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Digestive Symptoms

Sick All Over

Food Holiday and Clearing SymptomsI

Our mouths are full of immune monitoring information. If you are willing to tune in sensations originating from oral sensors, sensitive, subtle signs of food reactions may be picked up in the mouth before more major trouble begins further along GIT or internally in body space. Swelling reactions of the lips, tongue, and throat express the most dramatic and sometimes serious allergic responses created by MALT.

Food allergy is first detected in the mouth.  As offending, allergenic molecules pass through the mouth, surface antibodies, which are attached to mast cells, react with the food antigens. This triggers swelling and inflammation of the lips, mouth surfaces, and throat. The reaction may be minute and limited to swelling of a small area on the tongue, or it may cause a life-threatening swelling of the whole tongue and throat.

Small ulcers (aphthous ulcers) are common consequences of a localized allergic reaction. Painful sensations are common, as nerve endings of the tongue, mouth, and throat are stimulated by inflammatory mediators. Taste sensations are often reported, including a generalized blunting of taste. The tongue feels coated, or tastes abnormally, often detecting a metallic taste, which may persist long after the offending substances are ingested.

Continuous allergic inflammation in the mouth and nose may obliterate pleasant eating sensations and is associated with disordered food selection. The complete sensation of taste is dependent on proper smell, obliterated by a stuffy, swollen nose. 

People with blunted taste often prefer heavy doses of the primary tastes, bitter, salt, and sugar. The taste-impaired lose interest in more healthy foods with subtle flavors (especially vegetables), since they cannot perceive the natural flavors. This blunting of flavor sensation is one of the routes to faulty food selection.