My Own Food Allergy Story
Back in 1996, when I first moved up here to New Brunswick from Denver, Colorado, I had just recently begun having allergy symptoms.
All my life I’d been blessedly free of hay fever, never got anything like hives, and ate what I liked without any ill effects.
But that last year I was in Colorado, I’d begun to actually wheeze and sneeze a lot, along with having stuffy sinuses. I thought it was just middle aged hay fever, you know, a by-product of getting a little older. The old biological organism showing a little wear & tear.
Then, I moved up here and these annoying symptoms got progressively worse. I attributed it to the difference in elevation and humidity. Mile high Denver has very dry air. The difference between there and sea level NB, I figured, was making my system kick up and my body would soon adjust.
But instead, I got sicker. I was becoming extremely, painfully short of breath sometimes, like there was a band around my chest. I could never take a deep breath. My sinuses were always stuffy, I could never take a clear breath though my nose.
Then I began having chronic bronchitis. For about a year to a year and a half I was constantly either getting bronchitis, or just getting over it. I was prescribed numerous rounds of antibiotics, which I hated to take, but my lungs were full of bacterial infection. I used a puffer nearly every day.
And then it got even more delightful. The shortness of breath would usually kick in in the evening, just like a clamp around my ribs. Then, after I went to sleep I began to enjoy the marvelous experience of middle of the night acid reflux. Seriously, you just haven’t lived until you’ve woken up at 3 AM with stomach acid erupting up through your throat and nose.
This was extremely painful and unsettling, and it would take quite a while to calm down. I’d drink baking soda water to soothe my tummy and throat, but the burn would linger.
And then, every single night that this happened, the next morning would bring more fun….I would be doubled over with belly cramps for a couple of hours.
It’s a good thing I was working nights at the time because I was usually a basket case until at least noon the next day after a night of wild partying like this!
I was still thinking that all this was caused by some sort of environmental influence, dust mites maybe, or potato fertilizer. I hadn’t examined my diet, because I was eating what I’d always eaten. And I’ve usually eaten a reasonably decent diet, not much junk food. But one thing I’d always enjoyed was milk. I drank it every day, and, being a single gal I’d have a bowl of cereal for supper, or a glass of milk and a peanut butter sandwich. Organic natural peanut butter, mind you, on whole wheat bread!
One of the days I was laid up with yet another bout of bronchitis, really sick in bed, I was reading Dr Andrew Weil’s book “Spontaneous Healing.” There was definitely something wrong with me, the doctors did not know what could be causing all this distress and I was looking for answers. The idea of a food sensitivity or allergy had never crossed my mind.
But there, kind of innocuous like in the middle of Dr Weil’s book, was the key to all my misery. Milk, he said, causes our lungs to produce excess mucous which provides a prime breeding ground for bacteria.
The lights finally went on in my chandelier. I quit milk immediately, and within two weeks was breathing clearly again. This is a case of a developed sensitivity, and as you can see, I loved the very food that was making me sicker than hell. I still eat cheese and yogurt sometimes, but I never drink milk and have not suffered any of those symptoms since I quit the stuff.
Stephanie Kelley
