Allergics, anyone ?

[slatterly]

I've suspected I'm allergic to something for a long time. It seems to be a hayfever type deal, although not quite as seasonal; it comes and goes, without any pattern that I've bothered to notice. I take Reactine or equivalent when it gets bad to cut down on the runny nose, sneezing, etc.

My mother advises against my getting an allergy test, because she had one done (she has generally the same thing) and all she got for it was a bunch of pins in her arm and a doctor telling her 'well, we don't really know what you have, so we can't actually do anything! have a nice day!'.

So, I don't think I can quite answer your survey, but I've probably got something, if it counts.

[LILI]

more than one : pollens, acarian, asthma

[virginangelic]

my whole family has asthma except me...i suspect i might get it soon...

allergic to dust.

[borrowedTime]

Pollen.

It starts around now, but not very strongly.

Then there's a really bad patch at the end of May, beginning of June.

And then it gradually improves until it's gone by the middle of summer.

My whole family get hayfever too... there's got to be some connection.

[Frigid Pink]

I am allergic to pollen, animals (anything with fur), dust (all my childhood stuffed animals were bagged up and placed in the basement), and I have asthma (very mild...only three attacks to date). Yes, it makes some extremely miserable days during the spring. However, I have discovered allegra, which works wonders.

I'm also allergic to certain types of grass, but thanks to the "fake" grass here at my college campus, I can roll and lie in the grass whenever I want.

And I'm still going to have a cat as a pet! I've already had three previous (all of which died---we live by a main highway---MY cat will be an indoor cat).

[artemisbrowndeer]

ah..ahh..aaahhh...CHOOO!

:mrgreen:

I think allergies do run in families. I'm getting my seasonal allergies now-tree pollen, grass pollen (and I love to garden and do yard work!). My dad had bad hayfever, as I do, some years worse than others. I've also got 3 cats that only bother me occasionally, and when I vacuum and clean, the dust generated does bother me to some extent.

yam, you've got quite the list of allergies! :shock:

I use generic anthistamines, and the good thing about those is that they help me sleep because they cause drowsiness.

[Boris]

WELL...here we go again.

I wonder if I can beat the most allergic person to so far post?

Food:

- coconut (luckily mild!)

- probably something else...not sure what though.

Metals:

- any metal except for gold (tested positive for 6 kinds - i hope i never need a hip replacement or something, braces was bad enough)

Chemicals:

- most types of shampoo, sunscreen, cosmetics

- fumes from a lot of things

- artificial smoke (life-threatening)

- chalk

- latex (i think it's rubber not a chemical, but whatever)

- cigarette smoke and marijuana (i can't be around second-hand smoke at all or else i stop breathing)

Plants:

- ragweed

- 18 different types of trees that grow in North America (I never memorized the names but i know there's oak, maple, spruce, elm...all the ones that grow everywhere...)

- 6 types of trees that grow in Israel (again, don't know the names) but not in North America

- about 25 varieties of pollenating flowers

- grass (8 different types; I didn't even know there WERE 8 different types!): timothy grass, clover, and a few others but i can't remember what

- mould (is that a plant?) - several different types but I can't recognize them

Animals:

- anything with fur and some with hair (especially rabbits - life-threatening): cats, dogs, horses, hamsters, guinea pigs, goats, cattle, rabbits, bears (although, when would i ever encounter a bear), pigs, camels, beavers...and the list goes on. i know i tested positive for over 40. (i don't have a furry pet...)

Various types of fabrics, both natural and synthetic ones; I can do cotton and just have to experiment with the rest of them

dust, dust mites.

getting skin-tested for all of these was no picnic; i had to go in several times because there wasn't enough space for the scratch test on my arms and back.

I also have asthma - severe if it's uncontrolled, fairly mild when it's fully controlled. right now it's sortof-controlled

**counts** wow that was over a hundred...

i have allergy shots, take nose-spray, eye drops, and antihistamines pretty much all year round

[Damien Day]

Strictly speaking, I have no allergies. I have something far, far worse, though, in a way. I have very severe food intolerance towards all wheat and dairy products even raw dairy, as well as to almost food additives. Eating any of these products never gave me anaphylactic shock, like with a food allergy, which would at least have served as a warning to avoid them. Instead I ate and drank them over 2 decades, because my mother had been told by doctors that wheat and dairy are essential for growing children . Unfortunately for me, the private schools I went to as a boy also had very poor school food full of additives, and the only food they provided in abundance at all times, were of course wheat and dairy. The result was that my body gradually slowly deteriorated to the point where I was virtually a bedridden invalid by the age of 29, with a rather unfortunate liking for the taste of dairy. I then switched to my RPD diet, and cut out wheat, dairy, and all additives, and 4 months later felt like a normal, healthy human being again.

The terrible thing is that, while food allergies are recognised as a problem, food intolerance often can go unnoticed for entire lifetimes; and the health authorities do their level best to promote wheat and dairy as health foods, even though very large numbers of the population have a food intolerance towards precisely these foods.

Loki

[Tanwen]

Nettle pollen

Wasp stings (what is it with the stings????)

Eggs (I get severe stomach cramps)

Penicillin

Once had an allergic reaction to a virus, the rash was like nettle rash but was so itchy, drove me crazy, then the swelling started - feet up past my knees. I was away from home at the time, and had to drive about 300 miles convinced I had something terminal. Course of antihystamines sorted it out.

[Ifer]

I've got athsma and I'm allergic to trees. I have exema (sp?) sensitive to most types of soap. My ears are allergic to silver (I once wore a pair of silver earings I'd recieved as a birthday present, when I arrived at school the backing shot out of my ear and under a truck, and the front fell a few feet in front of me. Propelled by the swelling in my ear, of course.) And I inherited a perfume allergy from my mom. Thankfully I didn't inherit my dad's fake sugar allergy, that would suck with the proliforous low- or no-sugar products these days.

[Xenon]

I'm not sure if this is an allergy or not, but I have to stay far, far away from blueberries. Even a small handful of blueberries will result in my having to spend most of the next several hours within sprinting distance of a toilet. Doesn't matter if they're fresh, frozen, baked, whatever -- even a blueberry 'Power Bar' that had real (dried) blueberry pieces in it did it to me... :( :( :(

[birdnerd]

Pollens- No idea which ones. I tell people I have "seasonal allergies- I'm allergic to every season except winter." I take OTC store-brand loratadine, and I'm pretty much okay.

Animals- Rabbits and guinea pigs especially, cats to a smaller extent. Usually the first day or two I'm home with kitties on break I'm an allergic mess, and then I get used to them again.

Foods- Walnuts and pecans, but not very severely. Strangely enough, I'm okay with every other kind of nut. It's just those two that set me off.

Oh yeah, and I've never eaten pearl onions and NOT had an excruciating stomachache afterwards.

[SuXEed]

ive been asthmatic for two periods in my life, though after a few years both times it ceased. I'm also allergic to my cat (only realised it was him after 3 years), hay and elastoplast.

[SpirallingSnowy]

Dust

Pollen

Types of Grass ( ie Buffalo grass which is on my front lawn)

Food -

Natural colours 220, 150, 110, 160 B ( not as severe as my brother tho)

Salicilaytes: tomato, pineapple, orange etc etc - i get mouth ulcers and look like ive been punched in the eyes. used to happen after only a small bit of it but my tolerance is building.

slight asthma

I can only wear proper silver and proper gold jewellry other wise i break out in rashes.

And im allergic to some weird mite thingy that likes to bite my hip and other parts of my body. a sort of excema type thing.

[masked]

Mild dairy but enough so I never drink milk but eat yougurt etc

oranges

pollen/dust/mold give me colds kinda

several colors as well, especially yellow 5

non-gold, hypoallergenic, or sterling silver earings

wool

not really anything else, but I have an am a strict vegetarian (eats eggs and milk, no fish/birds/meat/living animals) which includes red 40. (it is made of non-vegetarian things.)

[Retasha]

I'm allergic to just about everything, but I've not been to the doc about it since I was a toddler. They told my mom then that I was allergic to 'pollutants'; basically, anything that's a chemical. I can't go a day without having hives at least once, and a day spent in town will leave me sick in bed for days. Even touching someone who's used a perfumed soap on their skin will make me sick within minutes.

I don't let it bother me, though. I'm so used to the hives that I can ignore them to some degree, and I only take medicine when my hands swell up. I just spend a lot of time away from people and towns.

[R3i]

Pollens, dates (fruit), pistachios, and some types of perfume.

[oberlinasexual]

Sulpha.

I'm a little bit lactose intolerant, too, but I'm vegan, so that doesn't matter so much.

[anann]

Pollen in general (specifically Dandelions), Nickel, Cobalt, and a preservative that is sometimes in vaccines. I have never been tested for allergies because I don't want to know if I am allergic to my cat.

[Goonie]

nothign tha tI am aware of

[virginangelic]

I found out last December that I'm allergic to the liquid soap provided at this seafood restaurant OR is it the water? I'm not sure which is and it kind of disturbs me.

[Steeple333]

Both sides of my family has numerous allergies, but I have none.

[JokeyFairbobbin]

There's no drug or medicine option. I'm allergic to one of my school's required vaccinations, and they send me a letter every year saying I don't have this vaccination on record, and I have to send a letter back to tell them yes, I'm STILL allergic. -.-

[Remirath]

I'm slightly allergic to pollens but that's it... As far as I know. I've never been stung by a bee/wasp/other flying horrid creature that can sting me, so I can't say if I"m allergic to them.

[Vashti]

I think my sister got all the allergies in my family - the poor child had to put a plastic cover on her mattress to stop her dust allergies. She's been on every kind of allergy medicine known to man, and can't go near a cat without a mild asthma attack.

Me? Nothing. Even poison ivy won't get a reaction out of me.

[LonePiper]

See the interesting thing about most allergies is that the cause of them is very ironic.

I don't have any allergies myself, but apparently the cause of most allergies is parents who want to keep their kids healthy.

The way I understood it is that the human immune system is programmed to be blocking out something most of the time. This is because we evolved in a much less sterile environment that we are in now. If this quota is not filled, the immune system targets some random element in its environment to fight. And thus we become allergic to cat hairs, fly spray, whatever. Our parents decide to keep us away from mud, dirt, rain, whatever and so we don't get our "quota" of germs to fight off, and so our bored immune system starts to pick on just whatever it can find. And the really ironic thing is, parents soon notice that we've got all these allergies, so they think we are particularly unhealthy and make an even bigger effort to keep us away from germs, further aggrivating the problem.

[AmyMorgan]

I'm mildly allergic to raw apples, cherries, peaches and related fruits. However, I'm fine when they're processed or cooked.

[Nightengale]

Allergic to: dust, molds pollen. (can't go inside, can't go outside)

Non-allergic asthma triggered by: exercise in the cold, exercise not in the cold, the cold, cigarette smoke, hairspray, silly string, cooking spray and anything else that comes out of an aerosol can except spray paint. . .

[Brodertun]

Pineapple - but only fresh or dried. i can eat a whole can of it with no problems (though I really shouldn't know that, as I was told to never so much as taste it again. In my defense my first few times after that were accidental, but I love pineapple. I got it on my pizzas and burgers before my severe allergic reaction to eating roughly half of a dried pineapple ring).

Grapes make me sick - at least the purple ones do. I am not sure about the green.

I'm also allergic to some type of laundry detergent - I literaly can not breathe in the cleaning aisles. I am not sure which kind, or if it is a combination of kinds. I just avoid the aisles altogether.

[a-d]

Pineapple - but only fresh or dried

Me too, but in any form. People often give me strange looks, since that seems to be such a rare allergy compared to peanuts and the like.

I'm also allergic to commitment and responsibility...seriously, I almost had to be hospitalized.