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Food Allergies in Children and How TCM Could Be a Way Out

  • Writer: Aku Energija
    Aku Energija
  • Aug 4
  • 3 min read

Food allergy parents are those who struggle to manage their children’s multiple anaphylactic allergies. From milk to eggs to nuts to shellfish and everything in between, many people suffer through mealtime. Parents are in constant fear that their children may touch or accidentally ingest an allergen that could be potentially life-threatening. And children with allergies often live their lives with this same fear.

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Why are there so many new allergies? Why aren’t our kids outgrowing their allergies? Why are food allergies becoming so pervasive, life-threatening and scarily unpredictable? And most importantly: Why can’t our doctors cure our children’s food allergies? [Read more: How TCM relieves “Gluten allergy”]

If you are looking for answers to the above questions, it is worth turning your attention to Traditional Chinese medicine.

When energy goes extreme, things turn around

To cure food allergies, we must first understand what food is. Somehow, food is not meant to harm, it’s intended to nourish. The TCM wisdom teaches us that more is not always better. Energies need to be at an optimal level and well-balanced. Too much is as problematic as too little. Most of the food allergies in Children are problem of energy overflow. This is how the life-sustaining energy from food turns into life-threatening one. [Read more: Properties of Food] [Read more: Foundation of TCM dietary and herbology (1/4)- Four natures]

A huge difference between modern nutritional science and TCM is the way we analyze food. When you start looking into a new perspective, you may start finding new answers. [Read more: TCM Dietary Advice]

How TCM understands food allergies

TCM believes that inside our body, there is an intrinsic system to process food and allocate energies. The system should know what energy is useful to us and put them in a right place while cleaning up the waste. If a certain system fails, then specific symptoms will present.

The most common food allergy signs and symptoms include:

How TCM manages food allergies

Treatment is individualized for each patient, as the causes of digestive impairment are many. However they can broadly be split into three areas:

1. Weakness or deficiency of Stomach and Spleen

In these cases, the system does not have enough energy to process the food it receives, and there may be loose stools or undigested food in the stools. Strong tonics like astragalus or codonopsis, a type of ginseng, are used.

2. Liver Stagnation

Many autoimmune reaction cases fall into this category. The Liver system normally provides the excitement energy and supports the immune cells. But when this army is too strong and out of control, it starts to attack normal cells causing excessive inflammation. Treatment focuses on breaking up the stagnant, pent-up energy of the Liver, as well as de-stressing the system with herbs like white peony root and bupleurum. [Read more: Strengthen your Wei Qi for better immunity]

3. Mucus accumulation

This is called “dampness” in TCM (and I call it “polluted water”). If food is not broken down properly over a long period of time, it will congest the energy channel. Worse still, this pathological energy could further pollute the normal energy. For such case, herbs with a cleansing, Dampness-draining and anti-inflammatory effect are used. [Read more: Understanding Water energy with TCM]

If the above abnormal factors are rectified, food will be properly broken down and symptoms of intolerance will disappear. [Read more: Cook your food - digestive system explained in Traditional Chinese medicine] [Read more: The Japanese Diet And Why It Is Good For Health]

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