Food Allergies or Sensitivities

[MountainDon]

Anyone here been diagnosed with multiple food allergies, or sensitivities?


I have new found evidence of several of my own that would help explain some things.

[diyfrank]

My doctor gave me a blood test to test for food allergy's. There was several foods listed. They were each rated 1-10. up to 2 was fairly normal. I had many that were 3-4 and dairy was 8. He had me go 1 month with out any foods listed above 2. After a month I felt like a new person. This allows time to heal.  Each week I was to try a food from the list. If no reaction I could eat that food from time to time.  The one that messed me up the most was dairy, barley, rye. I had an almost immediate reaction that felt like I had a cold.   

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Don, when I was in my last year in college, I was eating quite a bit of tofu because I found it was a pretty cheap protein source and I was a broke college kid.  All the sudden, I put on about 30 lbs. after having maintained my same weight since highschool... it came on very fast, and I had no energy and felt like I was absolutely sick.  I went to the doctor and he basically called me a hypochondriac and a liar (I couldn't possibly get as much exercise as I told him and be THAT FAT.)  I played racketball about 4-5 days a week, as well as weekly basketball games that lasted until after dark, as well as walking everywhere I went.  I asked him to do a thyroid test, and he told me that "all fat people think they have thyroid issues when what they really need to do is get off their butts."  Anyway, to make a long story short, I finally traced the problem to soy.  Of course, these days, there is soy in just about everything, and unfortunately, I love Korean and Thai food.  However, I've found that if I don't consume it on a regular basis, the effect isn't as strong on me.  However, I can go eat Korean food and see anywhere from a 1-3 lb. weight gain the next day that takes a week or two to get back off....also, after I eat it, I'm so tired that all I want to do is go to sleep.  So, while soy may be a health food for SOME people, I have decided that it is anything but healthy for me!

[MountainDon]

Thanks. I had blood testing done for foods as well as airborne allergies. On airborne I hit 17 out of 23 with most being highly sensitive. The great thing I discovered is that I don't even register on the pines, which is basically all the trees we have in the forest around the cabin.

They break the food allergies into 2 groups, those that provoke immediate reactions and those that take up to 72 hours to show signs. I never knew that before. No wonder it was difficult to try and sort it out myself before.

On the major 12 foods that people are sensitive to I register on 8 of them, including medium to severe on cow's milk, chicken eggs, peanut, soy, tomato and wheat. Then there's 2 pages of delayed reaction results, which include medium to high hits on such things as almonds, several cheeses, gluten, oats, salmon, yogurt, flaxseed, goat's milk. All those I've been eating daily to 1-2 times a week for decades, except for goat's milk. Goat's milk is frequently a safe substitute for cow's milk. 

That could explain a lot. So it looks like lunch today will be corn tortillas and tuna, hold the mayo and most everything else.     But it is good to hear that some have had success at elimination and reintroduction. But dang, soy is as ubiquitous as Google, maybe more so.

I was given this website....  http://www.livingwithout.com/    that has a lot about working with substitutes.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Wow, Don, what does that leave??     Soy is very hard to avoid.... as are a lot of the others.  I met a woman when we lived in WI who had an 11 YO son who was  sensitive/allergic to a lot of stuff.  They had to plan family meals on a rotation because they found that he could eat gluten or corn or whatever for one day without crossing that allergic reaction threshold, so Monday would be quinoa day, Tuesday wheat day, Wednesday corn day, Thursday.... etc.  She said one time, "It would be so much easier sometimes just to be able to order a pizza."  But then that was completely out of the question for them....

[Sassy]

My brother has celiac disease - so he's not supposed to have any gluten - he does try to sneak the goodies at our family dinners though...  he'll look around for his wife - if she's not around, he'll eat some dessert -    I'm wondering if I might be a little sensitive to it, also...  but, gee, that would be so hard to stay off the breads etc.

Finally realized why I was getting hives all the time - thought it was exposure to poison oak but I was actually allergic to levothyroxine - the medication for my thyroid.  I went off it for awhile & I stopped getting hives or feeling itchy - restarted it & got the hives again, so I'm trying out a different brand - hope it works, cuz when I had my labs done, my thyroid levels were way out of wack from not taking it - not good   

[bayview]

Anyone here been diagnosed with multiple food allergies, or sensitivities?


I have new found evidence of several of my own that would help explain some things.

   Don:   Not all of us have insurance . . .    Any idea what the tests cost?


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[MountainDon]

  Don:   Not all of us have insurance . . .    Any idea what the tests cost?

We do, but it's not covered.    The 'regular' doctors would rather prescribe something like a nasal spray for airborne allergies or pills for my intestinal problems. Actually, my insurance paid for the local lab drawing the blood samples. We then FedEx'd the samples off to MA. That lab charged about $250 for their testing.

The initial doctor visit and tests totaled About $550 each. We both got tested.

If anyone is interested here's the local doctors website...
http://www.sanjevani.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=2  
and the allergy testing lab is....
http://foodallergy.com/

We have a friend who has used the doctor because of food allergies and she is happy with her results. K's preferred provider also referred her to the doctor for something she has not been able to resolve.  I can't guarantee anything. Not yet.

You need a doctor to prescribe the blood draw.  You also could just do the food allergy tests and have the lab send the results to that doctor. maybe a clinic could be persuaded for a small fee. The test results are easy to read, black ink good, red ink bad. A #1 rating (red) means lower sensitivity, or more correctly it takes more of the substance to cause a reaction. As the numbers go up through to #4, it takes less and less of the allergen to cause a reaction.

[MountainDon]

I left out an important part. The treatment.      There's a black magic potion mix that will desensitize one to their allergens. I'm starting off with the airborne treatment as is Karen. Or we could elect to become mountain hermits as we are not allergic to pine pollen. 

As for the food we're trying to sort out eliminating all the ones that are the worst for a while and see what happens. Then we'll see.

[MountainDon]

We've also got a fairly new Natural Grocers that has opened nearby. Nothing there has hormones, preservbatives and so on. Plus they have a good selection of gluten free. Best of all it's closer than the nearest Whole Foods. They are also bagless, bring your own or buy them from them



BTW, did you know that grocers in most European countries have been bagless for at least three decades?

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Saw this a bit ago and thought of you, Don.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37104569/ns/health-allergies_and_asthma/?ns=health-allergies_and_asthma

[MountainDon]

I saw that somewhere in the past few days too. Gives one pause for thought.


What I do know for certain is I've had some colon issues for over a decade and simply never had the willpower to try to get to the bottom. The meds do work at controlling symptoms. If I stop or slack off and take them irregularly I have more symptoms.

Whereas the study makes a differential between true allergies and intolerances, I say, so what if there is a difference. If I have an intolerance (not an allergy) to cow's milk resulting in loose stool and discomfort, it's still something I'd rather not have happen.

So we shall see.   

[NM_Shooter]

What I do know for certain is I've had some colon issues for over a decade and simply never had the willpower to try to get to the bottom.

Ahem. 

(Sorry Don, I can't help myself around puns).

[MountainDon]

As I typed that I realized the wording was leaving the back door open to misinterpretation.         But I said what the heck.