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If you are allergic to cotton but not chemically sensitive, you have the choice of synthetics and latex as well as of other natural fibres. If you are chemically sensitive as well as allergic to cotton, you will have to look to other more expensive natural fibres, such as wool, linen and silk. It is worth trying polycotton, sometimes tolerated well by even very sensitive people.

If you have to use cotton because of multiple allergies, avoid very flocky cottons, such as candlewick bedspreads or terry towelling, which irritate more. You may be better able to tolerate smooth woven cottons, or T-shirt fabric. Try using a T-shirt as a pillowcase or to cover the upper part of your bedding. Look for a cotton jersey mattress cover (sources overleaf). The sources of supply which follow cover:

• Anti-dust mite and modified feather products

• Pure cotton bedding

• Wool, linen and silk bedding

• Synthetic and latex bedding and mattresses

• Cotton mattresses

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Resins and balsams are secretions produced by trees and plants following injury. Natural turpentine is produced this way, as is latex. Balsam of Peru is a chemical known commonly to cause reactions. It has an odour resembling vanilla and cinnamon. It, and related balsams, are used as flavouring agents in many food products, confectionery, drinks, and for flavouring and perfume, home medicines and toothpaste. Balsam of Peru cross-reacts with a number of common chemicals such as coal tar products.

Rosin is a resin produced as a distillation of natural oil of turpentine. It has a very wide use in all sorts of applications from fabric finishes, through adhesive tape, to varnishes and lacquers, and sensitivity is well documented.

Many natural oils and resins (such as natural turpentine and essential oils like rosemary) are used in producing building and decorating materials with no synthetic chemicals. Some individuals can be sensitive to these. .

Linseed oil is produced by pressing from the seeds of the flax plant. It is used as a sealant in some building products and as a component of linoleum. It is relatively inert and rarely causes reactions. Linoleum is a type of flooring that causes few problems to the chemically sensitive. Forbo-Nairn manufactures linoleum which can be ordered through any carpet or flooring supplier.

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Often it’s the chemical additives in the food that are causing the hidden allergy rather than the food itself. Many of the chemical flavourings, colourings and preservatives in processed, refined foods (white bread, cakes, biscuits, frozen and tinned food, processed meats, TV dinners) are derivatives of chemical pollutants in our environment. Over-exposure to these airborne chemicals can both perpetrate and perpetuate hidden food allergies. For instance, one of the most prominent chemicals used in strong smelling paint strippers is also used as part of the chemical makeup of vanilla-flavoured ice-cream.

In my twenty-two years of clinical practice, I’ve noticed that chemical contaminants of food, air and water are the most potent contributors to allergic reactions and in particular the masked

reactions of allergy addiction. Petrol fumes and the gas from gas cookers, heaters, hot water systems and gas refrigerators are major problems. The most pervasive gas of all is the odourless, colourless formaldehyde found in all plastic and synthetic products. The outgassing of formaldehyde from paint, carpets, curtains, upholstery, insulation and plastic products when the heating is turned on in winter raises the level of this gas to toxic levels in both home and workplace. The combined and cumulative effects of formaldehyde, gas from home appliances, chemicals in drinking water and processed foods, places a tremendous strain on the immune system. In time it becomes so agitated by this chemical assault, it starts over-reacting in its attempt to protect the body from it.

This over-reaction, which was initially to the chemicals, does in time carry over to the less noxious allergenic substances of moulds, pollens, grasses, dust, dust mites and animal dander. Eventually it carries over to the foods we eat. At first we react to the processed, packaged, tinned, frozen and refined foods, as they contain colourings, flavourings and preservatives that are chemically related to formaldehyde and the hydrocarbon gases. In time this sensitivity can spill over to the whole fresh foods that still have some residual herbicide spray on them.

The successful treatment of allergies relies on lowering our contact load with chemicals. We can do this by using only electrical appliances, having 100 per cent wool carpet and cotton, wool or leather upholstery, and opening windows in lieu of air-conditioning. The ideal house for allergic people has a slate floor, sandstone or natural wood-panelled walls (not. synthetic plywood or chipboard), a tiled roof lined with natural wood, all electrical appliances and no insulation. Leather upholstery, natural wood furniture and stainless steel cooking utensils complete the chemical free house. Fresh spring or mineral water is used for cooking and drinking and tinned, frozen, processed and packaged (particularly in plastic) foods are kept to a minimum. All fruits must be peeled (unfortunately chemicals sit under the skins of apples, pears, peaches and apricots where most of the vitamins reside) and only the inner leaves of lettuce, cabbage, brussels sprouts and all other leafy vegetables are to be eaten; the outer chemical-contaminated ones being discarded. All vegetables, even those growing below the surface, must be thoroughly washed in warm water.

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To further complicate the picture, not all those in the ‘less well-adapted’ category experience the low energy phase of the early twenties. Some have adrenal glands that are strong enough to continue their allergy-based hyperactivity well into adulthood. This hyperactivity is the driving force behind some, but not all. Unfortunately, not all young people choose to channel their hyperactivity into hard work. Others try to ameliorate it by smoking marijuana and / or drinking too much alcohol, which soon makes them dopey, disorganised, undisciplined and unproductive.

Some kids don’t have allergic mothers and escape all the childhood trials previously described. They remain perfectly well until adulthood when the combined effect of the mounting stresses of life, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and over-exposure to a certain substance for the first time starts off the allergy addiction process. These people carry a genetic predisposition to allergy 1 landed down from either the father or a grandparent on either side of the family. Repeated contact with a given food, beverage or chemical can start the process off.

Here’s an example by way of explanation. For some people the first contact with alcohol can be a harassing one. After a few drinks they can feel headachy, groggy, nauseous, tired, spaced out and even incoherent. In more severe cases those afflicted have to periodically excuse themselves to vomit the beverage out of their stomach. Peer pressure, a desire not to be left out or appear a piker, or the need for company, keeps the alcohol sensitive person drinking with the group. In time they find that alcohol starts to agree with them and they learn, as seasoned drinkers would say, ‘to hold their liquor’.

Finding that alcohol agrees with them, these people often develop reputations as hard-headed drinkers, much to the delight of the friends, workmates, bosses, clients, spouses or relatives, they’ve always so wanted to please. Alcohol is now being experienced as a delightful pick-me-up and is consumed more and more often for the feeling of buoyant well-being it gives. Imperceptibly a dependency on alcohol is now developing and the one in question is now drinking more and more often to maintain the liveliness which comes with each drink and to avoid the hangover symptoms that accompany abstinence.

Eventually the body’s powers of adaption weaken and our now compulsive drinker finds that each drink can make him/her groggy, ill, headachy and nauseous once again. As the experts on alcoholism would say, ‘He/she has lost his/her tolerance for drink.’ This is a well-known stage in the alcoholic’s sad path to decline. Not all alcoholics are created by this exact route but the great majority are. By now a full-blown, hidden allergy has developed to one or more of the foods and/or chemicals in the beverage habitually consumed and total abstinence is the only thing that will heal the body.

Some drinkers find alcohol agrees with them from the outset and although it takes longer for them to develop an allergy addiction to their favourite drink, in time they do if they over-indulge. Some heavy drinkers elect to stop drinking before the stage of exhaustion is reached and anyone who knows a reformed alcoholic will be aware of the compulsive food or nicotine cravings they develop in lieu of the alcohol. Wheat (bread, pasta, etc.) is craved by the former whisky drinker. Sweets and refined, processed and savoury biscuit foods are craved by the former beer and wine drinker and corn products by the former bourbon drinker.

Many compulsive drinkers become compulsive eaters and an over-weight condition, if it wasn’t a problem before, certainly becomes a problem after giving it up,as withdrawal symptoms are allayed by the constant eating of the allergenic food. I remember one lady who had developed such a dependency on brewer’s yeast she ‘would kill for Vegemite’ and ate Vegemite sandwiches all day long. Not surprisingly she consulted me for her over-weight problem. She recalled how one day she was just about to leave for the corner store to buy a loaf of bread and a jar of Vegemite when a girlfriend phoned and kept her on the phone for some time. By the time my patient got off the phone she was in such a state she nearly crashed the car in her haste to get to the store and, on procuring her bread and Vegemite, sat in the car and ‘had to literally scoff it down there and then before I could drive away’. It was at this point that she realised she had a problem and needed help. Like many over-weight, compulsive eaters she didn’t understand her problem and was depressed that she was so weak willed when it came to food.

Treating alcoholism by the cold turkey, food and cigarette substitution method never completely restores the former drinker to complete health. The adaptation phase is still being sustained by eating the food the favourite alcoholic beverage was made from and the adaptation phase still comes to an end with the symptoms of exhaustion. If untreated, eventually it will manifest as any of the chronic degenerative diseases mentioned earlier.

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Auto-immune disease is the name given to the process whereby the body begins to produce antibodies against its own tissues. This constitutes over-sensitivity and erratic behavior of the immune system taken to the nth degree, as under normal conditions the immune system recognises the body’s own tissues as OK and not a threat.

This antigen-antibody reaction usually attacks the joints (rheumatoid arthritis), the joints and heart combined (rheumatic fever), the skin and blood vessels (systemic lupus erythematosis) or the muscles and joints of the lower back (ankylosing spondylitis). Sometimes it attacks the thyroid gland (acute thyroiditis), causing it to be either over- or under-active. A disrupted thyroid gland further unbalances the metabolism.

In my experience the great majority of people with an autoimmune disease have either an allergy, a yeast infection or both.

Because allergies are carried in the blood they can, and often do, migrate around the body. The random coming and going of symptoms that is so confusing to both patient and physician can be caused by this. Many people are deluded into thinking they have outgrown their allergies when their symptoms disappear in this way. They seldom equate the development of new symptoms with the allergy that caused their old symptoms. As whacky and variable as this process is there are some common patterns.

Those who mysteriously lose (grow out of) their asthma frequently develop eczema and those who had itchy skin and hayfever as children frequently develop acne as adults. Don’t be lulled into a false sense of security if, without treatment, your symptoms suddenly disappear. The probability of your untreated allergy emerging somewhere else, as something else, is very high.

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People are more prone to develop over-exposure allergies if they are tired, under stress or suffering from a cold, ‘flu or other infection.

For instance, anyone over-indulging in alcohol while suffering from the ‘flu, the effect of over-work or the stress of a broken relationship can develop a sensitivity to the food from which the alcohol is made (for example, wheat in the case of whisky, or corn in the case of bourbon).

Many of the cases of late onset allergies that I have treated have developed in adults who were never troubled by allergies as children. Invariably these adults can trace the beginnings of their allergy symptoms to a severe cold, ‘flu, attack of glandular fever, hepatitis, tonsillitis or severe bacterial throat infection. Invariably this bout of illness is due to a period of overdoing it coupled with skipped meals, rushed meals and a diet comprising too many processed, tinned and frozen packaged foods. Such a lifestyle and diet strains the immune system to the point where resident viruses lower immune vitality. When the more obvious symptoms of the infection have abated the symptoms of the allergy remain and linger until the immune vitality is once more raised by the appropriate diet and lifestyle. The Metabolism-Balancing Program has been formulated for this purpose. It is an immune vitality raiser par excellence.

Over-exposure to a given food/food chemical in our diet, or substance in our environment (mainly chemicals) can so irritate tired, poorly nourished immune system cells as to incite their overreaction to that food or substance.

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Naturopathy taught me how to treat the cause rather than the symptoms of a disease and that to treat allergies you must first have allergy tests, find out what you are allergic to and remove it from your food and environment. No one had ever said that to me before. I threw away my antihistamines and antibiotics, took the allergy tests and removed all allergenic foods from my diet. So effective was the program that my remaining acne, itchy skin, stuffy nose, nervousness, anxiety and depression disappeared completely within three months and I didn’t need to take the oral desensitising vaccine for my inhalant allergies. There was no doubt in my mind that the metabolism-balancing effect of Adele Davis’ vitamin and mineral regime, which had reduced the intensity of all my symptoms, enabled my body to respond as successfully as it did.

Reintroduction of my former allergy foods saw a return of all my symptoms only if I was under stress from over-work, late nights, too much sport, skipping meals or not faking my vitamins. Under stress, a glass of wine or a slice of bread would give me a few pimples, a slightly itchy skin and a reasonably stuffy nose. The only time my nervousness, anxiety or depression returned was when I was off my vitamins and minerals for a fortnight or more.

This was the pattern of my life for a number of years until I discovered I had a Candida albicans yeast infection in my intestines. By going on the Anti-Candida Program I eradicated the yeast and found that the anal itch I’d suffered since first taking antibiotics and the distended abdomen I’d never been able to diet or exercise away disappeared. All my symptoms disappeared and I’m happy to say they have never returned.

Since beating the Candida infection I find that smoke-filled restaurants don’t stuff up my nose any more and I can eat and drink what I like, without any hint of my symptoms returning, even if I am stressed or it’s late and I’m tired. Because I must religiously take my vitamins and minerals to achieve this, some would argue that I’m technically not cured of my allergies. Because taking extra food in pill form is no hassle to me (I’ve accepted that the metabolism of an allergic person requires more vitamins and minerals than the non-allergic person) and because I’m free to go where I like, eat and drink what I like, and have been for years, I feel as though I’m very much cured. To me, a cure is total freedom from debilitating symptoms and skin that is smooth, supple and free of acne scars.

Unraveling the mystery of my allergies has been a great adventure. I have learnt much and have matured in many ways because of it. I’m sure this book will help make the unraveling of your allergy mystery an adventure too!

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