Oddball Allergies
By Jim Rue
An allergy is a malfunction of the immune system. When someone acquires an allergy, his or her immune system rushes to fight off what the body incorrectly senses as an infection or other microscopic invader. The allergic reaction is often that the body releases histamines, a chemical that causes itching, sneezing, wheezing and tissue inflammation. Often these reactions serve the purpose of increasing blood flow to the irritated area.
Allergies can be triggered by swallowing, breathing, injecting or even by touching an offending substance. Sufferers sometimes experience severe reactions as simple torture.The wife of German ex-chancellor Helmut Kohl committed suicide in 2001 after suffering from a serious allergy for seven years. It is all the more vexing for the sufferer and his doctors when a new allergen appears full-blown and with no warning. Hannelore Kohl contracted her allergy to sunlight after receiving a shot of penicillin that did not agree with her.
Case Studies
Anyone can be allergic to anything. That may overstate the case but if so, only slightly. One man used cinnamon redhots as a substitute for cigarettes, sucking on them all day while he quit smoking. It worked, but gradually it became clear that redhots had become a problem. The more of them he ate, the more he sneezed. As the allergy took stronger hold, he became asthmatic. Given the choice between the peculiar breathless wheezing of asthma or living without redhots, he gave up eating the redhots, and all other foods containing cinnamon as well.
A woman in her sixties got the flu. The flu went through a normal cycle and in about a week she was on her way to recovery. She went to a small party. Arriving early, she offered to slice up some melon for the guests. She started with a whole watermelon, slicing it down the middle. As she did so, a bead of watermelon juice ran down her forearm. To her horror, the juice felt like molten lead running across her skin and left an angry red welt in its path. Soon she learned that to even touch the pulp of a watermelon, cantaloupe or honeydew produced a violent skin reaction. Drinking even diluted melon juice caused her mouth and tongue to become raw and swollen. She was lucky. The reaction to one of her favorite foods abated after a few years, and now she can eat small amounts of melon with no reaction.
Allergens
The list of allergens is almost endless. General categories are wheat and other grain foods, citrus, fish, dust, pets (especially cats), antibiotics and other prescription drugs, dairy products, nuts, colognes, latex and plastic, soap, dried foods, insect bites, flowers and plants, jewelry, sweat and anything containing mold, such as beer, cheese, bread, mushrooms or carpeting. The aforementioned list is long but not exhaustive. People also occasionally complain of allergic reactions to such bizarre contaminants as nickel, alcohol, eggs, natural gas, lizards, exercise, cold air, polluted air, or just plain air.
Symptoms
Symptoms of allergic reactions are almost as diverse. They read like the list of contraindications for the most dangerous prescription drug you ever heard of: Sneezing, wheezing, coughing, hiccups, hives, swollen sinuses, itching (including the roof of the mouth), tearing, welts, boils, loss of taste, flushed skin, hypersensitive skin, clamminess, general swelling and bloating, genital or anal itching, nasal irritation and pain, nervous tics, lethargy, nausea, difficulty in breathing and death.
Treatments
Allergists facing sufferers with unusual reactions are sometimes in the dark. The most common recommendation is to avoid contact with the allergen. This can be nearly impossible. Medications are offered. Steroids quell swelling. Antihistamines inhibit the release of the chemical that causes inflammation. Decongestants prevent the production of mucus.
When all else fails, a plan of desensitization is prescribed. Weekly or biweekly shots of small amounts of the allergen are given, with the amount increasing gradually until the reaction is no longer seen. These injection programs can go on for years.
Non-medical healers also sometimes recommend exercise, changes in diet and nutrition, treatment with minute quantities of herbs or drugs (called naturopathy), crystal therapy, massage, or even spiritual counseling to relieve a patient of allergies. Sometimes these methods work, confounding the medical community and gratifying the patient. There are more things under heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophies.
