Another Year, No New Allergy

Amazing! I can't say I've had any new allergies pop up. I've figured out another one, but nothing new has happened.

AND, I've gotten rid of one by eating far more carefully. The latex allergy is real. But by not eating foods that are sort of co-allergens to latex, I don't have the constant rash in the summer time.

In the summer, I wear jog bras when I work. It's just easier than regular bras. Straps don't fall, cups to move out of place and then STICK to whatever spot they happen to land. Jog bras stay in place and soak up some sweat besides. But, with all of the latex in them, I had a constant rash from them. And my underwear. Talk about maddening!

But, but cutting out the main food - peanut butter - and significantly reducing others such as every fruit except blueberries (practically), melon, some grains and some veggies, I've eliminated the rash! It's been 8 years at least since I've not had the summer rash. It's such a small thing, but truly has made life far less stressful. Constant itching is an amazing distractor.

The new discovery

Wheat is another enemy. I knew oats were - they make my heart race - but only in the morning. Not in the evening. I don't get it, but that's fine. I'll quit eating oatmeal for breakfast. Which I did. I started making pancakes for b-fast. Oat flour was bad, so I cut with wheat flour. Even cut with corn meal, it wasn't good. Started using rye flour. That works.

When I run out of pancakes (I make a big batch that'll last me 3 days), I'll have toast or a bagel. Well, the days I ate the toast or bagels, my asthma would flare. I finally noticed the pattern. It only took 4 months or so.

Which is when I knew I had to just start eating pancakes, period. Rye flour gets old after awhile. So I've branched out. I just tried a new grain called quinoa - keenwah. I think it has proteins in relation to wheat because my asthma really flared up by the end of the 3-day batch. Brown rice flour - nice! I have yet to try the Spelt. I didn't realize it was related to modern wheat and my asthma is still up a bit. I want it back to baseline before I move on to a new flour. I'll continue to try different flours, just so I know what works and what doesn't. If it can help someone else, that's worth the trial and error.

If you do a search on "Athma from Wheat", you'll get a good number of sources. Some call it "Bakers Asthma", but it isn't. If you're not inhaling the flour dust, it isn't bakers. But it is a well known antagonist for asthma.

More evidence against wheat

My sister, who has worse asthma than I, decided to try a "green" kitty litter for her two apartment cats. It is wheat based. Wheat hulls I think. No matter. She went into the worst asthma attack she had in over a decade, and took months to get over. And that was with the litter in the house for not a full day. And only because I just decided to search asthma and wheat, did we connect her severe attack and the litter.

It just shows how carefully you have to watch your environment when you have sensitivities.

I doubt our nation would have these issues if we didn't rely so heavily on so few food stuffs. Corn, wheat, soy, peanuts. Allergies to these things are exploding. Why? They're in everything. Everything!