Asthma Forum - Allergic reaction to citric-acid?


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MandMs

Extremely EHEALTHy

Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Posts: 1857
Location: Strumica, Macedonia

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Posted: 04-22-08 05:29am


I'm really sorry you had to go through another medical problem. Have you sometime experienced blood in your urine? Are you prone to frequent UTI? For how long you are having this sleeping problem? Have you tried sleeping pills (but didn't find them helpful)? I think you may suffer from Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, having a slightly different body clock that is out of sync with everyone else’s. You have difficulty falling asleep and difficulty waking up because your natural biological clock is out of phase with the sleeping and waking times you need to go to work. This is a circadian rhythm sleep disorder and one of the most common complications of sleep-wake patterns. I'll try, to be more informative and supportive for everything you wrote, in my next post. Have a good, healthy day! Marija

lilies88

New User, Becoming EHEALTHy

Joined: 22 Apr 2008
Posts: 1

citric acid allergy?? Posted: 04-22-08 15:49pm


Hi, I found this site through google and saw some good posts on citric acid allergies so I'm hoping someone can help. I had a history of a lot of allergies as a child, and grew out of most of them. As an adult, I have only seasonal allergies. Over the past 6 months, I've had swollen lymph nodes in several areas that do not subside. Sometimes they get worse, but they never get better. I have been tested for everything under the sun. Have been to a dermatologist, surgeon, rheumatologist, had CT scan, had abdominal ultrasound, all okay. The only thing that was "wrong" was a positive ANA test but rheumatologist confirmed it is not lupus. The only other symptom I have is scalp pain and hair loss. The two seem to be connected - I'll get seering scalp pain and will find hairs falling out in the area of the pain. I'm now thinking it's tied to food. For the past few days I've tried to do an all organic diet to rid my body of toxins and hope to identify the source of the allergy. The other day I ate some fresh pineapple and my tongue swelled up and the scalp pain flared up. But it didn't happen when I ate pineapple last week. Yesterday the only foods I ate were bananas, organic apples, organic pears, rice cakes (totally plain, no salt) and tuna. In the afternoon I decided to try some organic grape jelly and the pain and hair loss started about an hour after. The only ingredients are grape juice, water, pectin and citric acid. Today all I ate were the same fruits and rice cakes and everything was fine (so I eliminated those as causes). This afternoon I decided to try skittles. Within 45 minutes, the same symptoms came back. Now these have many other ingredients, but the only thing in common with the jelly is the citric acid. I don't know what to do, I do have an appointment with an allergist this week. But can they test for citric acid allergies? And these are not normal symptoms (previously my allergic reactions were hives or itching) so is it maybe not an allergy but some other immune reaction? Help!

Seraph

Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy

Joined: 22 Jan 2008
Posts: 276
Location: , South Africa

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Posted: 04-23-08 11:02am


Hi Lilies Heh...I know how you feel. I am thinking it's similar as what my sister's dogs are having problems with. For a long while they were o.k. with a new dog food and then suddenly one of the dogs started having epileptic fits. The vet told my sis that it is due to "Saturation". In other words, your body can tollerate a certain amount of a specific substance (like citric acid) and then it start's telling you "No more...stop eating that!". That might be why it seems that some days you are more susceptable to certain foods than other days. The one day you would be fine with a whole bag of crisps and the next you can't even tolerate one crisp containing citric-acid. What causes this intolerence isn't known to me at this point, but you might want to look at your vitamin intake? It might just be your bodies way of saying that you have too much of one type of vitamin and too little of another. And yes, too much vitamins/minerals can be bad for you... Marija I have never had any problems with blood in my urine untill now. Obviously, now with the stent and the pieces of the broken up stone running around inside me, it's like grape juice most of the time. I am trying to drink as much fluid as I can though. I haven't had any UTI before this either. Both my dad and sis has had kidney- as well as gal-stones but as far as I know, it's not really hereditary. It might just be that our family is more susceptible to it due to the broken Fibrilin gene causing our bones to get hurt more often and our bodies producing excess amount of calcium to cope with the constant repairs. I have always had problems going to sleep at "normal" times. The one thing that I noticed very clearly as of late again, is that when I work late, my mind seems to get sharper the later it gets although my body keeps on getting more and more tired. It's like my body and my brain are on two different sleep patterns. Also, if I try to force my self to go to sleep earlier, I end up tossing and turning so much that I eventually only get to sleep very late and wake up more tired than usual. As for sleeping pills, they usually cause more problems than anything else, causing me to fall asleep during the day rather than at night. You have been very helpfull and I truelly appreciate it. My health is turning out to be a rather complex jig-saw puzzle with a heck of a lot of inter-related issues. So it is very difficult to post these topics in different areas, as I would have to explain everything all over again. This is the major problem with getting help from the medical professions as well, as they see every problem individually instead of as a part of the larger MFS problem. Even my psychological state might be attributable to the MFS disorder making it appear as if tho I present with Bipolar disorder. Difficulties with sleeping, digestion, fitness and so forth most definately has an impact on one's mental state of being and it has been proven that MFS cases can present with Anxiety due to problems with their lungs. I hope all is well with you. All this time I am dumping one problem after another and never enquired as to how life is treating you

MandMs

Extremely EHEALTHy

Joined: 26 Jan 2007
Posts: 1857
Location: Strumica, Macedonia

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Posted: 05-05-08 04:43am


Thanks for asking. I guess I'm doing well, without some major medical problem, but, like everyone else nowadays I'm stressed and nervous to get with every day life (working, studying, being a mum, taking care for the house and family...sometimes is too much and I just wanna to have opportunity to switch myself off and be only a watcher) I'm very glad you feel comfortable to share all of your health problems with me. It's kind of pleasing (I hope you find me as a friend to talk to) and I'll always do my best to be supportive and helpful. I agree with you that our mental state is connected with how is our body functioning. Trying to identified the problem, finding the "name" for it, learning to live with that (like in your case), I guess takes more energy that we usually have. Please, try not to be disappointed, but, show yourself once again, that you are powerful enough to control this condition (courage is sometimes only our will to TRY AGAIN TOMORROW) I'll suggest you to take more seriously in consideration the Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, as I'm sure you have it. It needs to be treated (sometimes the treatment is very difficult and the right one can be given only from the sleep specialist) because very rare goes away on its own. Also, depression or other psychiatric problems are present in about half of the adult DSPS patients, which is about the same for people that suffer from other forms of insomnia. About your kidney's condition, I'm curious if you underwent some kidney tests and examinations. Can, you, please ask your kidney doctor or the one that's following you as a patient with Marfan's about Medullary sponge kidney. It's an appearance of the inner part of the kidney (is characterized by ectasia-widening and cystic formation in the medullary collecting duct, cysts give the kidney the gross anatomic appearance of a sponge) This is usually, an asymptomatic nonprogressive condition, but, when there are symptoms, kidney stones, blood in urine and urinary infections are present. The Medullary sponge kidney, can be a part of a Marfan syndrome. Best wishes! Marija