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Allergies which may be common to LS sufferers

Posted , 12 users are following.

margaret289
margaret289

Just a thought that we might have some stuff in common.  For instance, I am allergic to iodine - anyone else?

I seem to also have a problem with tomatoes and posibly oranges.

3 likes, 43 replies

43 Replies

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  • hanny32508
    hanny32508 margaret289

    Posted

    Did I mention milk?  I can eat yoghurt and aged cheese, but not milk.  No idea whether it influences the LS.  Milk no longer agrees with me.  But that's not really unusual for when one ages is it? 

    Reading over the comments I wonder what we have in common with these food sensitivities.  Or one may say - LS patients usually also have various food sensitivities.  As many LS patients have thyroid problems, perhaps also adrenal gland problems, which then results in again sensitivities to certain foods, like caffeine, chocolate, sugar.  Other foods like broccoli need to be cooked, not eaten raw.  And the list is most likely even longer, once it is known what certain foods may do to the system.  

    I have only more questions and no answers.   

    • margaret289
      margaret289 hanny32508

      Posted

      The problem is that we don't know how many women without LS also have food sensitivities, so it doesn't really help statistically at all.  I'm looking for common themes though.

      Tomatoes, Oranges, Ealr Grey Tea, junk food, chocolate.

      I don't have a problem with caffeine of which I am aware, but I suppose I could try giving it up to see if it helped.

       

    • Morrell1951
      Morrell1951 margaret289

      Posted

      The difficulty with food sensitivities is what Dr. Crook calls 'the allergic load'. (His book, my bible when my kids were small, recommended by the pediatric allergist who told me I'd have to learn to 'be your own doctor', is Tracking Down Hidden Food Allergies.) The load is food + environment + stress. So, when all else is equal I can get away with eating something that would make me flare if I were also sleeping in a dusty house with a big dog and having telephone fights with my ex-husband. That actual situation happened to me with my psoriasis (and, in retrospect it was a time of fast atrophy in my LS). My whole torso front broke out in the itchiest mess I'd ever had.

      Anyway, after all these years I'm not a big believer in adding to my stress load by obsessing about every molecule I eat. If you're serious about determining what foods bother you, you need to follow a certain protocol to eliminate the ones that don't bother you. It's in the book.

  • hanny32508
    hanny32508 margaret289

    Posted

    Thank you Morell, that is helpful.

    Question:  Is this the title of Dr. Crook's book: "Tracking Down Hidden Food Allergies"?

  • hanny32508
    hanny32508 margaret289

    Posted

    Thank you Morell, I'll look it up.  Sounds like something that may connect with the LS 'sufferer.'  Every little bit of relief will help.
  • suedm
    suedm margaret289

    Posted

    Hello Margaret, Chrissy C mentioned that you and others were identifying what aspects you had in common n relation to LS. Did you ever distill the information that might be of use to a fact sheet - the discussion heading is LS perhaps we could compile a fact sheet.

    It would be good to hear from you

    SueDM

    • margaret289
      margaret289 suedm

      Posted

      Hi Sue,

      I haven't done this yet - life and stuff got in the way as it tends to.  What I think we need to do is note down our suspicions as to cause/worsening condition and put them in the form of questions.  I think we need to start with age/family history (suspicions of occurence in relatives), skin type, weight/level of fitness, existing auto immune disease (family history of same perhaps).  Looking at the thread above as far as food goes - some people are avoiding the same dietary items - oranges, tomoatoes.  From another thread, it seems that many of us have high cholesterol possibly not causal, but potentially as a result of its protective effects.

      I will draw up a table with all the questions I can think of and post it to you PM in Word format, so that you can add to it.  We can then find a way of distributing it so that folk can add questions.  At this stage they could print things out for their own information and fill it in.  However,in the long run we could all fill it in and it would be extremely informative to collate everybody's answers and then redistribute that.  It is quite a big job though, but hey I have little else to do before next September.  Thanks for prodding me, I'll get on it.

  • margaret289
    margaret289

    Posted

    Right- I've set it up, but thinking what form this needs to take if it were to be of use to folk, especially if they wanted to take it to their GP.
    • suedm
      suedm margaret289

      Posted

      Have you seen Morrells thread? and the headings she has used?

      If you have a spread sheet  with column  heading of all the allergens mentioned then a tick for each one could be used  in the rows

      an indication of the number of participants

      or you could indicate the participant by a number or letter to show  they have one or more conditions

    • margaret289
      margaret289 suedm

      Posted

      I'm considering whether or not to use statements and a Likert scale (I have some experience in small scale social research).  I'm not sure how many know what I'm on about, so shout out a) if confused and b) if you've any comments.  If it were done this way, perhaps we could set up a Survey Monkey link and get some real data to present. 

      I'll have a look at Morrell's stuff now.

  • hanny32508
    hanny32508 margaret289

    Posted

    O yes, chocolate and sugar are at the top of the/my list.
    • Morrell1951
      Morrell1951 hanny32508

      Posted

      I've been saying chocolate, but excessive sugar does the same thing to my LS. Recently I've taken even more sugar out of my day and I'm excited to say things have really improved down there, to the extent that I believe my libido is back. Maybe it took a whole year for the scarring from an abscess right on the fused hood of my clitoris to heal and thin. I'm holding off telling my husband just yet. I want to see how much I can play without provoking a yeast infection.
    • suedm
      suedm Morrell1951

      Posted

      That is such good news Morrell. Fingers crossed for you.

      Re bike riding - I never did learn to ride a bike - horse riding wasn't available in the city for me. 

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