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From: Odds & Ends on 29 Apr 2007 18:55
I've been having a recurring problem over the last year that I think may
be due to a food allergy, but it is NOT a typical allergic reaction.
What happens is that, seemingly out of the blue, I will get an inflamed
area (usually on my back, but the first time it was on my calf) anywhere
from 1-3" long and 1-3" wide. The skin gets hot, very red, slightly
swollen/hard and very painful to the touch (it feels like someone
PUNCHED me). They never break the skin and they don't itch except here
and there (in a minor way) when it starts to fade. Initially my doctor
and I thought it was an infection of some kind and it was treated with
antibiotics, but then new ones would come up WHILE I'm taking the
antibiotics (3 different kinds were tried). They eventually go away
within a week or so, but sometimes they spread out and/ or move to
another spot first. One thing I HAVE noticed is that it almost always
seems to come up in an area where there is underlying muscle tension and
stiffness (especially around the back of the shoulders). Sometimes it's
on one side of the back, and other times it's on the other, and
sometimes it's more toward the center. Sometimes I'll get 2-4 separate
ones in completely different areas on opposite sides of the body at the
same time. Except for the first one (which may or may not be related),
they occur anywhere from my hips to the base of my neck.

I was referred to a dermatologist for it a couple of weeks ago and she
said that the fact that they move around makes it seem like hives, but
they are NOT hives. I DO have a history of autoimmune problems (the
usual airborne allergies, plus mild multiple chemical sensitivity).
I've always had sensitive skin and have trouble with too much sun (which
CAN produce hives on me). I stay out of the sun, for the most part. I
sometimes get rashes from contact with things like earrings, watchbands
and bra hooks where the coating on the hooks has worn away. I'm a 51-
yr-old woman who is also in the midst of peri-menopause.

I'm unemployed and uninsured at the moment, so lots of testing is not
really feasible unless this severely interferes with my life, so, for
the time being I'm working on elminating foods that I suspect may have
something to do with it. I've been coincidentally logging my food
intake for several years now in conjunction with eating low-carb, so I
at least have a detailed record of what I have been and will be eating.

These inflammations are downright BIZARRE! I'm posting this because I'm
wondering if anyone else here has had or knows of someone who has had
allergic reactions similar to these (if they even ARE allergic
reactions). Thanks for any light you can shed on the subject!


From: Jack Campin - bogus address on 30 Apr 2007 05:20
> I've been having a recurring problem over the last year that I think may
> be due to a food allergy, but it is NOT a typical allergic reaction.
> What happens is that, seemingly out of the blue, I will get an inflamed
> area (usually on my back, but the first time it was on my calf) anywhere
> from 1-3" long and 1-3" wide. The skin gets hot, very red, slightly
> swollen/hard and very painful to the touch (it feels like someone
> PUNCHED me). They never break the skin and they don't itch except here
> and there (in a minor way) when it starts to fade.

I've had similar but smaller things on my legs from overdoing dairy
products.

However...

> I DO have a history of autoimmune problems [...] I'm a 51-yr-old
> woman who is also in the midst of peri-menopause.

That puts you at high risk of auto-immune disease. Try an elimination
diet first (dairy, wheat and eggs are the most likely culprits) but
you may well have something that needs treatment with oral steroids or
immunosuppressants.

============== j-c ====== @ ====== purr . demon . co . uk ==============
Jack Campin: 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland | tel 0131 660 4760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/jack/> for CD-ROMs and free | fax 0870 0554 975
stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, & Mac logic fonts | mob 07800 739 557
From: Odds & Ends on 2 May 2007 15:22
In article <bogus-3E3681.10203230042007(a)news.news.demon.net>,
bogus(a)purr.demon.co.uk says...
> > I've been having a recurring problem over the last year that I think may
> > be due to a food allergy, but it is NOT a typical allergic reaction.
> > What happens is that, seemingly out of the blue, I will get an inflamed
> > area (usually on my back, but the first time it was on my calf) anywhere
> > from 1-3" long and 1-3" wide. The skin gets hot, very red, slightly
> > swollen/hard and very painful to the touch (it feels like someone
> > PUNCHED me). They never break the skin and they don't itch except here
> > and there (in a minor way) when it starts to fade.
>
> I've had similar but smaller things on my legs from overdoing dairy
> products.
>
> However...
>
> > I DO have a history of autoimmune problems [...] I'm a 51-yr-old
> > woman who is also in the midst of peri-menopause.
>
> That puts you at high risk of auto-immune disease. Try an elimination
> diet first (dairy, wheat and eggs are the most likely culprits) but
> you may well have something that needs treatment with oral steroids or
> immunosuppressants.

Thanks for the info. I'd rather avoid having to take steroids, if
possible, but it may be necessary.

In the meantime, I'm beginning to suspect chocolate may be the culprit.
I make a little homemade candy from baking chocolate, butter and
sweeteners and have been eating one of them practically every day over
the last year. I had to leave town suddenly for a few days while the
current inflammation was fading. When I got back, I started with the
chocolate again and immediately started getting a NEW inflammation in a
semi-cirle around a shoulder blade. Suspicious of the candy, I stopped
eating it after two days and the inflammation immediately started to
fade and never got to the acute stage that the others did. Hmmmmm.
This bears further inspection.

From: Kofi on 3 May 2007 04:46
It sounds like it could be a lot of different things, one of which might
be cancer. Some cancers are known to provoke autoimmune reactions.
However if you're going through menopause, it may be that changes in
your hormones levels have depressed your self-tolerance leaving your
immune system prone to more misbehavior.

If you want to skip testing, there are a few broad strategies for
treating autoimmunity which I've discussed in this group before.

1) Butyrate and carnitine (unlikely to make cancer worse)

2) Helminths (TSO from Ovamed; likely to make it harder to fight a
cancer, but otherwise no adverse side effects besides its price)

3) Vitamin D3 (great for cancer - as long as you get it out of a
syringe instead of from the sun)

4) glutamine

If you're wrong about it being autoimmune, any one of these things might
blow up in your face although they're generally pretty safe compared to
many medications.
From: Shirley ann on 3 May 2007 07:33
Is the chocolate made in the United States?

I notice a lot of the chocolate candy is made out of the the United
States.
I love chocolate and only buy Dove's chocolate.

shirleyann

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