When I have a food reaction, it’s not pretty. While I may not be relegated to the nearest powder room with gastrointestinal woes like some, I usually wish to be. Do you remember the round, puffy, oddly shaped faces of the Who’s in Whoville? Cute on a cartoon character, but on me...not so much. Now add to that image face a fiery red, itchy rash that people recoil from for fear of
contamination with Who-cooties. My eyes and cheeks swell and my face and neck are rashy, a bit weepy and itching unbearably. Whenever I arrive at work with a freshly mottled face, my boss is boss is always quick to point out I must have eaten something again to which I promptly come up with the witty retort of…..yup. (My snarky inner-self is meanwhile saying to those who point it out “Thank you Captain Obvious”!) Now, I’m not a particularly vein woman, but having to cross paths with every patient that walks in our door with all of the awesomeness occurring on my face makes me feel about 2 inches tall and aching to hide at home. I watch the patients eyes as they sneak peeks and I want to melt right into the floor to avoid the judgment. Never mind that it is also physically tormenting me a la the chicken pox our parents screeched at us to stop scratching. It’s little consolation to me that others also experience their symptoms primarily or exclusively through their skin, but I’m grateful that our suffering inspires research. One related bit of investigation is on “pseudoallergens”, which are the substances in various foods that elicit allergy-like symptoms even when one is not necessarily diagnosed as allergic. The primary suspects are various food additives and naturally occurring substances. The common skin disorder urticaria and its ties to pseudoallergens is being studied to find out if a pseudoallergen-friendly diet alleviated symptoms and improved quality of life for patients. In this particular study the subjects followed a prescribed diet and kept a diary for 31 days and were then admitted to the hospital for testing. Quality of Life tools were also used throughout. The results showed that one third of the participants were helped by eating a pseudoallergen-friendly diet which is encouraging news. Granted, two thirds of the population was left still searching for their triggers, but the relief of those with successful outcomes was surely immensely welcomed. Hopefully those people were able to face the world again without feeling like a carnival freak show. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1398-9995.2009.02130.x/full And a little further information for you: http://www.nature.com/jidsp/journal/v6/n2/full/5640039a.html
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