Starting School With a Peanut Allergy

If your peanut-allergic child is entering kindergarten or a new school next year, now is the time to start getting prepared. Having your meetings at the school before the current year ends, will help everyone get ready for your child's first day of school.

Schedule an appointment with your child's doctor to go over your child's allergy action plan. Request documentation of the peanut allergy, prescriptions, and any other materials you may need.

You will need to contact the school and should speak with both the principal and nurse. Schedule a meeting to discuss your child's needs and start developing safety procedures to help avoid exposure to the allergen.

The meeting may include the principal or administrative representative, nurse, food service director or staff member, classroom teachers and specialists, counselors, coaches and gym teacher, custodian, bus driver, attendants and aides. Anyone who will be in direct contact with the child should be encouraged to attend.

At the meeting, review the allergy action plan that was developed with your doctor. This will list the warning signs of an allergic reaction and steps to take in an emergency. Discuss how and where the medications will be stored and who will administer it in an emergency.

Parents will need to frequently communicate with the school nurse to make sure all the paperwork is in place before the first day of school. This will include providing forms from the child's doctor/allergist, along with any required medical forms from the school.

Make sure your child's medication is labeled, and keep a record of the expiration dates to know when it needs to be replaced. This may include the epinephrine auto-injectors (EpiPen, etc), Benadryl, and any other medications prescribed by the doctor/allergist.

The school will always need to have a current contact number to reach you in an emergency. Having a cell phone that's always with you, is a must. List any other numbers where you can be contacted, along with the numbers of any other family members that can be notified.

If you feel comfortable, offer to help the school with any training or educational materials you may have on peanut allergies. Find out when and how they train their staff, and how often they train/educate throughout the year.

Some important topics staff members will need to learn about: Recognizing the signs and symptoms of an allergic reaction, the administration of an EpiPen, creating a safe environment, label reading, proper cleaning of peanut residue and cross-contamination, and bullying.

Discuss setting up a peanut free zone in the cafeteria and the possibility of a food ban in the classroom. If treats are allowed in the classroom, purchase peanut-free snacks that can be stored and offered to your child when needed.

Don't hesitate to ask the school any questions you may have before your child's first day of school, or any day after.

Stacey has a M.A. in Education and focuses on creating a safer environment at school for children with peanut allergies. For more tips, products and resources to help increase peanut allergy awareness for your child, visit us at http://www.peanutfreezone.com/

Original article

Gluten Sensitivity Symptoms - Hype Or Reality?

Is gluten a miscast villain in the diet world? Perhaps. A new study raises the question about gluten sensitivity symptoms and challenges the usefulness of following a gluten free diet plan for most people who have not been carefully and properly diagnosed with celiac disease.

Despite what you might see on the labels of all manner of foods in the grocery store, or hear from enthusiastic celebrity spokespeople, gluten free is not the right choice for everyone. An estimate has from 5% - 6% of us, some 18 million Americans, having some level of sensitivity to gluten.

Let's start with the basics; gluten is a protein that's a natural part of wheat, rye as well as barley, which are used to make beer, bread, pasta and lots of processed foods.

For roughly 1% of us eating glutens brings on a condition known as celiac disease that damages the wall of the small intestine so that the body is unable to absorb food nutrients. The disease is properly diagnosed by tests on blood and bowel, but there is no widely accepted test to diagnose gluten sensitivity.

Symptoms linked to gluten sensitivity symptoms include some of the same ones attributed to celiac disease - diarrhea, cramping of the abdomen, bloating, headache, fatigue and possibly ADHD. But until there's a test that identifies gluten sensitivity, diagnosing this condition will remain a challenge.

In a recent essay researchers who specialize in celiac disease, discussed what we know about gluten sensitivity and delivered common sense recommendations about the much hyped gluten free eating. They suggest that the discomforts that accompany eating foods with gluten happen because these foods are believed to cause a problem. This is known to science as the nocebo effect, if you presume the worst health wise, that's just what you'll get.

Many symptoms thought to related to gluten might really be sensitivity to other parts of wheat flour or another ingredient in foods made from wheat. And then, a gluten free diet is not bad for you, and will help even if you have other wheat allergies. That's what food makers are counting on, and why you see so much gluten bashing on labels.

Of course gluten free diets (and products) aren't going anywhere. The truth is, there are are large number of people who are suffering with terribly troubling symptoms that do improve when they follow this eating plan.

The danger of misdiagnosing gluten sensitivity symptoms is that going gluten-free when you don't need to deprives your body of fiber and gives it too much fat. Close monitoring of what you eat is important, as we know that for those who live with properly diagnosed celiac disease eating gluten-free eases the discomfort of symptoms and restores the digestive system to health.

FREE Bonus Secret Health Reports - For a limited time you can grab 5 FREE essential health reports from the Daily Health Bulletin. Click through now to discover more on recognizing gluten sensitivity symptoms and the steps you should take before removing gluten from your diet.

Original article

What Is Candida?

Candida is a yeast that exists naturally in our bodies. There are over 150 species of Candida; the most common being Candida Albicans. Candida's function in the body is mainly to destroy all rotting food matter in your gut before any nasty bacteria can feed on it.

In a healthy person, Candida (controlled by the immune system and 'friendly' bacteria) is a non-invasive organism, however, when most people talk about Candida they are normally referring to a Candida Albicans overgrowth.

What causes Candida overgrowth?
A weakened immune system- allergies, excess sugar consumption, caffeine, stress and heavy metal toxicity all contribute towards a weakened immune system.
Poor diet- the modern western diet is seriously lacking in fibre and important vitamins, yet high in refined carbohydrates. Fibre is an important part of a healthy diet. It keeps everything moving through your gut nicely and produces fatty acids that hamper the growth of Candida. Vitamin C, zinc, magnesium and selenium are essential for a healthy immune system; of these, vitamin C is the most important to consume regularly as the body does not store it. B vitamins, in particular Biotin, are essential to controlling Candida overgrowth. A diet containing nuts, whole grains, high quality fish, shellfish and meat will contain all of these essential vitamins, whilst a diet high in foods such as refined carbohydrates, yeast, refined sugars, fruit sugars, vinegar and fermented foods will encourage your Candida to flourish.
Medication- so many medications affect the delicate balance of your body; medications such as antibiotics, steroids, birth control pills and hormones. Antibiotics are one of the worst culprits, because whilst they kill germs, they also kill the friendly bacteria in your gut - the same friendly bacteria that normally keeps your Candida under control.
Pregnancy- pregnancy will alter your body's hormonal balance, sugar production and pH.
Diabetes- a condition where the pancreas is not able to produce enough insulin in order to control the amount of glucose in the blood. If you have ever made bread or brewed alcohol, you'll know that for yeast to flourish it needs warmth and sugar; the same is true of the Candida yeast. Candida absolutely loves sugar and diabetics have lots of the stuff in their bloodstream - it's the perfect feeding ground for Candida.
Mould- exposure to mouldy environments can encourage Candida growth - mould spores, once inhaled, can travel throughout the body.

Why is Candida overgrowth a problem?

As the numbers of Candida increase, the Candida shifts from its yeast state to a fungal state. The fungus establishes itself in the gut and alters the digestive environment; the pH becomes more acidic meaning that the absorption of vitamins and minerals stops, the production of digestive enzymes slows, friendly bacteria struggle to survive and the fungus flourishes. The result being that as the fungus grows, your body weakens.

Once established in the gut, the Candida produces root-like structures called Rhizoids. Rhizoids penetrate the gut wall, creating microscopic holes, which allow undigested food particles, toxins, bacteria and yeast to enter the bloodstream. This stage is known as Leaky Gut Syndrome. The Candida spores can now create colonies outside the gut, in fact anywhere it can reach via the bloodstream. They first target low-oxygen areas, but can eventually settle in almost every organ in the body causing damage and bacterial infections.

If this wasn't bad enough, the Candida fungus itself releases, as waste, over 75 toxins; some of which are:
Acetaldehyde, a neurotoxin, said to damage brain structure and pathways
Ethanol which has a negative effect on the brain and interferes with your body's biochemical processes
Canditoxin which when injected into rats caused paralysis of the limbs and ultimately death
Formaldehyde which causes a number of malfunctions in your body

Conclusion

Candida is a yeast that exists naturally in a healthy person's gut. It can however, given the right circumstances, overgrow easily and once overgrown, weakens and pollutes your body.

Original article