Root Causes of Allergies - Why They're More Important Than Managing Symptoms

by Chelsea Kent January 17, 2021

Its important to identify the root cause of allergies to prevent acute imbalances from turning into chronic diseases. Simply avoiding aggravating ingredients and exposures or suppressing symptoms with drugs allows imbalances to continue - often resulting in diseases such as cancer.

There are several reasons for allergic reactions beyond the scope of sensitivity to specific ingredients.

Microbiome Imbalance (often caused by antibiotic use, inorganic foods, chemical exposure or consumption, etc)
Heavy Metal Toxicity
Micronutrient (Vitamin/Mineral) Imbalance
Systemic Inflammation
Vaccinosis
Exposure to certain medications (particularly flea/tick/heartworm and other antiparasitic medication)
Parasites
Specific Food Sensitivities
Vitamin D Deficiency & Hormone Imbalances

Etc, etc, etc

Tests you could do to validate (rather than guess) what’s going on with your pup (which will get you results quicker):

Animal Biome - sequences feces to identify microbiome imbalances and solutions
ParsleyPet HTMA Test – checks Mineral and Heavy Metal uptake, toxicity and deficiency - Used Code "Heros1" for a $25 credit for in-store use.
Serum Vitamin D test
IgA, IgG, IgE blood test. CRP test optional
Stool sample

Allergy tests are a snapshot of a single moment, like a selfie, which isn’t necessarily representative of what the system always look like. If, for example, your dog walked through a field that was just sprayed with Glyphosate they are likely to be more reactive to foods because their system is aggravated that day. If you do allergy testing it’s only valuable if you regularly test to establish trends over time.

The most common allergy stimulating ingredients are Chicken (some other poultry…. About 85% of dogs, in my experience, that are allergic to poultry are NOT allergic to other poultry), Chicken Eggs, Wheat and Wheat derivatives, Corn and Corn derivatives, Soy and Soy derivatives, and Rice, and Barley.

However, quite literally any ingredient can cause issues. Sometimes the issue with an ingredient is around its production – for example, synthetic minerals are inextricably contaminated with heavy metals. Extruded kibble products are manufactured with phthalate-rich machinery lubricants to protect the extruder from heat. Glyphosate is often used to desiccate lentils, potatoes and grains.

If you're looking to attempt to make your own pet food, so you have more control over individual ingredients (and you have the time and money to source well), you must purchase the Animal Diet Formulator to ensure you’re getting the correct balance of nutrients and not unintentionally creating issues. Without a program to analyze nutrient levels your homemade diet is guaranteed to be deficient in Vitamin D, Vitamin E, Calcium, and Manganese and is likely to be deficient in B-Vitamins, Iron, Zinc and Copper. You may also contact any manufacturer directly and ask them details about their sourcing and processing to determine if you're capable of doing a better job for less money.

Alternatively, Raw Goat Milk or Raw Cow Milk (preferably A2) function as complete diets when fed correctly (just like breast feeding an infant). Giving 1oz per 10lbs of body weight per day these can function as a vitamin, mineral, amino acid, enzyme, protein supplement for homemade or incomplete diets.