# Do we outgrow food allergies?



## ag5t (May 17, 2002)

I promise this will be my last question for awhile. When I was 14 I had all kinds of needle sticks to determine which foods I was allergic to - the allergies were beef, pork, corn, rice, milk, chocolate, strawberries and several other items. This was more than 20 years ago. Should I still not eat these items in addition to those trigger foods for IBS. Seems like my choice of food is dwindling rapidly. Thanks.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Well starting with stick tests aren't always accurate for food allergies....Typically the ones people have as a small child often get outgrown, but I don't know at what age that tends to twig in.Given that the tests aren't that accurate it may be OK to try a small amount of something, as a test, to see if you tolerate it. Much of that, however, depends on what kind of reaction you were having that prompted the testing. Are we talking mild/vague symptoms or anaphalatic shock where you needed an emergancy shot of epinephrine or you would have died.For the anaphalatic shock kind of allergies you should avoid whatever it was forever, but if it was more of a digestive discomfort or attention deficiencies or fatigue that are vague symptoms that may or may not have been food anyway it may be OK to see if you tolerate it. STart in small amounts infrequently and see how it goes.ALSO just because you ate X and you got symptoms right after doesn't mean that food is a trigger for you, especially if you eat it fine at other times. Not all symptoms are caused by food, and sometimes food X gets blamed when something else caused you a problem.Also food triggers are individual so if you are avoiding all the foods on "lists of trigger foods" you should test those out individually as well to see if they are really a problem for you, or not. Most people can eat some things on the standard "IBS trigger" lists just fine.K.


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## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

I wish we could outgrow food allergies. Then I'd be able to eat shrimp. I'd be in Heaven!


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## ohnometo (Sep 20, 2001)

Like Kmottus said all food allergy and food intolerance are different...I wanted to share with you that I took all kinds of allergy testing and everthing would come back ok...So I never paid any more attention to food and my stomach...Anyway I ended up many years later taking the MRT test for food intolerance...and it showed up some reactive foods..With a very negative attitude I thought here we go again Lets take away all this food and It wont even work this time....For Me it worked...I havent been on my plan since the end of last novemember..and have not been in the hospital since December ...I was a regular at the ER room..They should have name a wing after me


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## kinetic (Oct 19, 2001)

well... my experience with food allergies is that they do change over time... I never used to be able to eat any type of berry, but now can eat them as often as I like.... and before I used to be able to eat potatoes, but now I can't... so, I'd say just because you were allergic to something at one time, doesn't mean you always will be...


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## Julia37 (May 9, 2001)

You could try getting a RAST or ELISA blood test for food allergies. They're much more accurate than the skin tests, which are less than 50%.


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

AG5T:I guess because I am in the biz I tend to me more blunt about skin prick testing...You have a better chance of getting correlation between actual food allergy and symptoms by flipping a coin than with SPT. SPT correlates LESS than 50% with clinical allergy. Unless one uses careful oral challenge to confirm positive AND negative reactions, you can end up on a diet hwich is WAY over restrictive or way UNDER restrictive.Even the advent of RAST and ELISA are no perect solution for allergy determination, as the mere presence of a specific immunoglobulin soes not mean an allergic reactin is triggered when eaten, only that it is possible and roughly 50% likely. There is that number againAnd food allergy testing, SPT or otherwise, does not corelate well with the actual foods that provoke the kind of gut inflammatory reactions seen in IBS-d types....the foodsa that provke the reactions do not have cirxculating immunoglobulins around in most patients. The actual detetctable allergy component is only about 8% based on one of the only studies to actaully try to isolate true allerguc IBS provocation from cell-mediated reactions to foods.Many times people get some symptom reduction due to laws of probability: they remove so many base foods from the diet that the odds of actaully hitting one which is provocative increase so the false positives cause non-allergenic food hypersensitivities to be coincidentally avoided.BUT often this is not true, hence the wild variability of results when based on ALLERGY tests...this is why they are useful when combined with a very very careful history and long term intake analysis...and why the new MRT technologyw as invented...complementary shortcut sued with other in vitro Ig[x} tests can speed up the process of gettign specificity from assaying.That being said, the allergies diagnosed in youth are frequently outgrown. One should reassess ones diet as an adult, especially if you are symptomatic. This is natures way of telling you that the diet you are following is wrong. If it were right and you have no active gut infection any d-type symptoms should be minimized by the correct diet.These are 2 books which are helpful in understanding the subject more clearly..."FOOD ALLERGIES AND FOOD INTOLERANCE: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO THEIR IDENTIFICTION AND TREATMENT", Professor Jonathan Brostoff , M.D.. Allergy, Immunology and Environmental Medicine, Kings' College, London http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/089...6487508-3420903 IBS: A DOCTORS PLAN FOR CHRONIC DIGESTIVE TROUBLESBy Gerard Guillory, M.D.; Vanessa Ameen, M.D.; Paul Donovan, M.D.; Jack Martin, Ph.D. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-h...9085785-1742301 If you have any udder q's on the subject I be back 2-morrow. Outta tick-tocks...MNL


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## bonniei (Jan 25, 2001)

Well now that Mike, the expert on food allergies, has said that you can outgrow food allergies I'll try those yum prawns again which abound in Bombbay


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Ah but be careful....if it is something that you got an ANAPHYLACTIC reaction to...DO NOT do an oral challenge to find out unless you are an in patient in the hospital with your doctor standing by with epi and an endo tube kit!!!







On the other hand if it just made you barf or get d etc. then simply approach with caution: test a low loading dose open challenge (translation: only eat a little bit the first tiem then wait a day and see wht happens...then proceed in accordance with common sense)







MNL


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