food allergy testing?

[starbuck]

Has anyone ever done food allergy testing? I have an appointment next friday, just curious if anyone else has ever done it and if it helped the rosacea.

[Aurelia]

Hi Starbuck,

The only time I ever had food testing, it was thoroughly unscientific. I was young, but not at all credulous. However, my mother was very influenced by a group of young ladies she was working with and they strongly recommended a naturopath. I would have faith in scientific testing of foods, or of skin tests, but not pendulum waving (nor the phony 'muscle strength' tests), so was profoundly unimpressed by his claims that I was allergic to dairy and all gluten products and shouldn't eat any kind of fruit except the plainest such as apples, oranges, bananas. He said even berries and stone fruit were too rich for my system.

I regarded it as total hooha, but since his other dietary recommendations were sensible (eg the health benefits of almonds, drinking more water, etc.) I thought it worth giving it a good trial for six months. It made no difference to my skin, but my cat at the time thought the goat's milk was fabulous. Many years later, I started getting severe breathing problems, broken blood vessels, and other problems from plums and one kind of tropical fruit, so ... who knows?

He seemed a pleasant fellow, but not someone I would return to. Sad to see him reported in the local newspaper a few years later when he was convicted of wilfully ignoring the signs of advancing cancer in a patient and encouraging her to keep using only 'natural remedies', thus helping bring forward her death. Optimism is good, but wishful thinking helps no one, imho.

Now, Starbuck, did you have your test? What kind of testing was it? What were the recommendations? Please spill the beans! Sorry if you have already reported this in another thread.

Kind regards,

Aurelia

[starbuck]

hi Aurelia,
I had the allergy testing done yesterday. They did the skin test where they roll what felt like a series of needles over your back to test different foods. I was a little surprised, I came up with an allergy to shellfish, almonds, peaches, pistachios and sesame seeds. I was vegan for a long time, so I guess that's why I never noticed the shellfish thing! I'm not sure how much these allergies play into the rosacea, but I guess I'll give them up for awhile to try and find out. I was also concerned about histamine intolerance, since there were a couple threads on here about people who tried the "low reactive" or low histamine diets and had success. Seems a lot of the symptoms are similar to rosacea. I don't know if this is some sort of denial about having rosacea, but it seems a lot of us visit a lot of doctors and try to diagnose ourselves with every other disease under the sun. I know I've personally been to gastroenterologists, allergists, gynecologists, endocrinologists, who knows, maybe it's all a lost cause.

ps - just noticed - it's kinda funny how the spellchecker on this board doesn't recognize rosacea as a word .

[Debbee]

Hi. I'm 50 years old with rosacea and chronic urticaria (hives), and in a sincere effort to help me in every way possible my internist two months ago drew three vials of blood from my arm and sent them to the ALCAT laboratory in Florida to discern my food allergies. My cost was $275. Two weeks later I met with my internist to go over my results: severe allergy to basil, moderate allergy to eggs, coffee, barley, mushroom, squash and sweet potato, mild allergy to a bunch of other foods. I've changed my diet in response, and I feel better in general, my rosacea is a little bit better, and my hives are a little bit better. I'm hopeful that I'll continue to improve on my new diet. The lab's website is www.ALCAT.com, and I do believe that this was money well spent.

[Lisamouries]

Hi Debbe.
You poor thing chronic urticaria must be a real itchy pain. I get hives too regularly in the most awkward places and they itch like CRAZY. At the moment I take anti histamine tablets and that keeps them at bay.

I heard that sometimes once you get your skin balance back to normal you can sometimes slowly re-introduce the foods you were allergic to. Who knows?

[Debbee]

Hi Lisa, thanks, it is a problem. I take Claritin and Zantac to manage it, I tried prescription Allegra and Singulair but the headache was a miserable side effect. I have to watch what I eat so carefully, and my diet has become very limited as a result. My hives are typically very small and come up just anywhere and are crazy-itchy. But sometimes I get rashes, particularly on my abdomen, and that's the worse. Oh well, everybody has something! Thanks for your response

[CrabbyCathy]

I remember being tested (via blood sample) years and years ago, when I was "allergic" to dairy. That was determined to be candida, but who knows? They also said I was allergic to a score of things, such as garlic, onion, apricots, cherries, and something else....wheat, I think. I honestly eat those things all the time and I'm fine (not the dairy, though--that is still a major issue, but now with my rosacea, not just regular break-outs as before).

[Lisamouries]

Funny thing about hives is that they suddenly stopped for 2 years and now they are back. I haven't done anything different, still live in same house, neighborhood, eat the same etc... it's just totally baffling.

[Debbee]

It is baffling. I saw an allergist three years ago who was convinced that it was a salicylates allergy, and he recommended that I never take another Advil or aspirin again. He gave me a long list of foods that I should avoid, and I did a pretty good job on the foods list, and an excellent job regarding the OTC meds - I've never taken an Advil or an aspirin since! But I still have hives. And they come and they go and they come and they go. I am cautiously hopeful that eggs might have been a true trigger for me, because since the ALCAT test results came back early February I have not eaten eggs, and I haven't had a bad rash for the last month, so maybe that's a positive step. I've just given my bottle of very good bourbon to my best friend to get the last remaining barley out of the house. And that just leaves the coffee, and my two cups per day at this point (down from 6) are organic coffee made with bottled water.

If I were to try to also avoid all of the foods also in the 'mild intolerance' column on my ALCAT results page I would be left with chicken, broccoli, peas, green beans and water. That's just not reasonable, so it appears I'll continue to have foods in my diet that won't perfectly agree with me. So maybe I'll always have hives.

I've researched my cleansers and I think they are about the best for my skin as are available. Same for my body lotion. Same for my precious tube of hydrocortisone cream. I always have Claritin on me and Zantac on me and my Quercitin complex close by.

I started in my teens with acne, then the hives and the rosacea came on at about the same time +/- 10 years ago. Everybody has something ... I have gnarly skin! Deb

[Aurelia]

Same for my precious tube of hydrocortisone cream.

Um, hydrocortisone cream? May I ask how long you have been using this, and how often? It is generally regarded as a risky thing for rosaceans.

Kind regards,

Aurelia