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Allergies and intolerances

Itchy red, angry skin, nasty flare ups.. think its eczema??Read this...

0 replies

mytime777 · 17/06/2011 20:03

Hi
I wanted to share my knowledge and experience with other skin condition suffers in the hope it may help someone else who has suffered.

As a young child ( 2 years) I had what the drs thought was eczema.
Aged 3-16 my skin was fine
16-18 my skin ( head to toe including my face) was covered in red and angry patches thought to be eczema. crazy amounts of steroid creams were applied.
18-21 skin was fine.
21 - 22 it came back - mainly on my face and arms ( for a while on my tummy) again steroids were prescribed.

So as an adult i decided to look further than the doctors /dermatologists diagnosis as i wasnt happy applying all the steroid cream to my skin - not only did it thin my skin it was damaging the pigment and as i tan well made me ridiculously patchy!! :(

So today my skin ( touch wood ) is back to normal :) how... ?
i started taking note of what i ate /drank. i did the normal , gave up wheat for a while. no difference. the same for gluten, dairy etc.

I realised that everytime i drank wine my skin flared up. it became a regular side effect when ever i drank wine... :(
this led me to look what was in wine that could aggravate me.... sulphates!! ( the ingredients they add to it to preserve it to stop it going off)

I started researching online what other foods/drinks sulphates were in and also what other artificial preservative are used and avoided as best i could. ( no more wine for me:( ).

Any way through my research i came across a condition called urticaria.

This skin condition is made worse and aggregated by preservative and sulphates.
Anti-inflammatories can also aggravate it.( when I was ill with a chest infection i was taking neurofen ( anti inflammatory ) and my skin was soooo bad!! and again when i had a short stay in hospital - pain killers made my skin react.

Suddenly it all fell into place. My hayfever, allergies, hives, bad skin, fact it got worse when I drank wine, junk food etc.
I told my dermatologisyt about it and low and behold... " yes, you have Urticaria!"

I am not a doctor but wanted to share this info in the hope that i maybe able to trigger something who is suffering to ask their doctor, research the condition etc.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urticaria
www.allergy-clinic.co.uk/food-allergy/food-additives/

As a result of my diagnosis i have cut out all preservatives, artificial food colours and sulphates. I am lucky that my other half is a good cook and likes cooking so is happy to eat fresh now.
We eat all food that comes from the fridge basically. If it lives on the shelf 9 times out of 10 it will contain preservatives to keep it from going off.
I take fexofenadine antihistamines daily and my symptoms have pretty much gone:)

it is probably the best time to have this condition mainly due to the fact that most foods/drinks have to state what ingredients they have now AND what artificial ingredients they contain. Look out for :
-no artifical colours
-no artifical sweetners
-no artificail preservatives - make food shopping so much easier!!


If you have the same symptons that I had i would recommend cutting out artificial colours and preservatives. Give it a try. If you were like me and had tried everything including gluten free, dairy free, wheat free to try to find what the cause is , this will be a easy!

Try it - or at least ask your doctor :)
I hope anyone suffering will find this info useful.

x

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