Nuts, dairy, gluten. How to tell?

I'm new to this forum and hoping someone can help.  Up unitl last November life was good.  Ate what I wanted to when I wanted to.  Then all of a sudden...WHAM!  Out of nowhere...I was not able to drink milk, eat cheese, eat bread and now I think I'm allergic to nuts.  Do food allergies really happen this quickly?  

My body constantly aches, my feet and hands constantly tingle and my eyes are constantly blood shot just like in college.  I sneeze all the time, have headahces all the time and use visine like it is going out of style.  For the past 3 months I've concentrated on eliminating gluten from my diet and noticed a small change.  This past week I think I've discoverd that nuts are no longer my friend.  The only thing I have had to eat today was a gluten free pancake and a gluten free breakfast bar which contains nuts.

Has anyone else expereinced this?  If so how did you handle it?  Thanks in advance for any help.

[Coffeebean208]

hi, i had the same experience that you seem to be having. over a month or two i became intolerant to dairy and gluten, and i started to develop asthma and had all of the symptoms of allergies. i finally went to an allergist who did an allergy test on me, and found that i am allergic to diary, wheat, nuts, eggs, but that i was much more allergic to a lot of the grasses and trees which were around. he told me that all of the trees and grasses had my allergies going and the food just pushed it over the edge. after being on a gluten free diet for a year and 5 years of allergy shots to lessen the severity of my allergies, i can eat whatever i want and only take zyrtec during the spring and summer when my allergies are the worst (but they don't get very bad now, after i had the shots). The shots don't help food allergies, but i can still eat wheat and diary as long as i don't over due it.
i hope that this helps!  good luck!

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

In my opinion, you seem to be having allergy to gluten and cross reactivity to it. It is the occurrence of allergic reactions to foods that are chemically or otherwise related to foods known to cause allergy in an individual.

Wheat or gluten contains thiamine (which is also found in Pork, beef, liver, legumes, nuts), riboflavin (also found in Milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, meat, leafy green vegetables), niacin (also in Meat, peanuts, legumes),iron(in Red meat, fish, poultry, shellfish, legumes, dried fruits) and folic acid in fortified wheat(also in Liver, green and leafy vegetables, lentils, oranges) in addition to carbohydrates and proteins.

It maybe that you are allergic to any of these constituents and taking these constituents in any form is causing you an allergic reaction.

Pls consult an allergy specialist and get allergy tests like skin ***** test or blood tests like RAST done to find out the specific allergen. These tests will also rule out gluten sensitive enteropathy (celiac sprue) which is similar in symptoms to gluten allergy.

In addition to the avoidance of allergen in your diet, you can take some OTC antihistaminics like benadryl or Claritin. They can relieve gastrointestinal symptoms, hives, sneezing, and a runny nose. Bronchodilators can relieve the symptoms of asthma. Severe cases are treated with immunotherapy.

Take care and pls do keep us posted if you have any more doubts.

[ill13632]

I have asthma too- what levels of allergy are high enough to be significant and cause headaches and asthma?  my IGE is 165 about
thanks very much!