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Allergic to more things as I get older (Moderated by Deepika, EleanorSews)
Posted on: 3/16/09 2:07 PM ET
I'm finding that there are more and more foods that I'm now allergic to that I never used to have a problem with. Some of the foods are things I didn't eat much as a kid and perhaps that's why. Or maybe my body has just become intolerant to certain foods over the years.
I now believe I'm allergic to fresh pineapple - it gives me a sore throat and a slight constriction of my neck and the back of my tongue. I used to get a tingly feeling in my tongue when I ate pineapple and that should have served as a warning to me. I went to Hawaii three weeks ago and ate fresh pineapple every morning but by the end of the week I had a sore throat and a rash. I attributed the sore throat to a cold and the rash to the sun. But I just ate some fresh pineapple yesterday and my throat became sore as I was cutting up the pineapple, even before I ate any. I ate a few pieces and decided I'd better stop. My throat is still sore today. It could be a virus but I suspect it was the pineapple.
Walnuts also make my tongue tingle so I should avoid those too. Other food that sometimes make my togue tingle are strawberries and cantaloupe. As a kid I didn't eat much pineapple or walnuts but I loved strawberries and cantaloupe.
So let this be a warning to you - if your tongue tingles with certain foods, you should be careful because one day the reaction might be much worse.
And speaking of food allergies, there was a news item yesterday about how doctors at Duke University were able to "wean" children off of their peanut allergies by slowly introducing them to peanuts. They started with a dose of about one thousandth of a peanut and increased it slowly over time. That could be fantastic news for parents who fear for the lives of their peanut-allergic children because children can't be so vigilant about avoiding foods and of course accidents happen too.
It's interesting how our bodies react to certain foods and how those reactions change over time. What foods are you allergic to? Is anyone else allergic to pineapple?
-- Edited on 3/16/09 3:28 PM --
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I now believe I'm allergic to fresh pineapple - it gives me a sore throat and a slight constriction of my neck and the back of my tongue. I used to get a tingly feeling in my tongue when I ate pineapple and that should have served as a warning to me. I went to Hawaii three weeks ago and ate fresh pineapple every morning but by the end of the week I had a sore throat and a rash. I attributed the sore throat to a cold and the rash to the sun. But I just ate some fresh pineapple yesterday and my throat became sore as I was cutting up the pineapple, even before I ate any. I ate a few pieces and decided I'd better stop. My throat is still sore today. It could be a virus but I suspect it was the pineapple.
Walnuts also make my tongue tingle so I should avoid those too. Other food that sometimes make my togue tingle are strawberries and cantaloupe. As a kid I didn't eat much pineapple or walnuts but I loved strawberries and cantaloupe.
So let this be a warning to you - if your tongue tingles with certain foods, you should be careful because one day the reaction might be much worse.
And speaking of food allergies, there was a news item yesterday about how doctors at Duke University were able to "wean" children off of their peanut allergies by slowly introducing them to peanuts. They started with a dose of about one thousandth of a peanut and increased it slowly over time. That could be fantastic news for parents who fear for the lives of their peanut-allergic children because children can't be so vigilant about avoiding foods and of course accidents happen too.
It's interesting how our bodies react to certain foods and how those reactions change over time. What foods are you allergic to? Is anyone else allergic to pineapple?
-- Edited on 3/16/09 3:28 PM --
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Lori (visit my blog at: http://monkeyroom.blogspot.com)
Posted on: 3/16/09 2:33 PM ET
I wonder if the acidity of the pineapple might have anything to do with your sore throat?
Posted on: 3/16/09 3:17 PM ET
In reply to LoriB
I think you're right, that you develop more allergies with age.
I don't think I'm allergic to any foods - never have that tingle on the tongue - but I'm positive I've developed an allergy to my cat. I never had problems around cats when I was young. I dearly love my cat, but when she's moved on to a higher plane, which will hopefully be many years in the future as she's only nine, I will not adopt another. It's really too bad, because I've always been a huge cat lover.
My husband figured out about a decade ago that he's allergic to eggplant. It was a real problem when he was traveling to India all the time on business. He kept getting sick, and was repeatedly told that no, what he was eating did not contain eggplant. Well, apparently 'brinjal' IS a form of eggplant. Once he figured it out and avoided brinjal, no more illness. My daughter is allergic to eggplant too, so maybe that was an allergy he had all along. Eggplant is not a big ingredient in Russian cuisine, so he was probably not exposed to it much when young.
Thanks for sharing the article on the peanut allergies - I read it in this morning's paper. I remember what a hassle it was when my kid was young. One child in her class had such a severe allergy to peanuts that the school had to outright ban any food containing peanuts from the entire school! NO ONE was allowed to bring a PB&J for their lunch!
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I don't think I'm allergic to any foods - never have that tingle on the tongue - but I'm positive I've developed an allergy to my cat. I never had problems around cats when I was young. I dearly love my cat, but when she's moved on to a higher plane, which will hopefully be many years in the future as she's only nine, I will not adopt another. It's really too bad, because I've always been a huge cat lover.
My husband figured out about a decade ago that he's allergic to eggplant. It was a real problem when he was traveling to India all the time on business. He kept getting sick, and was repeatedly told that no, what he was eating did not contain eggplant. Well, apparently 'brinjal' IS a form of eggplant. Once he figured it out and avoided brinjal, no more illness. My daughter is allergic to eggplant too, so maybe that was an allergy he had all along. Eggplant is not a big ingredient in Russian cuisine, so he was probably not exposed to it much when young.
Thanks for sharing the article on the peanut allergies - I read it in this morning's paper. I remember what a hassle it was when my kid was young. One child in her class had such a severe allergy to peanuts that the school had to outright ban any food containing peanuts from the entire school! NO ONE was allowed to bring a PB&J for their lunch!
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Suo ergo maledicto
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. - Steve Jobs
Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. - Steve Jobs
Posted on: 3/16/09 3:30 PM ET
I was happy to hear about the new treatment idea for peanut allergy, as I have an adorable little nephew with this problem, and it would be great to see a treatment for it.
I'm allergic to crustaceans, and coincidentally so is my wife, and our son has it in spades. He has an epipen for it just in case. He was at a Seaworld, petting the dolphins, and came out with a nasty rash on the hands/arms where he had gotten wet. Come to find out they feed dolphins lots of shrimp, so it's in the water.
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I'm allergic to crustaceans, and coincidentally so is my wife, and our son has it in spades. He has an epipen for it just in case. He was at a Seaworld, petting the dolphins, and came out with a nasty rash on the hands/arms where he had gotten wet. Come to find out they feed dolphins lots of shrimp, so it's in the water.
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A sewing machine is just a welder for textiles.
Posted on: 3/16/09 3:45 PM ET
In reply to LoriB
Quote: LoriB
I'm finding that there are more and more foods that I'm now allergic to that I never used to have a problem with. Some of the foods are things I didn't eat much as a kid and perhaps that's why. Or maybe my body has just become intolerant to certain foods over the years.
It's interesting how our bodies react to certain foods and how those reactions change over time. What foods are you allergic to? Is anyone else allergic to pineapple?
I'm finding that there are more and more foods that I'm now allergic to that I never used to have a problem with. Some of the foods are things I didn't eat much as a kid and perhaps that's why. Or maybe my body has just become intolerant to certain foods over the years.
It's interesting how our bodies react to certain foods and how those reactions change over time. What foods are you allergic to? Is anyone else allergic to pineapple?
I cannot eat strawberries or squid. Strawberries have given me giant hives and once a little trouble breathing. Squid causes terrible stomach pain. Neither allergy appeared until I was over 30. My mother also had trouble with strawberries, but also not until she was in her 30s or so. Talk about heredity!
There are several proteins in fresh pineapple that, according to a quick google search I ran, may be truly allergenic in quite a few people. I have not found a serious medical article on this particular subject, though.
People are often amazed when they sprout an allergic reaction; they say, 'But I've always eaten it and never had a problem!" That's the thing: In general, your immune system has to be exposed to something, often many, many times, to be able to "recognize" it as a bad thing and then react to it. The questions, of course, are "Why now, and why this substance?" There's not a good answer to that yet. It is thought that as we get older, our immune systems become weaker or possibly confused.
Another popular concept now is something called "The Hygiene Hypothesis," because medical science has noted that as countries become modernized and urbanized and "clean," the incidence of asthma and other allergic reactions increases, which is the opposite of what you might expect. The theory behind the hypothesis here is that the immune system is designed to keep a lookout for invaders that might harm us. It actively analyzes what's in the body, and the thought is that since it continually practices surveillance, if it finds nothing readily identifiable as a bad guy, like parasitic worms, it has no job to do and invents one, attacking the next most funny-looking molecule in the body, which might be something on a strawberry or pineapple that you've eaten or maybe even something in one of your very own joints or other bodily tissue. If it does mount an attack, then the offending molecule is something it remembers forever, which will cause an even larger response the next time. Some autoimmune diseases may arise from this kind of thing. In any case, if this theory is borne out, it may provide an excellent reason to abandon the obsession we have with antibacterial soaps that we insist on washing our kids with.
The business of feeding your allergic kids peanuts to help them is based on a hot newish theory called "oral tolerization." The idea is that for babies any new food they're exposed to after three months or so of breast milk constitutes a foreign substance, which our immune systems are designed to "kill." So why aren't we all allergic to everything we eat? Researchers think it's that during infancy and childhood, our immune systems are taught by frequent exposure to all kinds of things which substances are OK and to be tolerated. But another mystery is that this presumably well-designed system does malfunction in some people as we age, and certain allergens are no longer tolerated, but are attacked. It ain't solved, but we're learning more and more about allergy.
You can google "hygiene hypothesis" and "oral tolerization" for even lengthier stuff than what I've written here (gasp).
-- Edited on 3/16/09 3:48 PM --
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Elona
Posted on: 3/16/09 3:52 PM ET
In reply to Elona
Wow, fascinating info, Elona! Thank you!
The possibility of heredity playing a part in food allergies has me worried. My mother developed an allergy to corn as an adult. It's really hard to avoid corn since it's put in so many products as a thickner or sweetener. She's even affected if someone is popping popcorn nearby.
-- Edited on 3/16/09 4:01 PM --
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The possibility of heredity playing a part in food allergies has me worried. My mother developed an allergy to corn as an adult. It's really hard to avoid corn since it's put in so many products as a thickner or sweetener. She's even affected if someone is popping popcorn nearby.
-- Edited on 3/16/09 4:01 PM --
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Lori (visit my blog at: http://monkeyroom.blogspot.com)
Posted on: 3/16/09 4:00 PM ET
My 5 year old son is allergic to all dairy products, tree nuts, egg, sesame, cantalope, watermelon and cucumber. Luckily he is
ok with soy , wheat and seafood otherwise, I would have absolute no idea what to cook for him.
ok with soy , wheat and seafood otherwise, I would have absolute no idea what to cook for him.
Posted on: 3/16/09 4:52 PM ET
In reply to LoriB
Now that I'm over 50 y/o, I find I'm developing a few more food allergies. Hhmm.... just what I need. ( NOT!) I think that as we age, our immune systems wear down and don't forget we are also exposed to more chemicals on a cumulative basis, with age, that affect the immune system. Basically, "what Elona said." 
I think with that tingly feeling and throat thing, you should avoid pineapple .... forever. You could be working your way up to an anaphylactic reaction one day.
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I think with that tingly feeling and throat thing, you should avoid pineapple .... forever. You could be working your way up to an anaphylactic reaction one day.
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iPad's auto-correct is my enema.
Posted on: 3/16/09 5:33 PM ET
This is a very topical thread as I have suddenly found myself having allergic reactions or intolerances to a myriad of things from foods to perfume to medications. Recently I had a doctor's appointment and my doctor suggested that there are a number of things that can cause the immune system to kick-in stronger than before. One of the things she suggested was leaky gut syndrome.
My daughter has mouth allergies to fruits such as apples, kiwi and pineapple. Her allergist said it is the pollen that remains in the fruit. At least for apples, she is able to eat them if they are peeled.
My daughter has mouth allergies to fruits such as apples, kiwi and pineapple. Her allergist said it is the pollen that remains in the fruit. At least for apples, she is able to eat them if they are peeled.
Posted on: 3/16/09 5:36 PM ET
My allergist explained the concept of "developing" allergies. Everyone is born with a "bank account" of atigens. Some people's bank account is so large that there is no way they can ever "spend" them, no matter what they eat. Other people have a tiny amount in some banks and a some in other banks. When you finally spend down your bank account is when you get reactions.
The more you eat of one product the more likely you are to to deplete your bank account. Made sense to me. I can build up my account by avoiding certain foods for a time and then I can eat them if I do so sparingly and infrequently.
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The more you eat of one product the more likely you are to to deplete your bank account. Made sense to me. I can build up my account by avoiding certain foods for a time and then I can eat them if I do so sparingly and infrequently.
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JanieV
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