Question:
Just a question, but has anyone have reactions to raw sweet shrimp they
serve at sushi bars. I don't have reactions to cooked shrimp, but at time
raw
shell fish, can start my asthma or rash. Also Alcohol allergies, what are
the general symtoms.
Answer:
I have an alcohol allergy - symptoms include thick-headedness and
extreme exhaustion - but everyone's different. I also have a sugar allergy, and I don't understand it. *How* is it
possible to be allergic to alcohol & sugar? If I understand correctly,
an allergy is when your body misrecognises some protein as being a
pathogen; it raises antibodies against this protein & tries deperately
hard to fight off the infection it thinks (wrongly) it's got - a
complete waste of its resources. but there are no proteins associated
with alcohol & sugar - so how can there be an allergy? Besides which,
alcohol & sugar are normal metabolic products of respiration - are you
allergic to your own chemistry? If anybody has an explanation for this,
I would be most grateful.
I don't have allergies to any fish so I can't comment on the first bit,
but I do gather from lots of people that they can tolerate things cooked
that they couldn't eat raw. I wonder whether this is because the
proteins, having been denatured by the cooking, aren't recognised by
your antibodies?
My first guess would be that you're experiencing cross-contamination.
Raw shellfish juices/bits may be getting onto the raw shrimp, and that
might be causing the reaction. (It wouldn't be as much of an issue with
cooked shrimp, perhaps, because the tiny amount that is the contaminant
may be getting sufficiently cooked away -- it is on the exterior of the
shrimp, after all -- to avoid symptoms.
The chances are very good that you have some form of candida. Try
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/park/gcn23/candida/ as a source of
information. I think your eyes will open The chances are virtually nil. Shellfish allergy is almost invariably caused by shellfish, period.
And it's a far more acutely dangerous allergy than candida; candida
(whatever that means, the word covers many not-very-closely-related
conditions) can cause long-term illness, but it won't send you into
acute anaphylaxis. Shellfish allergies can easily do that.
The original poster needs to see a competent allergy specialist and
find out what precautions to take. Staying well clear of sushi bars
is a no-brainer to start with; people have died just from being in
the same room as shellfish they were allergic to.
