Laugh if you will, but it is serious and DAMHIK

[Cliff Rogers]

Hey Hovo, PAH1 & Mick, I'm interested in the diet/food remedies...

I have "intolerance/allergy" or immune response to several of the things that
have been listed. (plus a stack of other things too)
The response varies but the ones that make me itchy or super sensitive are
citrus, rum, coke, animal hair (cats, dogs etc), & prawns. I can't even
use prawns (or cats ) for bait without getting itchy fingers.
There are other things that make me sneeze or block up my sinuses (cats) &
then there are other things that just make me feel crook if I eat them. (cats)

For anyone with the itchy response, I've found the too much coffee &
not enough sleep (they go hand in hand) make the problem worse.
A 'natural' remedy that I found that works for me is a walk on the
beach in the moist salt air. ( I think it helps the stress levels too)

PS. for the cat lovers... I joking OK... I'm just allergic to them.

[journeyman Mick]

Cliff,
sounds like you might have a couple of seperate allergies/sensitivities, possibly dust mites and salycilates & more. I know I'm allergic to dust mites and that tends to make you sensitive to cats - not necessarily the cats themselves, but there's often heaps of dustmites associated with them and their homes. As soon as this all settles down (almost there) I'm getting some more allergy testing done.
I've got a friend who almost died from an anaphylactic reaction to a tick. After a lot of investigation he worked out that he hadn't actually gotten over all the food allergies he had when he was a kid. So his whole system was battling all the foods he was eating and couldn't cope with the tick venom. Eliminated all the baddies from his diet and is currently undergoing de-sensitivation to the tick venom.
If you haven't already it might be worth getting some blood tests done to see what you're eating, drinking or breathing that's making you sicker than you need to be.

Lots of salycilates in rum and most citrus fruits, plus more than a little coffee is not good. Lots of sleep and plenty of down time walking on the beach or playing in the shed is V.good

Mick the allergy master

[Ian007]

Mick,
Sorry to hear of your sad and sore tale. pun not intended
as you cant have rum now what about adopting the "Jack lives here" moto

Cheers Ian

[Cliff Rogers]

Yeap, I've had heaps of all sorts of tests done... even went on a desense
program at one stage... that was a bit of a waste of a lot of hours....
I knew about the dust mites, there is also another bug that one Doc called a
'human flea' but when I asked an entemologist about it, he had no idea what it was.
It causes itching & is worse around fabric furnishings, lounge, carpet,
curtins, rugs, cushons & is made even worse still when you have animals
(pets) inside your home

I have a list of things as long as your arm to steer clear of but this salycilates
is something I hadn't heard of til now.

As a converted rum drinker, I can tell you that I don't have problems with
Red Wine or Tooheys Old, thank goodness for that.

[journeyman Mick]

Ian,
I'm not actually a big rum (or anything else) drinker, so I'm not too worried about that. What does worry me is that I may now be sensitised to salycilates which means I could get a similar (or worse) reaction from a small dose, say a handful of almonds or a kiwi fruit. There's no way of knowing it will happen or not. Plan is: minimise all salycilates in diet; get allergy tests done and eliminate any foods from diet that cause problems; get an adrenalin pen (gizmo for self administration of adrenalin); when feeling on top of things eat some salycilate rich food. Hopefully I won't have full blown anaphylaxis, but if I do I can jab the adrenalin in and get myself into an ambulance in time.

Mick

[bitingmidge]

Crumbs Mick...it ain't a happy time health wise for you guys! All the best!

Having been through similar stuff at about your age, I can only sympathise, it's amazing how all things conspire to get you when you are down... at one time they thought I had EDKTM (that's Every Disease Known to Man) and put me on a pancake and pizza diet.....because they were the only foods they could slip under the door and they were afraid of catching whatever I had, so wouldn't come in.

Once I could walk again and regained partial use of my eye and had enough short term memory to walk more than a few paces in any direction without forgetting where I was going (true) and only had to deal with Chronic Fatigue (!), my local GP started to inject me with a course of monster vitamins and secret herbs and spices. On the occasion of the eighth and final visit to his surgery he was on holidays, and an elderly locum was there.

This guy read my file, looked at me in a sort of tsk tsk tsk kind of way and told me he could fix me.... I told him I was pretty happy at that prospect...start right now!

He told me to give up dairy products, alcohol, cut down on coffee, eat a reduced fat diet, and take moderate exercise.

When I told him that I don't eat dairy products, drink alcohol, average three cups of coffee per week, have limited fat in my diet and was walking five hundred metres per day even if that took two hours (I was pretty crook!), there was a sort of considered stunned silence.......

After a few minutes of scratching his chin...he looked me square in the eye and said:

"Well your just about F&*$#ed!"

Which I think was medical speak for "drop your strides and cop this injection...it may make you think you're getting better".

From the tone of your posts you don't need advice, but: Never give up, and keep learning. Doctor's don't have the time or energy.....but they are useful for getting access to treatment.

Cheers,

P
(Who carries adrenalin just in case, but ironically has only ever needed it while travelling with a couple of doctor mates!)

[Kris.Parker1]

Mate, in the States guys get paid to test different things. I hope someone was paying you. LOL

[Cliff Rogers]

Hey Kris, what was the bluey for on this topic????

Are you a cat lover too???

It seems that everytime I mention being allergic to cats,
someone takes offence & hits me with a bluey...
I'm not a cat hater, just allergic to the bludy things.

[craigb]

Cliff,

A blue dot is just a response from a new member who doesn't have enough "power" yet to give you a greenie.

At least that's my understanding

Craig

[PaulS]

Cliff
check out the FAQ section on rep points
http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com...q_new_faq_item

As Kris is a new member he cannot yet give out red or green points, so they are blue...

Paul
PS Craig you beat me to it

[PAH1]

It seems that everytime I mention being allergic to cats,
someone takes offence & hits me with a bluey...
I'm not a cat hater, just allergic to the bludy things.

Same thing happens around here when I mention the fact that cats and aspirin go well together.

This whole allergy thing is becoming a major health problem, in the news this week they mentioned something like 25% of the population had some environmental allergy (excema, food allergies, hayfever etc). I was told that I would eventually lose the sensitivity to the trigger foods, only trouble is that someone forgot to tell my immune system that, 12 years after first diagnosis I am still unable to eat onions without ill effects. At least the severity has decreased.

[Cliff Rogers]

OK, I understand now... I think(?) :confused:

It's just that the other blueys(greys) that I've received have been for
neg reps for cat comments, I guess I just jumped to the wrong conclusion.

[AlexS]

Q: What's worse than being allergic to cats?
A: Having a wife who's allergic to them.

If I was allergic to them, I would have said "No cat. That's that". But daughter said "Awww, isn't it cute...let's keep it." and SWMBO said yes. Now daughter's left home, cat hasn't and SWMBO snores like a chain saw thanks to cat allergy.

!@#$% cats!

[Toggy]

AlexS,

Maybe it's the cat allergic to itself & doing the snoring.

You could always put a couple of aspirin in its milk. Loooong sleep & no snoring.

Ken

[Kris.Parker1]

Sorry about that alleged bluey. If it affected your rating I apologise, I didn't think it would.

Cheers

Kris