So, about a week after the hives RAGED back into my life, they’re just about gone again. I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about how I managed to recover (mostly) within a week for others who might be struggling with multiple allergies.
So, as many of you know, I arrived at a gluten-free lifestyle not because of the diarrhea, bloating, brain fog, stomach pain, porous weak finger nails, and poor balance that I had been experiencing for two years, but because of daily, horrific outbreaks of itchy hives. (I’d seen 6 doctors for the aforementioned symptoms over those 2 years, none of which mentioned anything about trying something as simple as a gluten-free diet). So, after pouring about 60 hours of my own time into researching ‘chronic idiopathic urticaria,’ I found some links between my other symptoms and the hives that led me to a gluten-free diet. So, with the consent of my doctor, I tested the diet out. I was cooking mostly whole foods at home (many of which I’ve posted about in this blog), and my hives and digestive woes cleared up. I got so healthy that I could probably pass a sobriety test when sober, a feat I couldn’t have accomplished with ‘brain fog’ and balance problems.
As I continued to grow into my new life style, I enthusiastically tried new brands of gluten-free cookies and breads. As I began to add these processed foods into my diet more and more, the hives came creeping back. I simply figured that I was extremely sensitive to gluten, and that some of the products that I’d been eating had minuscule amounts of gluten despite the company’s best efforts to eliminate the protein. Well, I was wrong. As time went by and I continued to add these products to my diet, the hives got worse and worse. After having a few Udi’s bread sandwiches and tortillas, I made the connection, and cut all processed products from my diet once again. This is when I began to suspect a second allergen. Even with the 100% gluten-free diet and the significant (and persistant) improvement to my digestive woes, the hives came roaring back. After a few days, it dawned on me to look through all of the processed foods that I’d been eating in the days leading up to the revenge of the hives. And what did they have in common? Corn. Corn starch, corn syrup (damn you, Udi’s!), corn meal, and corn. I googled something like “gluten and corn,” and one of the first articles I came upon made the claim that gluten and corn proteins are very similar (according to lab testing), and it would not be unlikely that celiacs might have poor reactions to corn.
Well, as luck would have it, by the time I read that article I’d had (delicious) cornmeal crusted Mahi Mahi for dinner, cornmeal for breakfast the following day, and corn chips and hummus for lunch. Fast forward 1 day, and my skin had errupted in large, itchy welts that covered all of my thighs and spread up to my neck.
The next day was even worse. I’d already cut corn out for a few days at this point, and I was really unsure of how quickly I would recover. In an effort to speed things up as much as possible, I googled a few ways to recover from food allergy reactions. In research leading up to this point, I’d learned that it’s common for people with gluten-intolerances to have multiple food allergies. So, after googing ‘antigenic diets,’ I found myself on the oglioantigenic diet (which is for fairly extreme cases). In this diet, you may eat from a gormet menu that includes:
Apples/Bananas/Pears (at first, you get to pick only 1)
Chicken and/or Lamb (but really, I could never eat lamb)
Potatoes (I cut these out in fear of a nightshade intolerance)
and Rice (I also cut this out in fear of an intolerance).
And that is all. That is 100% of the menu. And I won’t say I was super successful in sticking to it exclusively, but I did a decent job. And a week later, I’m nearly recovered. The Oglioantigenic Diet is a type of Elimination diet specifically designed to help you identify allergens. I would really recommend having a nutritionist supervise your diet if possible, since it’s very low in nutrients.
I just wanted to share the experience with those of you who may feel discouraged for not finding a cure-all in the gluten-free lifestyle. Keep investigating your foods! It’s amazing how what we eat creates who we are 🙂
BUCKWHEAT 