[Bizarroterl]

It started years ago.  Every Monday I'd get massive headaches (migraines).  I'd get them other times too.  I then realized my wife & I always ate at a local burger place on Sunday and one of the things they put on the meat was lots of pepper.  So the next Sunday I didn't have anything with pepper, and on Monday no headache!  After some more experimentation I found out that pepper does give me bad headaches.  I can tolerate a bit, but anything with a lot of it is a really bad idea to eat.  The longer the pepper has been cooked the faster I'm affected. 

When I do a search on migraines and pepper all I find are recommendations to eat pepper to prevent migraines.

We have no pepper in the house.  If I'm eating something and then notice it has black specs I hope it is dirt, but it never is. 

Anyone have another interesting food based reaction?

[mresseguie]

Oh, man. Pepper is used in nearly every processed food. That sucks!

I have two food allergies of which I am aware. I am allergic to cashews and pistachios. My reacting to them only began about five or six years ago. I LOVE cashews, but I must deny myself the pleasure of enjoying them. Sigh.

Twice now in Costco, I have tried samples (a protein bar, a soy milk drink with nuts added) only to start having a reaction 1 minute later. Portions were very small. Both times I noticed the reaction inside of one minute. My tongue, my salivary glands, and my throat swell, and my stomach feels as though I have an ulcer. I'm miserable for a few hours if I have no access to Benadryl.

My best lines of defense are to always carry a Benadryl caplet in my wallet and always ask about ingredients. As soon as I feel the reaction, I pop it in my mouth, bite into it in order for it to breakdown more quickly (horrible taste!), and drink lots of water. I've discovered that I really need to take two to relieve the worst of the symptoms, but then I get so dopey/sleepy that I cannot drive.

As for migraines...I get them from time to time, but I have not figured out what triggers mine yet. It takes three Naproxen sodium (660 mg total) to bring it under control. Without that much painkiller, I'm miserable for up to 36 hours.

I'll bet we get lots of posts under this subject.

P.S. Next thread can be about addictions - just noticed I've got a thousand posts. 

[Phil A]

Don't have a food allergy that I know of but a couple of years ago while I was going back and forth between the current house and old one I had dinner and an itchy eye.  Woke up in the middle of the night and the one eye looked like something from a science fiction movie.  Almost went to the emergency room.  I ended up getting benedryl (which I thought helped a little but apparently not) and after a couple of more days and spending some time outside (and I figured I was allergic to some plant) I woke up again in the middle of the night and this time both eyes were like that.  I went back to the old house and got to the MD and got a steroid shot.  Then I went to an allergist and was tested for everything growing down here.  No allergies.  The allergist thought I might have had an improperly peeled piece of mango (probably in a salad) from talking to him (and apparently the plant is related to poisonous stuff).  So I've avoided mango ever since. No problems.

[Atlplasma]

MSG (also known as "natural flavoring) gives me a horrible, bury-your-head, turn-off-the-lights, double-dose-on-antihistamines migraines. It's misery for 12 to 24 hours, so I've become a pretty compulsive label reader. It's seems to be used less frequently now compared to 30 years ago.

I'm also gluten intolerant. Too much causes incredible brain fog.   

[S Clark]

Yep, food allergies are serious.  Lots of people are allergic to sea food- shell fish.  I'm deadly allergic to fish, but ok with crustaceans.  I mean really serious allergic.  The last time I had a real reaction, I could see my face swell up in a mirror like the Eddie Murphy professor character. It was about midnight, I had just eaten some left over tamales  .  Took 5 benadryls and told the wife to start driving to the hospital, and run the red lights.  Couple of miles away, I could feel my throat beginning to relax as the Benadryl kicked in.  I've learned just to go up to the nurse, tell them I'm having an allergy attack, but don't check in.  Wait to see if you begin to have more difficulty breathing. One thing about food allergies, they are usually getting worse or getting better.  Once your on the downside of an attack you are probably going to be ok, so no use spending $10k on an emergency room.
By the way, found out that the Mexican restaurant did their fish tacos on the same prep area as their tamales.  I'm just as allergic to some nuts, but not peanuts.  I figure that I've got about a 10% chance of checking out due to some random allergy attack.

[Phil A]

MSG (also known as "natural flavoring) gives me a horrible, bury-your-head, turn-off-the-lights, double-dose-on-antihistamines migraines. It's misery for 12 to 24 hours, so I've become a pretty compulsive label reader. It's seems to be used less frequently now compared to 30 years ago.

I'm also gluten intolerant. Too much causes incredible brain fog.

Many moons ago (probably 40 when I was 2 years old of course ), I had food with MSG (probably lots of as that is the only time I had a reaction) and on the bus ride on the way home it was pouring rain and the rain on the bus felt like hammers hitting my head.

[Guy 13]

Hi Bizarroterl,
my brother Vincent at the age of 40 started to get bad allergies with peanut,
never had any problem before.
When he came to visit me on planet Vietnam he had to be very carreful
because many Vietnamese dishes have chopped off peanuts in them,
he did not take nay chances and had some medication, sorry, don't know which one.
Since tha age of 6 I had allergies (Haie fever) especially in the spring when everything blooms
and in August - September at harvest, when I was 13 it was so bad that I could not go to school:
Dripping nose, hitches and more.
When I moved on planet Vietnam 20 years ago, everything vanish, no more allergies, nothing, zero.
After 7 years I came back to visit my mother in the month of July, two days after my arrival in Montreal,
I started to sneeze and more, then I went back to Vietnam, nothing.
I came back a few times to Montreal and it was alsways the same scenario...
I am-was diabetes type two, so I change my diet and this year in Montreal
my allergies where cut by 90%, due to my new diet ? I think so.
A few times in Vietnam when I ate something bad, I did not vomit (Puke)
I had instead a terrible headache.
It hurt some much, that I had to take two Tylenol,
but I also drank lots of slightly warm water to flush the bad food in my stomach.

Guy 13
May I ask the meaning of your bizard name ?


 
 

[Bizarroterl]

For the migraines I take 100mg imitrex (sumatriptan succinate).  It really works for me, though I have met some people it doesn't work for.  The side effects are better than the migraine.

I have had hay fever since I was a child.  I half joke that when I was a boy other kids spent their summer playing, I spent mine sneezing.  I underwent tests.  Went into shock after the tests and ended up with new doctors.  Ended up taking allergy shots for years which really help with the pollen allergies.  The list of things I'm supposedly allergic to is extensive, but I don't believe it was accurate.  IE I was told not to eat ketchup or tomatoes.  I eat a fair amount of both and have never had a problem.  Pepper manifested itself after I was in my early 30s. 

A friend of mine told me about a time when he was in high school.  He is very allergic to nuts.  Some nitwit though it would be funny to slip him some cookies with nuts.  I wasn't so funny after the 911 call and ambulance ride to the hospital.  If it had happened where they couldn't make it to the hospital quickly the trip would have been to the morgue.

I'm grateful my allergies are only inconvenient. 

[Atlplasma]

I've read its possible to develop new allergies as you age (and vice versa). I went to one pulmonologist years ago who suggested I was allergic to air.  Thirty-five years later I learned that most of my issues were being caused by a rare form of cystic fibrosis.

[S Clark]

I've read its possible to develop new allergies as you age (and vice versa). I went to one pulmonologist years ago who suggested I was allergic to air.  Thirty-five years later I learned that most of my issues were being caused by a rare form of cystic fibrosis.

Wow.  I didn't realize the 35 years and cystic fibrosis went together.  How are you dealing with it as an adult?

[Atlplasma]

Well, since you asked...

With cystic fibrosis variant or cystic fibrosis related disease, an individual has one of the carrier genes for CF plus some other gene abnormalities. What this diagnosis usually means is you have some but not all of the symptoms of CF. (In other words, you are really lucky compared to someone with full-blown CF.)

You are born with the disease just like the folks who have two carrier genes, but the sodium test done on most newborns probably won't find anything. At the same time, the disease continues to progress as you age.

Most people think of CF as a lung disease, which it is. But because CF affects the way sodium moves through cell walls, it damages many systems in the body (lungs, pancreas, digestive track, kidneys, sinuses, major joints, and probably some other pieces and parts I haven't yet read about). I've had lots of mysterious problems that my doctors now know are related to CF. Two years ago I decided to start a low-carb diet and began losing lots of weight despite eating massive amounts of protein, fat, and green vegetables. I also started to feel really bad.

The doctors scratched their heads and order tests (hence the gluten diagnosis). As I was walking out of my GPs office, she suggested I see a local GI doctor who specialized in celiac disease. I procrastinated because this doctor did not accept insurance but eventually scheduled an office visit. She did a couple of tests to rule out pancreatic cancer and pretty quickly zeroed in on CF variant, which she later confirmed with genetic testing. Oh, she also determined that the inhaled steroids I'd been prescribed for "asthma" had shut down my adrenal glands.

Going out of network saved my life. One bout of flu and, in all likelihood, it would have been over. Now, I see several doctors on a regular basis, go to my local CF clinic, and take a couple of expensive drugs to help my lung function and digestion.

After a lifetime of doctor visits, including the Mayo Clinic, off-label drug experiments, and invasive tests, I finally have an accurate diagnosis. I've returned to a more standard diet and have gone from 112 pounds back to around 137, which what I need for a normal BMI.

[FullRangeMan]

No food but PC wireless made me headache after some time, so I use cable modem.

[ctviggen]

I'm also gluten intolerant. Too much causes incredible brain fog.

I started a low carbohydrate diet in earnest almost two years ago (down about 50 pounds, blood pressure dropped over 10 points, HDL went up, triglycerides down, LDL profile better -- now in "Pattern A" instead of A/B or B).  I noticed every time I ate wheat, even relatively small amounts, I would have many deleterious effects that I never have on low carb:  allergies, congestion in my chest, acid reflux, and I could be overly hungry for literally days afterward.  Now, I avoid wheat at all costs (but I'll still have the occasional pizza, but I limit that to once every three months or so).  I highly recommend everyone read this:

http://www.amazon.com/Wheat-Belly-Lose-Weight-Health/dp/1609614798

I don't believe everything he says, but I do believe modern wheat is bad.

I've purchased some einkorn wheat, which is so-called "ancient" wheat, since it only has 14 chromosomes (modern wheat has 46).  I've not yet tried it yet.  I was going to use it for special occasions, like rolls on Thanksgiving.  It'll be interesting to see what happens.