ME/CFS Australia (SA) Inc: Newcastle Team Lecture, page 2

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Ms Tania Emms

Ms Tania Emms, a dietitian, presented data from her clinical practice on alleviating symptoms in CFS patients. Tania is currently undertaking doctoral research with the University of Newcastle that will include the upcoming serine supplementation trial and an extension of her current clinical observations.

Tania, a longtime sufferer herself, explained how CFS symptoms could be managed by diet in a subgroup of patients exhibiting food chemical intolerance.

She commenced by explaining her interest as a practitioner in the links between Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), food intolerance, multi-organ dysfunction, and alterations to colonic bacteria and metabolites. She reported that the medical literature indicates a significant overlap in symptomatology between CFS patients and those with IBS, suggesting the possibility of a common starting point and/or disease progression. Studies report an alteration in the number of colonic ‘bugs’ in CFS, IBS and food intolerance. This was picked up later by Dr Henry Butt.

Tania then moved on to her research on food intolerances. She was quick to point out that food intolerances are not allergic reactions, which is an immune system dysfunction. Although similar and body systems can be affected, the timing and mechanism of these reactions are quite different. As such, the diagnosis and management of food intolerances, as opposed to allergies, is different. Food intolerances are best thought of as inducing a “drug-like” reaction in their target organs. A small amount may not induce any side effects, but too much over a certain threshold could affect us greatly. In the short term, elimination of these chemicals may actually produce withdrawal making us crave them more, and further ingestion can aggravate symptoms even more.

Food intolerances can be induced by naturally occurring foods – not just preservatives and additives. Naturally occurring food chemicals such as salicylates, amines, monosodium glutamate, and lactose, as well as proteins such as gluten and milk can have a big impact on us.

We must understand that until we hit our “threshold” for a particular chemical we may be fine. A little more of the substance in question can tip us over the edge, producing drastic results in our bodies. Chemicals have a certain lifetime in our system, and any one particular chemical may be present in many different foods we eat. As we consume more of them, our levels build up. These chemicals are as prevalent in an ideally “healthy, natural” diet as in a highly processed one; just the type of chemical and amount may alter.

Tania stressed the importance of seeking professional advice, as we might attribute our symptoms to specific foods, when it is really may be a combination of that food and others with common chemicals that are causing the problem, particularly with characteristically delayed reactions. Eliminating one part of the problem is obviously not the whole solution.

Tania’s research has shown that multiple CFS symptoms including fatigue, pain and cognitive dysfunction, can be significantly reduced in many patients by correctly identifying chemical groups inducing symptoms and determining tolerance limits. 89.5% of patients involved in the clinical study reported a positive outcome with multiple symptom reduction or alleviation. Some individuals find some symptoms are eliminated altogether. Finally, preliminary research shows the reverse is also true. CFS patients challenged with certain foods show significant increase in specific symptoms. That is, there is a correlation between specific chemicals and specific symptoms. Tania hopes to confirm this in an upcoming double-blind trial.

To test our food intolerances the right elimination diet protocols must be put in place. There are many diets – like the anti-candida and yeast-free diets (not designed to diagnose food chemical intolerance) – that may help symptoms for a while by reducing some of the chemical load, but usually symptoms return sometimes worse as no systematic identification has taken place. We must work with our practitioner to identify which chemicals are symptom-provoking using a specific challenge protocol to confirm our diagnosis, otherwise symptom improvement won’t be maintained, and there is even a danger of increasing intolerances by staying solely on a base elimination diet. We should make sure we are going to see the right people if we want to find helpful results.

Tania is in the process of preparing her results for publication and will send us a summary of these later in the year.

Newcastle Team Lecture (continued)

Ms Tania Emms