Are Food Sensitivities and Learning Disabilities Connected?

Parents of children with learning disabilities are overwhelmed with trying to find the best solutions for their child. Often times, medical treatments have not worked and have caused new and troublesome symptoms and side effects. Time spent at various therapists and with tutors have been in vain. Can diet be the missing link to greater success for your children? By looking at food sensitivities, you are looking to see if the brain is getting what it needs to function optimally. Food sensitivities can alter brain functioning and metabolism. Successful diet and lifestyle changes may be used as an alternative to medication. A proper change in diet can reduce toxicity and eliminate or reduce symptoms and allow for greater success with complementary therapies for children with learning disabilities. 

Food sensitivities are more common and have a wider and more varied impact on our health and wellness than previously realized. Food sensitivities do not involve the immune system and as a result, they are often more difficult to diagnose. Food sensitivities can be caused by any foods- foods you eat all the time or foods that you rarely eat. With food sensitivities, your immune system sees the food as a foreign invader and produces antibodies to it. This reaction causes inflammation in the body. Whereas true allergic reactions are almost always immediate, food sensitive reactions can take upwards of 72 hours. Symptoms of food sensitivities include: brain fog, headaches, migraines, fatigue, diarrhea, constipation, bloating, gas, eczema, insomnia, congestion, joint pain, weight gain, anxiety, depression, hyperactivity, and irritability.

Food sensitivities may develop if the gut lining has been compromised by factors such as stress, anti inflammatory drugs, antibiotics and toxins in the environment. This compromised gut lining can lead to a condition called leaky gut. Leaky gut syndrome is characterized by increased permeability of the intestinal lining allowing pieces of undigested food and other toxins in the bloodstream where they do not belong. When this happens, inflammation is created. Once the lining of the gut is inflamed, it can trigger sensitivities to many other foods because it makes the digestive system unable to process foods effectively.

Children with food sensitivities react more strongly to a smaller amount of potentially harmful additives than another child would. What children eat directly affects how their body and brain operate. When a child has food sensitivities and a leaky gut, this leads to nutrient deficiencies which can affect all cellular function including poor brain function and poor detoxification. Common food sensitivties such as those to gluten, dairy, soy, egg and peanut have been linked to learning disabilities such as AD/HD, dyslexia, auditory processing disorder and autism. In schools, food sensitivities can manifest as children being labeled as being inattentive, restless, aggressive, withdrawn, lazy, awkward, attention seeking and/or disorganized. These symptoms, in conjunction with other treatment modalities, can be greatly alleviated by a change in diet.