Food Allergies

I realized the other day that I still haven't chronicled on here the joy that are my many food allergies. I guess it's probably time... especially since now that my digestion is back in somewhat of semblance of order there isn't always exciting things to report every day.

I have a lot of allergies. Hence the fact my friends always laugh at me and say I should live in a bubble. I laugh along, and I never take offense to that sentiment. I've learned to live with my allergies and have been doing allergy shots for the past three years to get rid of them. The one thing you can't get allergy shots for though is food sensitivities/allergies. Allergy shots can get rid of environmental allergies (pollens, molds, dusts, pet dander, etc), but not food allergies.

Most people are born with food allergies. I was not. The only food allergy I had growing up was pumpernickel bread, and even that was more of a sensitivity since I don't get full fledged anaphylaxis or vomiting or anything exciting like that; I just get really swollen lips with hives. Granted, it ain't comfortable, but I was always thankful with that one that I didn't have the anaphylaxis. My baby brother is deathly allergic to raw egg, peanuts, and shellfish and he does get anaphylaxis, and I also have an uncle whose whole face swells when he eats strawberries and a few other foods. So, food allergies do run in the family but my baby brother was the only one of my siblings to be born with them.

I first started to develop food allergies in the fall of 2002. Every time I ate carrots, peas, or apples my lips would swell with hives and my tongue would start to tingle horribly. By the spring I had added tree nuts to the list, and all of this was confirmed when I starting seeing a new allergist who did a scratch test on me to see what foods I was allergic to. Believe or not, it wasn't until the scratch test that it dawned on me that I was in fact having an allergic reaction when these things happened. I'm a bright one, I know.

From then on I seem to continually develop more and more food "allergies" to items which were staples in my diet. Eating out is always an adventure, though most restaurants are accommodating whenever possible (which is good). Try ordering a salad at a restaurant nowadays without carrots in it. The waiter looks at you like you just asked them to do back flips down the aisle or something. Everything is premixed, and my food allergies are to very common foods that are way beyond the usual "nuts and shellfish." Funny enough, I had one waiter once who didn't flinch when I asked for a salad with out carrots, and it turns out he had a friend who was also allergic-- that made me feel good, sad but true, cuz at least then I wasn't alone! Anyway, as of today I have a very long (and ever growing list) of food allergies. Here it is:
Carrots
Apples
Peas
Beans
Tree nuts (but not peanuts)
Cantaloupe
Honeydew melon
Cherries
Raw Egg
Raw Fish
Shellfish
Sulfites (so no wine, and no bread from Subway)
Subway (something they put on their vegetables I think)
Pumpernickel
Kashi brand foods (not sure what the allergy is to, but I can't eat it)
Soymilk (I think)
Soybeans (I think)
Any fruit that is not organic
And probably a few others I forgot about

The list is long, needless to say, and quite random. All of the reactions are the same, but vary in degree of severity: hives on my lips, tingling throughout my mouth, hives in the back of my throat (sometimes), and feeling like my esophagus is swelling or spasming.

So, how did this all come to be? The timeline of when I developed all of these problems directly coincides with when I was diagnosed with GERD and put on Nexium. No joke. About three months after being on the Nexium was when the food sensitivities began. After about a year on that stuff with no results I switched to OTC antacids (Prilosec OTC, Zantac 150, usually), and I used them fairly consistently up until last month. There was a short time in 2003-2004 when I had gotten most of the GERD under control by using natural supplements (Aloe Vera, enzymes) and avoiding trigger foods (chocolate, caffeine, anything acidic, especially tomatoes), but that was short lived since the GERD kept popping up again and again. Funny thing is, I have a girlfriend who ended up with a similar outcome after being put on Nexium and she didn't last nearly as long as I did on it. Doesn't it seem odd that food allergies would have popped up for both of us after using it? I think so.

I still need to do more research in to the subject, but I think that the gallbladder might have something to do with my it because GERD usually happens when the stomach is having trouble digesting or is overwhelmed with food it can't digest. Sure, acidic food can play in to it, but that wasn't entirely the case for me. I wonder if the GERD was my body's way of telling me something- screaming at me to stop eating so much and eat healthier food. Here I am now, not quite two months in to my gallbladder friendly diet and I have not taken a single antacid since I started (and there have only been a very few occasions where I even thought I needed one). I wish the Traditional medicine community would get get together with the alternative medicine community and start sharing these stories and do some research in to what the root of these diseases are and how to treat them naturally without resorting to pills. I mean, think about it, why should we take a pill that pretty much stops digestion completely????? And why would a doctor want to prescribe that willy-nilly? It doesn't even make sense! Yeah, heartburn sucks (preaching to the choir), but look at how much eating a whole foods diet changed my need for heartburn pills... I'm just sayin' is all.

BTW I have learned that diseased gallbladders can also be a sign of food allergies/sensitivities, such as gluten and milk. I am going to get myself tested for both in another couple of months and see if that might be part of why I have such bad gallbladder problems at such a young age. I am all about getting to the true root of the problem and want to exhaust all possibilities so I can prevent it from happening again!