyme to digest a food, such as needing to avoid dairy due to a lactose intolerance. This means you have a deficiency in the enzyme lactase, so you cannot break down and digest lactose, the sugar found in dairy. This issue does not involve your immune system.
A food allergy — also known as a Type 1 reaction — is when you have an immediate, and sometimes life-threatening, reaction to a food such as peanuts. Your throat swells up, you can’t breathe, and that’s because your body has decided that peanuts are a foreign invader, and develops IgE antibodies against peanuts. The reaction is immediate, so if you have any food allergies, you know them by now.
There are other food reactions, however, that are harder to detect because the reactions can take days. In a Type 3 reaction, IgM antibodies get released and later get converted to IgG antibodies in a few weeks. If you’ve been to an allergist, you may have had an ELISA test, which measures IgG. A problem with the ELISA test is that it measures the IgG reactions to foods and not chemicals. You could be reacting to chemicals such as preservatives or food flavorings.
In a Type 4 reaction, there is also a delayed response, but there are no antibodies involved. The symptoms such as migraines and joint pain occur when your T-cells cause mediators to get released from white blood cells. Mediators are like your body’s weapons against invaders, and your body has about 100 types of mediators. Examples of mediators are histamine and cytokines.
So the Type 3 and 4 food reactions are food sensitivities, they have delayed reactions, and are difficult to figure out with conventional testing.
What does all this have to do with sustaining a healthy pregnancy? Think about it this way: if your body is focused on attacking foods and chemicals in your bloodstream, it will not have as much energy to nourish an embryo, help the cells multiply, and form a baby. When we see our friends and family get pregnant and have babies, it’s easy to forget how miraculous that is, and just how much our bodies are working for us to make that happen.
Also, what caused you to have the food and chemical sensitivities in the first place? It may be your gut bacteria, which — when balanced and healthy — help you maintain a strong small intestinal lining. When your gut bacteria are imbalanced, your small intestinal lining becomes weak, and it can let food particles leak out into your bloodstream. This can often be the root cause of food and chemical sensitivities.
What if you suspect food and chemical sensitivities, but haven’t found any conclusions from conventional lab testing? One thing you can do is try eliminating these 3 items: gluten, dairy, and soy. If you regularly eat items with artificial sweeteners or food colorings such as diet soda or brightly-colored candy, avoid those as well. If you eliminate all of these for at least 21 days, you may notice huge changes in your health — and your fertility.
If you have already tried an elimination diet and are still struggling, you may need a more individualized approach to see what exactly is happening in your body. A comprehensive food and chemical sensitivity blood test combined with a stool analysis (to see your gut bacteria) may be just what you need.
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation here to see if this may be the key to unlock your fertility!
