Allergy And Alcoholic Addiction
William H. Philpott, M.D. (Psychiatrist)
Several years ago (Rinkle, Randolph, Zeller 1951) observed that food allergies could change from the immediate reaction to that of a delayed reaction occurring several hours or days later. The delayed reaction could be temporarily relieved by eating again the food to which the person is allergic. This was given the term "masked food allergy". The evidence that masked food reactions are indeed allergic in nature can be demonstrated by withdrawing the food for five days and feeding it as a single meal on the fifth day.
Later Randolph (Randolph) applied the term "addiction" to the masked food allergy. It seems evident that allergy and addiction are the same thing, but have been described as separate phenomena simply because of the difference in the timing of symptoms. Allergic reactions occur within seconds, minutes, or at maximum about two hours after contact with the allergic substance, whereas the addiction reaction develops as a delayed withdrawal symptom at varied time intervals in terms of hours or days. Minor withdrawal symptoms may begin at two or more hours, but usually reach maximum symptomatology at fifty to seventy-five hours.
CONCLUSIONS:
1. In the majority of cases the strongest driving force in maintaining alcohol addiction is an allergy to foods from which the "alcohol" has been made.
2. A minority of alcoholic addictions are maintained by alcohol's ability to give temporary relief to allergic reactions unrelated to the foods from which the alcohol is made.
3. A total understanding of the alcoholic must consider conflict, interpersonal relationships, personality development, and so forth. However, when an attempt is made to weigh the varying strengths of the driving forces behind maintaining the alcoholic addictions the evidence places allergic reactions as the strongest driving forces.
4. Allergic reactions are caused by chemical defectiveness, which can be either inherited or developmental. The more defective the person's chemistry the more likely there is to be allergic reactions (or similar hypersensitive, toxic, or idiopathic reactions).
5. The alcoholic needs to stop using his favorite alcohol because he is allergic to foods from which the alcohol is made. He also would not use these foods to which he is allergic since eating these foods will maintain an addiction to these foods, thus maintaining a driving urge to use alcohol. After three to four months abstinence from these allergic foods it can sometimes be returned to the diet with a frequency no greater than every five days without evoking an allergic reaction. Some will have allergic reactions to a food no matter how infrequently they use it. Alcoholized foods have four times the allergic-addictive value of non-alcoholized foods, and therefore it is unsafe to ever return to alcohol no matter how infrequently it is used. Some are fooled into false security because one drink may not set off the allergic-addictive response. However, two, three, or four drinks taken during a week's time will routinely reinstate the addictive state again.
6. The role of allergic-addictive forces other than that involved, as a food addiction to foods in the favorite alcohol must be taken seriously. The desire to use alcohol for relief can be maintained by such seemingly unrelated allergies. High on the list are allergic-addictive reactions to tobacco, coffee, cola, chocolate, but may also be what may appear to be an innocent favorite food such as milk, wheat, or corn, and can indeed be any food or chemical to which the person has a chemical intolerance (allergic, hypersensitive, or idiopathic).
7. The origin of the "dry drunk" symptoms are due to allergic-addictive reactions to foods or commonly-met chemicals for which the person has a specific intolerance.
8. Besides honoring the specific allergies there also needs to be an honoring of any disturbed nutritional imbalance or metabolic errors. Laboratory procedures are making it increasingly possible to make such determinations.
9. Frequently-evoked responses do become learned. These highly learned responses serve as a driving force behind the desire to continue the use of alcohol. These can best be dealt with by behavioral therapy techniques.