Posted by: CMdeux
« on: June 10, 2015, 12:04:51 PM »Did your allergist ever pursue the mast cell disorder possibility?
I know that we have had a few members over the years that had somewhat similar issues-- now, mostly those things resolve once they figure out well and truly what one (or two or three) things they are truly allergic to, and avoid it successfully for a few months-- but in someone with a low threshold to an allergen, you can be getting yourself small(ish) doses from a LOT of different sources a lot of the time-- meaning that even an elimination diet isn't necessarily going to tease things apart well, because...
well-- here is one example.
If you were actually allergic to soy, for example, and you were on an "elimination week" with grains, and you felt BETTER avoiding grains, because-- hello-- you're actually avoiding... drum-roll please... most processed foods. Nearly all of those things are going to contain SOY.
Now suppose that you bought yourself a baggie of sliced apples-- there might be enough of a soy-based anti-browning agent (totally making that up, by the way-- but I know exactly how ubiquitous soy is) which isn't on the label because it's exempt... such that your apples made you itchy or even a little wheezy.
Later, you buy an apple, and the same thing happens-- because, see-- a shiny coating that contains soy.
The natural conclusion from that set of observations is that you are ALSO allergic to one or more grains-- because you feel so much better avoiding them, see. Also-- apples. But the real allergen is still just soy. (In my example, I mean.)
That example is just to show how easy it is to conclude that a lot of things that aren't your allergens-- ARE.
The only way to know for sure is an IOFC, preferably a blinded one. But in someone with a soy allergy, this is very very tricky because a lot of foods are contaminated. Soy, by the way, is child's play compared with corn contamination, at least in N. America.
So.
Avoid cans, bags, and boxes as much a humanly possible. I'd be asking for FOOD CHALLENGES. {{hugs}}
I know that we have had a few members over the years that had somewhat similar issues-- now, mostly those things resolve once they figure out well and truly what one (or two or three) things they are truly allergic to, and avoid it successfully for a few months-- but in someone with a low threshold to an allergen, you can be getting yourself small(ish) doses from a LOT of different sources a lot of the time-- meaning that even an elimination diet isn't necessarily going to tease things apart well, because...
well-- here is one example.
If you were actually allergic to soy, for example, and you were on an "elimination week" with grains, and you felt BETTER avoiding grains, because-- hello-- you're actually avoiding... drum-roll please... most processed foods. Nearly all of those things are going to contain SOY.
Now suppose that you bought yourself a baggie of sliced apples-- there might be enough of a soy-based anti-browning agent (totally making that up, by the way-- but I know exactly how ubiquitous soy is) which isn't on the label because it's exempt... such that your apples made you itchy or even a little wheezy.
Later, you buy an apple, and the same thing happens-- because, see-- a shiny coating that contains soy.
The natural conclusion from that set of observations is that you are ALSO allergic to one or more grains-- because you feel so much better avoiding them, see. Also-- apples. But the real allergen is still just soy. (In my example, I mean.)
That example is just to show how easy it is to conclude that a lot of things that aren't your allergens-- ARE.
The only way to know for sure is an IOFC, preferably a blinded one. But in someone with a soy allergy, this is very very tricky because a lot of foods are contaminated. Soy, by the way, is child's play compared with corn contamination, at least in N. America.
So.
Avoid cans, bags, and boxes as much a humanly possible. I'd be asking for FOOD CHALLENGES. {{hugs}}