Has anyone had dizziness as a reaction to seafood?

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dene_mayo:
A couple of years ago I had a reaction to eating an oyster po-boy. Within the hour I started getting dizzy which progressed and took like 3 weeks to get over. I thought it was food poisoning. Then in May of this year I ate a shrimp salad and withing minutes I started getting dizzy. I thought it was a kombucha drink that I drank with it, not thinking it was perhaps the shrimp. Well, that took a week for the dizziness to finally go away. Well, in Aug. of this year, again, ate salmon stuffed with seafood dressing and within minutes dizziness. That only lasted a couple of days. So I was convinced it was a reaction to seafood. Well, last week I ate a Wendy's Gouda chicken burger and within minutes, I got dizzy. So now I am confused. Has anyone had dizziness as a reaction?

~Dene

CMdeux:
YES, though the protracted symptom that you mention, it could be something else, and probably is.

If you look at the Anaphylaxis Grading Chart, you'll see that light-headedness or disorientation is definitely a symptom of a systemic allergic reaction... although, to be fair, this is also a symptom of a variety (a wide variety even) of other medical problems. There are some vestibulatory (inner ear) issues that come to mind right away.

Darlene Mayeaux:
But what is weird is that it only happens when I eat seafood and then when I ate that fried chicken burger. That's the only times that I had that happen. I hardly see anyone say that they get dizzy. It's usually hives.

~Dene

CMdeux:
Thing is, though-- I'm pretty confident saying that the Wendy's item wasn't shellfish contaminated. They don't handle crustaceans on the premises-- it's one of my family's go-to fast food options for that reason.

I'd also expect (based upon that kind of sensitivity and apparent severity) that you would have had other symptoms periodically which would correlate with contaminated food (shared fryers, grills, etc. or just processed food that is cross-contaminated with shared production spaces).

To never have symptoms more typically associated with food allergy (cutaneous or GI) would also be exceedingly strange-- and also know that usually, even fairly severe symptoms tend to resolve rather quickly (1-6 hours, usually)-- outside of protracted anaphylaxis that can last for days. That kind of protracted anaphylaxis is fairly unusual-- especially on more than one occasion.

So those aspects of things don't fit food allergy particularly well. It's also the sum of several very unusual/rare manifestations of food allergy that makes me suggest that it is probably not a shellfish allergy-- but it's coincidence enough that it'd be worth getting tested, that much is certain. Do you have an allergist?

My concern is that without a clear yes/no re: food allergy, you may wind up ignoring something serious like TIA, or something in the pathology list here.

Those things can result in episodes like those you mention.

rebekahc:
I agree. It would be very unusual for a food reaction to manifest solely as dizziness and it would be even more rare for that reaction to last for so long.

My first thought was that you might have Meniere's Disease. I have a friend with it and the only time she has symptoms (dizziness) is if she eats too much salt causing the vestibular fluid to increase. Perhaps something about the foods you ate (higher fat/salt content than you're accustomed to?) caused a similar increase in vestibular fluid in you?