My Food Allergies

A few have asked me to share about my food allergies & intolerances and how I’m doing.

My body sorta went haywire 2 yrs ago when I started to enter menopause. I know, how could anyone that looks as young as me be that old? Easy, I am!!!

All the food testing I had done revealed that I am IgE allergic to cow dairy! I have been my whole life, but never knew. My mom feels just awful that she never knew and gave me milk when I was just 2 months old……yeah, it was pretty common back in the 50′s to do that. MAN, now that REALLY makes me feel old….the 50′s!

Unfortunately someone sold me a food a few weeks ago and dairy was the 1 ingredient left out accidentally. Well, it nearly ended me back in the ER. My throat became so inflamed and I couldn’t stop vomiting. I will NEVER be able to drink cows milk again. Goat? I don’t know. And frankly right now I’m too scared to try. But since goats milk is almost identical when compared to human milk, it may be ok….however, I’ll have to wait for that new IgE test to find out.

Eggs showed up repeatedly on the food intolerance tests. I took two tests. Neither matched, and the only common foods were dairy & eggs…off the chart egg whites!  I am however, following the elimination of both. The tests showed an intolerance to: dairy, eggs, almonds, honey, oysters, kidney beans, and sesame. My doc couldn’t believe how few foods it was on the test he ran, which was just the dairy, eggs and honey. He came to the conclusion that I must be having IgE allergic responses.

Back in January, after the anaphylactic shock, I was also intolerant to Histamine foods which was a list a mile long and included foods I ate a lot of….ferments, tomatoes, vinegar, citrus! But since eating a very bland diet for 4 months, and following some dietary guidelines which eliminated ALL of the histamine foods and the the ones that came back on the IgE and IgG tests, I am now able to eat the Histamine foods without any immediate throat hacking.

The guidelines I followed were to take: B3 (Niacin) less than 25 mg daily, increase Zinc, increase Vit C, and increase Quercitin which are natural anti-histamines. I also took Pepcid which they gave me in the ER as a histamine blocker!

I take a non-dairy Probiotic and Digestive Enzymes by Houston Enzymes. The enzymes have made a huge difference. I make sure I take them before I eat a meal or snack. I decided on “my” enzymes from researching “Histadelia”…..which is the condition of those who produce too much Histamine. I found the specific enzymes “I” needed and am using them from Houston Enzymes. So far they have proven to be extremely helpful. I am eating Histamine foods now on a rotational diet. I’m pretty happy.

By eliminating the foods that came back IgG, I can build my system back up and reintroduce them in 1-3 years. However, I do not believe I will ever nor should I ever eat chicken eggs or cows dairy ever, ever, again. I am going to try duck eggs….but right now, after working on those Devilish Eggs, I’m too scared. Ducks are in the duck family. Chickens are in the Pheasant family. They should be OK. The same holds true with goats milk vs. cows milk.

Every time something enters my body that I am IgE allergic to, I go through a healing period again. My asthma flares, I use my nebulizer more, my stomach hurts. I’m now extremely cautious. Because the set-backs are disruptive to life, let alone my health.

“According to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, 12 million Americans have a food allergy. That’s one in 25,  or 4 percent of the population.”

I also am on bio-identical hormones which have made a world of difference! I was totally OUT of progesterone, estrogen, testosterone, my thyroid was very low and that’s about it. My adrenals were in perfect working order, which I was totally happy about! After 2 wks of using “my” creams I felt like a new woman! Not to mention I’m looking like one too! I’ve lost 30 something pounds and dropped 3 or so dress sizes. I have TONS of energy!!!! I work from sun-up to sun-set on most days. And I feel great!!!

I do believe that my body went out of whack and as a result I had that snowball incident with the anaphylactic reaction. I do take this all very seriously. I have to. For me now, it’s life or death. My family is alert and watching me constantly. I’m sure we will all settle down after a year or so with this! I can never be too careful.

I think that most people have IgG intolerances that they are unaware of. It’s easy to get testing for that. You can look it up online or ask you doctor. However, finding the IgE allergic foods has proven to be more difficult. The allergist only did the skin pricks which came back negative! I ordered the LabCorp blood test for 5 common IgE foods. 5. That’s F I V E! They don’t do more! I found US Bio Tek Lab in Seattle and will use them for an IgE test of 96 General foods plus 15 Veggies.  For now, I feel pretty content knowing that is’t eggs and dairy.

I believe that with the healing of my gut, the healing of my body will follow. Last year my environmental allergies went haywire! This year it’s minimal. My eyes itch, but I can breathe….and for me that’s monumental! VERY!!!