New carpets are a well-known cause of environmental illness.

Synthetic carpets release poisonous gassed for quite a while after they have been installed.

If you are considering the installation of new carpets, I advise against it.

If you are stuck with new carpets, here are some things you can try to reduce the damage.

I just received the following comment, posted under the Self-Testing for Food Allergies page.

I decided to provide the reply as a separate article, rather than burying it in the comments, because there are a few important points here that I think you will find useful, and I want to make sure you can easily find this article.

Here is my reply:

A comment from Heather, about citric acid and yeast (see Even Yeast free bread may still have yeast) put me on to learning that some people have a citric acid intolerance.

That lead me to a bit of research, which lead me to Vicy Clarke's Citric Acid Intolerance page.

The problem with having a citric acid intolerance is that citric acid is so hard to avoid, at least if you eat prepared foods.

Sounds familiar from avoiding gluten.

Acid Reflux is a condition where some stomach contents get pushed up the wrong way, in other words, part way up the esophagus.

The stomach acid, pepsin and bile irritate the esophagus, causing a burning sensation.

Acid Reflux Symptoms

Acid reflux causes a burning sensation, starting from the stomach, and working its way up towards the chest.

It may reach as high as the throat. This is called Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, or GORD.

Mold under the sink - what better place for mold to grow - dark and damp if there is a leak.

I've been adding more articles about mold on Allergy-Details lately, so it is ironic that I have recently discovered a major mold problem under the kitchen sink.

You could smell it when you got near the sink sometimes. But at other times you could not. Strange!

There were no obvious damp areas in the cupboard under the sink, and the wooden underside of the counter-top was clean and dry.

Toxic Mold

Toxic Mould

Toxic mold (or toxic mould) refers to certain types of mold that release toxic substances into the air, causing health problems.

Not all types of mold fall into this category. In fact, there are many types of beneficial mold. We would not have cheese for example, without the beneficial action of mold on milk ingredients for example.

In most cases, toxic mold refers to certain species of mold that release mycotoxins - liquid or gaseous compounds that are harmful to human health.

An inspiring story left by one of our readers, explains the dramatic effect of eliminating wheat from his child's diet, and how this greatly reduced his child's ADHD symptoms.

Wheat can cause problems that are very hard for a mainstream doctor to recognize.  Their training is to look for a set of symptoms, and usually prescribe a patented medicine to alleviate the symptoms.  This often does not deal with the underlying problem.

For years I ate peanut butter like it was the bread of life and suffered miserably from mouth ulcers and bleeding from the colon at one time.

Out of trial and error I stopped eating peanut butter that is only made with hydrogenated oils and Whalah! the mouth ulcers stopped.

I can still eat peanut butter but it has to be organic or just made out of peanuts. I have since just about eliminated all the hydrogenated oils from my diet and I feel much much better.

Be careful what kind of fuel you put into the engine ....
Hope this helps
Jim V.

Zinc is an element and a metal. It is required in trace quantities by the human body. Thousands of proteins in the body include zinc in their chemical composition.

Zinc plays a role not only in the chemical composition of the body, but also in its operation.

Some types of cells in the human body secrete zinc ions, including cells in the immune system. Since the immune system is central to the allergy mechanism, zinc is an important element to consider when dealing with allergies.

The recommended daily allowance for zinc is 10 to 15mg (various sources differ in RDA).