Types of Yeast Allergy Symptoms

When we think about all the food that we eat, we never realize how much we have eaten until we see that huge amount of belly flab we have on. Carbohydrate rich foods are the most fattening of all foods. The most common foods that are rich in carbohydrates are bread. People love to eat bread. In some cultures, bread is all of what they eat. If bread was not invented, who knows what all of us might be eating today.

Unfortunately, like any other foods out there, some people can not eat bread because of the allergen present in it which is called yeast. This allergen is present in almost all of the foods common to man. They have been used for a couple thousands of years and they have given us good health and good life. Yeast are also known as fungi. They are eukaryotic microorganisms which have over 1,500 species described. They use organic compounds as a source of energy and do not need sunlight to grow. They have been used since the 16^th century in many food based products such as beer, wine, bread, and many others.

The physiologic properties of yeast have led to their use in biotechnology such as the fermentation of sugars. This type of fermentation is one of the most primitive and most widely used application of biotechnology to date and this is the primary reason why yeast is  still used on food based products. Since yeasts are technically called fungi, it is no shock or wonder why some people are allergic to them. The usual process of immune and inflammatory reactions occur when there is a presence of a “non-self” organism in the body. When the presence of these so-called non-self are detected, the body mounts an immune response in order to eliminate such an invader causing the classical symptom of inflammation and sometimes fever.

Yeast, being a type of fungi, have antigenic proteins on their surface which are recognized by the body as an intruder. This does not usually occur in normal individuals but for those who are allergic to yeast, the body would fire up an exaggerated immune response to the yeast. The body releases an antibody called immunoglobulin E ( which is responsible for many allergic reactions) to remove these intruders. The release of this antibody also stimulates the activation of mast cells and basophils which give way to the classic and common manifestations of allergy. Since most allergic reactions react in the same way, this type of allergy produces symptoms of excessive itching of the skin which feel like being poked by a sharp pencil, nausea and vomiting, runny nose, sneezing, abdominal pain, diarrhea, hives, swelling of the face, abdominal bloating, and difficulty breathing caused by the narrowing of the airways brought about by excessive inflammation.

The symptoms vary per person since the reactions greatly depend on how the body overtly reacts to the allergen. Some people may manifest mild symptoms while others manifest severe ones. For those with mild symptoms, continued exposure is actually advise in order for the body to be immune to yeast but for those exhibiting severe reactions, complete avoidance and restriction of yeast should be observed.