FYI: Unlikely allergies

[Seshat]

Last week (or the week before), someone made a comment in a thread saying they'd never heard of an allergy to chicken. Somewhere in the thread, someone typed something that I (perhaps mis-)read as 'chicken allergies don't exist'.


I'm telling the below, probably-boring story to warn those of you in hospitality to please, PLEASE, never assume that an allergy doesn't exist.



I once did an allergy 'prick' test. Basically, a nurse with a series of numbered vials draw on my forearms, marking squares, and marking each square with a number. Then she pricked my skin and put a drop of each vial into the square with each corresponding number.
(Nurses, it was twenty years ago: I don't remember whether it was a drop first then the broken skin, or vice versa. And it might have been a smear, not a drop.)

Any square which produced a histamine reaction, I was deemed allergic to the corresponding substance. The severity of the reaction denoted how allergic I was (am) considered to be.


Sadly, by the time the reactions came up, my forearms looked like I'd been stung by a hive of bees. Some squares had absolutely nothing, though.


Among the things I am histamine-allergic to (ie, true allergy, ie, the OMZOG I CAN DIE) .... is chicken.

Also lettuce. Yes, plain old iceberg lettuce. The stuff that's almost nothing but chlorophyll and water and fibre.

Not only am I allergic to them, but they're sufficiently common allergies that the allergen test kit includes them!

[Bardmaiden]

Among the things I am histamine-allergic to (ie, true allergy, ie, the OMZOG I CAN DIE) .... is chicken.

Also lettuce. Yes, plain old iceberg lettuce. The stuff that's almost nothing but chlorophyll and water and fibre.

Not only am I allergic to them, but they're sufficiently common allergies that the allergen test kit includes them!

My mother is histamine-allergic to turkey as in someone (this was a long time ago ie before I was born) made her a chicken dish (having been told she has an allergy to turkey) and made it with turkey instead, luckily the doctor who lived downstairs was in and helped and also tore a strip off the people who did it which included the phrase "if I wasn't in you could have killed her!"

[CoffeeMonkey]

My mom is an RN at a pediatric clinic. They have allergy stuff, and some of the kids test positive for all kinds of things. Some of these little guys wind up being allergic to so much stuff, and a lot of it isn't the common stuff.

One had the usual suspects: wheat, eggs, milk, soy, nuts, etc. And then a whole bunch of other stuff, too, like various kinds of meat (I didn't know at the time one could be allergic to meat, either.) and a whole ton of different vegetables and fruit. The list of things he could eat was smaller than what he couldn't.

Really sad part is that a fair amount of the patient families at her particular clinic have a lot of...ungood? lifestyle habits. This kid's mom was befuddled at what she was supposed to FEED her toddler. She was actually shocked when my mom told her that she would have to actually cook and prepare meals for him out of the things he could eat. Fast food and frozen chicken nuggets won't cut it.

At this point, the only thing I will be surprised at would be an allergy to rice. Basically since rice is just about the most benign food ever. And if someone told me that they were allergic to rice, I would still BELIEVE them. I would just be surprised.

[purple]

At this point, the only thing I will be surprised at would be an allergy to rice. Basically since rice is just about the most benign food ever. And if someone told me that they were allergic to rice, I would still BELIEVE them. I would just be surprised.

I have a family friend who has a list of 7 foods she can eat. She reacted to her first feed of soilds. The staff at the hospital told her mum to try her on baby rice as no one is allergic to that.

Yip rushed back to hospital due to a reaction.

[Victory Sabre]

As someone who is allergic to nothing known, I can never fully understand allergies. It does amaze me what people can be allergic to.

[XCashier]

As someone who is allergic to nothing known, I can never fully understand allergies. It does amaze me what people can be allergic to.

You are very blessed to have no allergies. They are an aggravation at best. And yes, you can be allergic to pretty much anything. (Is it possible to be allergic to water?)

[Aethian]

(Is it possible to be allergic to water?)

Yes it is.

[Kittish]

I've read about a case where a person was allergic to their own sweat. I'll admit, that one I don't get, but another thing jumps out at me.

Are allergies really becoming as much more prevalent as they seem to becoming, or is it just that you just didn't hear about it before the internet? Because if they really are becoming so much more common... I have to ask myself why? What are we doing/ingesting/exposing ourselves to that's triggering all of the exaggerated immune system response?

[TheSHAD0W]

Are allergies really becoming as much more prevalent as they seem to becoming, or is it just that you just didn't hear about it before the internet? Because if they really are becoming so much more common... I have to ask myself why?

There's a theory that the immune system is designed to, among other things, attack parasites; and that, since we've eliminated most parasites from modern society, this is resulting in the immune system becoming hyperactive and responding to proteins that really shouldn't count as allergens. Histories of isolated societies developing allergies once their parasites were eliminated, and experiments exposing subjects to hookworm, seem to bear this out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy

[Dreamstalker]

I read that it's due to insulating the kidlings from just about everything. Nobody gets to play in the dirt anymore, a developing immune system doesn't have anything to exercise itself with and so gets twitchy with common stuff.

[wolfie]

I didn't know at the time one could be allergic to meat, either.

It stands to reason, since most allergens are proteins (heavily refined peanut oil has the proteins from the nuts "stripped out", and in many cases can be safe for someone with a peanut allergy - but don't try this at home).

My mother was a teacher, and had to buy her own chalk ("made in Israel" chalk was hard to find) because she was allergic to the stuff the school board supplied. Her theory was that the microscopic critters whose shells made up the chalk left traces of their proteins in the calcium carbonate deposits, and that different critters lived in one part of the world than lived in another. Either the Israelis were better at refining the calcium carbonate (and "stripping out" the offending proteins), or their critters left a different protein (that she didn't react to) than the ones where the school board chalk was made.

[CoffeeMonkey]

I have a family friend who has a list of 7 foods she can eat. She reacted to her first feed of soilds. The staff at the hospital told her mum to try her on baby rice as no one is allergic to that.

Yip rushed back to hospital due to a reaction.

I believe you. I am surprised. I am surprised and I believe you.

[mathnerd]

I have a friend who's allergic to beer. I mourn for her loss sometimes. She's also allergic to chicken and green beans, and a whole host of other things.

When I was a baby, I wound up with the most horrible diaper rash every time my mother ate anything tomato based. Turns out I was allergic to tomatoes, and it's a sensitive enough allergy that it caused discomfort just from what passed through my mother's breast milk (though not a full reaction). Allergies are an interesting topic to study, though not so awesome when you're the one dealing with the food limitations.

As the the question of why we're seeing so many allergies today, I'm going to have to side with the theory that it's not something we've added, but something we've taken away. We've sanitized our world so much that our immune systems don't get the chance to do what they need to do. I've done a lot of reading on the topic, and that's the theory that makes the most sense to me.

[EricKei]

My only known allergy is to Zyrtec (citirizine), an antihistmine x.x I really do need to get an allergy-test battery done.

And, while I'm not allergic to alcohol per se, I can't stand to drink even weak church wine (I'm a 'supertaster' type, which would explain that), and even a single serving of booze "hidden" in something more benign has been known to make me black out within minutes if it's on an empty stomach. Been avoiding all booze for ages, just in case.

since we've eliminated most parasites from modern society

We still have a few left, yeah -- this board exists because of some of them ^_^ EW's, SC's, speshul snowflakes...

[Dave1982]

There is a very close friend of my family who is allergic to poultry.

Speaking of unlikely allergies, I recently discovered one I have. My whole life I've never had any allergic reaction (I'm 31). Since my fiancé has asthma that's bothered by perfumes, we get the "free and clear" laundry detergent and fabric softener. Usually All or Market Basket's store brand.

A couple months ago we happened to be shopping at Hannaford and got their store brand.......free and clear......and I had a reaction to it. My whole back broke out in hives and I got itchy as all hell. Had to get new detergent and rewash two loads of laundry. I was really surprised that a had a reaction to a free and clear detergent. To their credit though, Hannafords gave me my money back without question.