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Allergy Community
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Food allergies or anxiety?
by JJ1717, Aug 11, 2006 12:00AM
I am 26 and have never had any serious health problems. When I was 18 I started getting hives after eating shellfish so I stopped eating shellfish. Few months after I had my son when I was 19, started getting hives again, very bad episodes, no obvious reason. Took Zyrtec a few months, hives stopped. Besides not eating shellfish, I did not change my diet at that point. Fast forward to now, started getting hives again 4 months ago. Since hives started, I have also been experiencing what I think are panic attacks: fast heart beat, palpatations, feeling of doom, feeling like my throat may be constricted. Symptoms last from a few minutes to an hour and sometimes happen shortly after I have eaten or middle of the night. I have also had a hoarse throat on and off. I started eliminating foods that I thought might be causing the hives or the attacks but nothing worked. I went to an allergist who did scratch test for foods, blood test, 24 hour urine sample, and found no allergies. Diagnosed me with idiopathic hives/angioedema. Prescribed Zyrtec and Axid, suggested anxiety. I am only taking Zyrtec, hives stopped. Now I am having alternating constipation/sometimes diarhea immediately after I start eating. Happened twice after eating tomatoes. Is it possible to have anxiety about eating? Or is this an overlooked allergy. I am afraid to eat. I have been under alot of stress due to marital problems. I want to mention that when I don't eat alot of bread, cereal, pastas, I don't have as many anxiety attacks, bowel movements are somewhat normal, and I overall feel better. Any suggestions?
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It sounds like you may have an allergy to wheat (hives can be a symptom... link below). The symptoms of food allergies are worse than environmental allergies. Since you feel better when you avoid breads, you may want to try a wheat (gluten) free diet. I know you can buy rice, potato or soy flour at a health food store and these flours taste just as good as regular flour. I also cannot eat wheat and remember how great I felt after my physician suggested going without wheat for 2 weeks. I haven't eaten any wheat in 2 years.
http://www.allergyescape.com/wheat-allergy.html
http://www.wheat-free.org/
Look it up online, do some research - docs don't seem to know much about this, it's one of the most mis-diagnosed things out there. Then you can call your doc for a simple blood test to find out - OR, just try cutting out all gluten (bread, pasta, beer, and look out for things like modified food starch) and do that for at least a month and see how it goes.
Keep in mind, if you get tested, eat normally! Not eating wheat/gluten will throw off the testing. I had positive blood tests & then had an endoscopy where they confirmed that I had it.
Good luck!!!