Posted on 11/26/2005 12:21:14 PM PST by EveningStar
I like the sidestory! lol!
I don't think so. Anaphylactic shock often includes having the lungs filled with fluid. It happens very quickly. A student in my immunology class visited the vivarium as preparation for selecting a rabbit for creating antibodies to beef serum albumin. The student was completely unaware of an allergy to rabbits. The class observed a horrible example of anaphylactic shock first hand.
I can't help but think that in the refining processes the allergens are concentrated in the product or byproducts to the degree that some reactions are to what are now lethal doses which would not have existed in nature.
For some, any (natural) concentration would be lethal, but I'd guess these are in the minority.
Also, are there any food specific additives used to preserve or process peanuts which would not have been present, say, 50 or 100 years ago?
Maybe there is a reaction to the additive or some product of interaction between the additive and a natural compound found in the food.
I wonder also, if trace amounts of agricultural chemicals which would ordinarily be undetectable in the raw product are concentrated in the finished products or byproducts, enough to produce a reaction anyway.
Maybe this is just perception brought about by the way these incidents are reported (or not), but it seems that it was far more normal years ago to have a milder reaction, (hives, some swelling, a rash, etc.), rather than a lethal reaction.
So how DID you manage to make it? Did the medical folks turn around in time?<<<<<<<<<
Yes, I couldn't speak but I banged on the table and they turned around and ran me to the ER, across the hall. I got epinephrine immediately, which makes one feel kind of lousy, but the alternative was worse, needless to say.
I remember my mom had been sitting in the waiting room and saw them go flying by with a person she totally did not recognize due to the swelled face and head. If I had everyday allergies, I'd be carrying several of the Epi-Pens, I think.
Twice I've caught doctors during tests starting to inject radiographic dye, which is what I'm allergic to. They obviosly can't read big red letters all over my medical charts.
I agree...
A perslon THAT sensitive could not have lived long enough to be kissed by this guy.
Nonsense alert?
(That was the serious answer, the smarta$$ed one is: Cockroaches have asthma?)
Why? Every dog I had so equipped would sniff nuts without any special training....
Children spend a lot of time on the carpet and pad, linoleum, vinyl, laminate, or whatever there is covering your floor, in closer contact than adults by virtue of their means of locomotion and altitude.
Carpets used to be wool backed by natural fibers, with natural padding. Now everything is pretty much some form of synthetic.
My wife picked up a rug at a store the other day (a cheap one, admittedly), but had to air it out on the clothesline for a couple of days before she could put it in the house.
Know what you mean. Many came to mind but this is not the place...
I got a question can someone who has ate peanuts for years and years and never showed an allergy suddenly develop one ?
Not nonsense. My child is that allergic and he is 16 and doing fine.
I ask because my 2 daughters have severe dog and cat allergies.... Yet are fine with peanuts.. Just wanted to know if something like that was a possibility .. developing one later
Your desire to promote raising kids aware and always asking doesn't always work, and we are vigilant parents as well.
Our daughter has a class 2 allergy to nuts. Nibbled on a cookie the other day that was supposed to be safe and her throat started to tickle.
It can sneak up on you, especially if you go out to dinner. I won't even go there, and we are on top of this and still you get caught off-guard.
I got a Christmas gift early the year, a bag to carry all the tackle I need on a daily basis, my pockets are not big enough, especially with the kids stuff including the Epipen and the Benadyrl Tablets.
My dad developed a potentially life-threatening allergy to pennicillin in his 20's, as did his mom. The same has happened to me.
I used to eat peanuts by the fistfull, but tend to avoid them now, not because the peanuts seem to be the problem, but the oils used in processing them. I noticed that when one brand of mixed nuts caused intestinal distress, but another had not (different oils used in processing--Canola and I do not get along).
If reactions get worse with subsequent exposures, I can see where initial very mild reactions might go unnoticed or be blamed on something else (secondhand smoke in the restaurant), at least until the reaction became severe enough in a specific enough situation to pinpoint the allergen.
On a slightly related note, I've wondered that about Lyme's Disease. I was reading old death records (part of genealogy), and read about a young woman (in her 20's) who suddenly developed severe arthritis, and dies within months. Sounded like Lyme's Disease to me, and made me wonder how prevalent its been in the past.
Don't feel bad. My wife pretends not to recognize me when she thinks I have a swollen head. :-)
Twice I've caught doctors during tests starting to inject radiographic dye, which is what I'm allergic to. They obviosly can't read big red letters all over my medical charts.
Bring along and introduce your lawyer during your next tests. The doctors will suddenly get VERY careful. :-)
Cheers!
I have a guess, but no research to back it up (there might *be* some, I just haven't checked).
My guess would be that "in the old days", toddlers with this allergy would die young from it, often without the parents or doctors realizing why, and thus you'd rarely run into any teens or adults with the problem -- few survived that long.
In more modern times, there's better awareness of this problem, and more toddlers who have adverse reactions get saved in the hospital and their problems diagnosed, allowing them to survive into post-toddlerhood, thus you run into more people who have the allergy now.
It's probably all due to not knowing enough. Another one, people died mysteriously in their sleep and now they suspect sleep apnea.
My son has a allergy to certain fruits.. Only mouth related allergies.. We tied it back to when i was pregnant with him i had ate some bad cantolope and got terrible food poisioning.. Im no doctor but it seemed to make sense....
Its a really good question, and I won't pretend to be able to give you an authoritative answer. But my non-expert answer would go like this.
I think the answer is probably both yes and no. Yes for people who have an allergic predisposition. People who have true allergies have a condition called atopy, which causes their immune system to go into overdrive and produce too much of something called IgE when they are exposed to everyday substances that don't faze most people. I think about 20% of the population has this characteristic.
Life as an atopic is unpredictable. I have become allergic to things in adulthood that I was not allergic to as a child, and vice-versa.
OTOH, it's hard for me to imagine how a person who is not atopic would one day go into anaphylactic shock from peanuts, but like I said, I am not an expert.
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