Question:
"Chronic hives are seldom due to allergy, and most often clear on their
own; your story is not unusual."
I can't understand this though. The hives came right after eating certain
foods, and they went away about an hour after taking an antihistamine.
There is probably lots I don't understand about exactly what a food allergy
is and what an antihistamine does, but from everything I understand this
seems like an allergy.
If you get hives after eating something, doesn't that mean you have had an
allergic reaction to what you ate ?
If an antihistamine clears up something, doesn't that mean what it cleared
up was an allergic reaction ?
Answer:
if it has been strongly suggested that you are having an allergic
reaction, and if many have suggested the possibility of all kinds of
triggers, it may seem that you are allergic to everything. You have
said "A few months ago, no matter what I ate, sometimes there would be
a surprise reaction and I would break out in hives, with no idea what
did it." I interpreted this to mean that the hives were almost
constant, or at least daily. If this is the case, it would have been
easy to assue that they were due to food, as you eat at least several
times a day. You know that you cannot be allergic to all foods, so how
about the possibility that the hives were not related to foods in any
way, but were coincident, as being present on the same day. Only if you were able to show, by professionally controlled
investigative diet manipulation would I accept a food allergy as a
certainty. It is not impossible that you may have food allergy, and may
even respond to it with hives, but that does not mean that all your
hives are due to allergy.
As an allergist I would have not performed skin tests or blood tests.
This may sound heretical, but think about it: since I am paid for skin
tests I would have no reason to omit them other than thinking they
would not help. I would try to simplify your program - you were on an
unbelievably complex combination of randomly administered I don't know
what to call thems. If an antihistamine cleared the hives, and possibly
after an allergy elimination test diet and a panel of pretty ordinary
blood tests (not allergy tests) I would have told you to simplify your
life by not following every bit of good advice that came along, and
wait for them to stop on their own. At this point you ae free of hives,
but on such a complex program that you don't know what to do. I would
suggest you go right back to the life you led before. Your hives are
probably going to break out again, episodically, with decreasing
severity and frequency. They may appear when your skin is overheated,
when you drink alcohol, when you take aspirin, but these are
non-specific factors, not allergy.
Hives is a reaction to INGESTED matter..If yoiu have a good immune
system..and if you do not have any Disbiosis (stomach or intestinal
problems) You will most likely not get any reaction to the material
ingested..since your "healthy" body will remove what is foreign in an
orderly and systematic way..but if a particle slips into your blood
stream because you have a damaged digestive system..then the large
molecule or particle will be attacked by your white blood cells and a
signal will be sent to generate Histamines which will unleash
inflamatory agents and perhaps skin manifestations will also
follow..but to do all this ..the foreign particle or large food
molecule(one of the biggest causes of allergies) has to get into the
blood stream..and that means that it went thru your digestive
tract..something like poison ivy goes thru your skin and into the
blood stream because the acid attacks and penetrates your skin
barrier, and {again} it gets into the blood stream and causes a
reaction..but usually this is very temporary and passes quickly..but
MOST allergies start in the digestive system..a few weeks on a
pro-biotic will repair this and then your intestinal integrity will
again be strong enough to prevent foreign or large particles from
getting into the bloodstream..If you need some better info check out
www.drpressman.com and www.alternativemedicine.com for nutritional
info..
