Since 1983, we have defined foodborne illness as “the loss of health due to the moderate consumption of food in good condition”. This definition meets all the requirements, as it means that the pathology is not due to spoiled food, but due to an intolerance or allergy on the part of the patient.
Types of foodborne diseases
The three main foodborne diseases are:
- Allergic reaction, the knowledge of which has been perfectly defined for a long time and this contemplates clinical symptoms, diagnosis and mechanisms.
- Lactose intolerance, which occurs due to a deficit of intestinal lactase.
- Celiac disease, triggered by the presence of gluten.
These last two pathologies should be reconsidered in the future, since many patients diagnosed with lactose or gluten intolerance who come to our clinics do not progress well with diets free of these two products.
Symptoms of foodborne diseases
Within the food symptoms, the most frequent are non-allergic histaminic symptoms, which can be of two types:
- Toxic histaminosis: occurs when a food has been poorly preserved, has a very high histamine content and this cannot be eliminated. It usually affects a high percentage of eaters and the most frequent symptoms are vomiting and diarrhea.
- Non-allergic food histaminosis (NAFLD): this is the most frequent disease and is caused by a release of histamine when consuming food in good condition.
Non-allergic food histaminosis
HANA is generally due to defects in the digestive tract that do not allow a correct digestion of one or more proteins, which behave as histaminoliberators in a discreet way (not as in allergic reactions). Thus, histamine accumulates and, after a variable time, produces symptoms.
We began to observe this pathology in our laboratory in the early 1980s, when we saw that non-allergic patients could release histamine and produce different symptoms than allergic patients. In the course of research, we have come to correlate very frequent symptoms with HANA.
Symptoms of nonallergic food histaminosis
At present, the most frequent symptoms of this disease are:
- Headaches
- Chronic fatigue
- Diarrhea or constipation
- Drooling or dry secretions
- Abdominal distension
- Recurrent muscle contractures
- Fibromyalgic symptoms
- Infertility and repeated miscarriages
- Dehydration of the L5S1 disc (of the lumbo-sacral joint)
- Skin dryness
- Autoimmune problems