Allergies caused by Vitamin C ???

I have had allergies for a very long time... So bad sometimes that it's hard to breathe, and the best cure is to pop a few benadryl, and roll into a ball under the blankets.

I have tried just about every OTC, and Rx available for allergies, yet I continue to get bad allergies sometimes.
Pets, smoke, seasonal, and certain smells can trigger it. Nothing seems to work.

I started watching what I eat because I noticed that after I was drinking about 3 cups of orange juice a day, I had a period of severe allergies from the start I woke up each morning to the time I went to bed. The only that would help reduce the symptoms a little bit was to take a benadryl every 5-6 hours. Benadryl works amazing for preventing allergies, and curing the symptoms... Unfortunately it makes me tired, and it makes me sleep through most of my classes. My allergies had gotten to a point where it was making my grades drop.

For the last week, Absolutely NO ALLERGIES, I have been limiting my Vitamin C intake to less than 40% DV.
Unfortunately, this prevents me from eating A LOT of foods since Vitamin C is in a lot of fruits, drinks, snacks etc...

My question is this... Would it make sense that Vitamin C is causing my allergies... Nobody seems to believe my theory, but it seems reasonable to myself. I was thinking maybe its causing my immune system to be too strong, and making my allergies react to things worse.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!

Well, Vitamin C allergies and associated Iron allergies (Vit C increases iron absorption) have been documented. Please read: http://organizedwisdom.com/Vitamin_C_Allergy

However if you suffer from gout, renal tubular acidosis, nocturnal heamoglobinuria or liver problems, then you could develop symptoms due to Vitamin C toxicity or allergy.

Also food allergies to citrus fruits (like oranges) are well documented.  It is possible that you are allergic to citrus fruits.
Hope this helps. It is difficult to comment beyond this at this stage without a more detailed medical history and without examining you. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!

[heavencanwait]

Have you ever had a food intolerance test done?  I had terrible nasal allergies and headaches till I discovered the main culprits - sugar, cocoa, coffee, wheat, dairy and tomatoes (tomatoes caused a skin rash on one specific part of my body only).  When I cut these foods out, those problems quickly became history.  Benadryl will only treat your symptoms and if the cause is some food you are eating on a daily basis, remember that whenever you eat that food, your immune system goes into overdrive, which over time is not a good thing.  It could be a food, a metal, an inhalant, anything.  But citrus is most likely your problem and seems to be quite common.  Funny enough I was told that Vit C helps allergies as it's an anti-oxidant and although I cannot tolerate tomatoes, in any form, I take 3,000mg of Vit C a day and has so for over a year now with no allergic symptoms.  You can check on elimination diets on the internet if you don't want to do a test, but remember that you can't take benadryl or anti-histamines before doing a test.  If you do decide to do the test make sure the lab you use is very reputable.  Hope this helps.

[lickshidal]

Im also allergic to citrus but I feel I don't get enough vitamin c. What would be the best way to get more vitamin c?

[FurballsMom]

A lot of us have problems with citrus.  Thankfully, that's not the only type of food that has vitamin C in it.  I had a friend who couldn't take the usual vitamin C supplements if the vitamin C supplement came from a citrus source herself.  So, she would supplement with rose hips.  I take a vitamin C supplement with Rose Hips myself that doesn't cause any symptoms in me and seems to be very gentle.  

That said, for immune function you need to be sure you have enough vitamin D in your system--especially for the upcoming flu season.  For the best online information about vitamin D and the immune system I would recommend going to mercola.com and use his search engine and type in the key words "vitamin D" which will take you to an article archives page with more information than you'll know what to do with.  He has articles that recommend subscribing to the Vitamin D Council newsletters.  He was right, too, since this is where I learned that we need to supplement with magnesium in order to get the full benefits from vitamin D.  When you read all this information, you'll soon realize that the RDA is too low for most of us.  And, if you have any kind of autoimmune disorder the RDA is definitely too low, because people with autoimmune dysfunction already have problems regulating their vitamin D levels.

So, you need your vitamin C, like you said, but you need your natural vitamin D and your magnesium, too.