Hi, I'm aware this is probably a very obvious question for most people but I've never had any medical issues or interactions and I'm quite socially awkward.

I have health insurance through work and had a chat with a GP over the phone who has given me a referral letter to see an allergist.

After she told me she'd send one over I just kind of "thanks"ed my way out of the conversation and now I dont really know what to do with this letter. Do i just walk in to a hospital and ask to see an allergist? I guess I phone... someone but who? presumably not my local surgery?

Again, I know this is a painfully obvious question I shouldnt need to ask but here we are..

I tested positive on my ige blood test for corn. I can tell that I have a reaction when I have corn or corn based products like gf pasta.

But whenever I eat something with modified cornstarch or maltodextrin, I don't feel a reaction. Is that even possible? Does that mean I am safe to eat products with these ingredients or should I still stay away from them?

Anyone know specific foods/snacks that use shared lines with peanuts but are NOT labeled as ‘may contain’? I never knew this was a thing and I’m so diligent of reading labels.

i’ve had covid twice and have been eating only a small selection of foods for the last year due to food anxiety and ocd. i keep seeing things about people getting covid and developing new allergies. i need to start adding foods back into my diet but im so scared that i developed an allergy since ive gotten covid twice in about a year and a half. has anyone gotten covid twice and NOT developed any allergies? i’m so broken mentally and i don’t know how to get out of this extreme anxiety

i have ocd and extreme food anxiety, i’ve been eating the same few foods for about 6 months now. i was eating one of my safe foods this morning, which i’ve eaten every day for the last 4 months, and after i was done eating my mouth felt kinda like i ate something spicy but it definitely wasn’t spicy at all. my mouth didn’t itch and i had no problems breathing, only a slight “spicy” feeling. is this the beginning of another allergy? i’m so scared that im allergic to it and ill only have 2 safe foods left. i know i need to start adding foods back into my diet but im so scared of having a reaction, especially since ive had covid twice since this food anxiety started.

I figured I’d ask. I have an allergy to stevia. The bigger issue is due to fda it doesn’t have to be on the label. It can be “natural flavors”. I’ve been lucky. I just get really Ill for while. But now it’s getting worse. Im allergic to bananas so I know when i start itching it’s getting worse.

I’m assuming not on label as ingredient an app will do me no good if not listed on back.

Thought I’d ask.

So I (31F) think I almost put myself into anaphylactic shock today. have had pretty severe spring allergies for as long as I can remember. Every spring the sneezing, sniffling, itch eyes and asthma drives me crazy and I’ve tried everything over the counter! Equate, Zyrtec Claritin and more….

I've been told that local honey and bee pollen can help temper the body to the local seasonal irritants, so I decided why not? What's the worst that could happen? Just as an aside, I’ve also been dieting and one of my biggest weaknesses is sweets! I love anything saccharine, but I know it's not good for me so in an effort to avoid giving myself an excuse to ingest more sugar, I decided to opt for the pollen granules.

I put a small amount In my tea last night, and even though there was some stuffiness throat itching and sneezing, it was nothing out of the ordinary and went away after an hour or so, so I figured it was just a regular reaction to the irritants I’m sensitive to in the air.

This afternoon I was going to make lunch and have a cup of coffee, so I dosed my coffee with about a teaspoon of pollen and preheated the oven. After about thirty minutes I started to sneeze uncontrollably, and after another 10, my throat and eyes started to itch like crazy. 5 minutes after that, I was wheezing and my eyes were almost swollen shut. At this point I knew I wasn’t having just some run of the mill fit of allergies. I'd never had an experienced with anaphylaxis before, but I knew whatever was happening to me wasn’t good. I shut off the oven and hunkered down on the couch with a glass of water. My aunt lives in a different house on the same property ( we live on a farm) and asked if she could bring over some benadryl. I took 2 of the pills and have been putting a cold compress on my eyes since it happened. It's been a couple hours at this point and I do feel MUCH better. The swelling has gone way down, and now it just kind of feels like my throat is a little raw and my eye sockets are sore. I was also tired as hell from the benadryl, but I was afraid to go to take a nap because I was scared to death that my throat would swell up and I’d suffocate in my sleep.

I've never had that severe of a reaction to anything I've ingested. Just looking for input I guess...

Recently iv been ordering from burger king more frequently , but i realized everytime i eat it i immediatly get a stuffed+runny nose for the rest of day , when i wake up next day its gone , i tried different restaurants , but it only happens with burger king , why? Any ideas?

I’ve always had reactions to food containing pectin and every doctor I told was surprised and had never heard of a pectin allergy before. There was never a pectin skin allergy test so I just always avoided anything with pectin (the most random shit has pectin. Like diet Mountain Dew and powdered matcha mix)

I just found out that pectin is made with citrus peel, and guess what? I have a severe lemon allergy! Also saw a paper on a single case of cross reactivity with cashew allergy which surprise, I also have.

Well it all makes sense now! Not that anything changes but it’s good to know.

Anybody know a simple way to test food to see if it contains soy. I know labels have the info, but I'm more concerned with food prepared at a restaurant or basically not by me to test for the presence of soy.

I've found some test kits that are for manufacturers, but hard to believe there isn't something out there an individual can use to test their food. Like test strips. Seems lime this should be a thing.

There should be a better way than my reacting to it being the test.

Hi,

M33. Few days back i had a minor allergic reaction after eating Mangoes. Caused sore throat, and tingling tongue, Went to ER and they gave me one 10mg Decadron shot on my left hand muscle. Allergic reaction subsided after that. Havent taken a steroid in my life, it was the first time I took a single shot due to allergic reaction.

Since then its 4 days and I have overall weakness, feel lethargic, I had very active life style, and used to do a regular 5miles run, 30-40 mins GYM. Now its all stopped after taking that bloody steroid shot.

Asked my PCP and he said its not because of the shot, but I feel its because of shot since it all started after taking it.

After researching online I see people feeling energetic after taking steroid shot, but in case of me its total opposite. Unable to get into my usual lifestyle where I can continue gym, go for running etc.

Anyone here with same symptoms? When will these symptoms go away?

I wonder if this is a thing because I had pork meat at a dinner yesterday night and woke up at 4am very nauseous and ended up vomiting. Today still feeling very unwell, lightheaded weak and still nauseous. I recall last time I felt like this was 2 years ago at my work company dinner where I also had a pork. Could this be related to the pork itself? Anyone has the has the same thing? Thank you

My poor three-month old is struggling. I cut dairy from my diet when he was one month at the recommendation of the pediatrician to help reduce spit up/fussiness. Then, I ate a soy protein bar without thinking last Saturday and he had a significant GI reaction — would only feed while sleeping, crying and in obvious pain, started to get better after like four days…then I ate a coconut yogurt and everything restarted. Super mucusy poop, still only eats while sleeping. I’m stressed and basically just terrified to eat anything at this point, especially because he seems to be developing a feeding aversion. I’ve cut all major allergens from my diet the past two days and am hoping my little guy’s gut will heal. I don’t, however, just want to cut everything out and potentially make the allergies worse. I will hopefully get into the pediatrician at the beginning of the week, but I’m curious if any of you have had similar experiences and how everything played out.

When I was a kid, whenever I ate yogurt, I would instantly. throw up a couple seconds-minutes later. This also happened with curd and buttermilk. But not actual milk or cheese. As an adult, I outgrew this. I always said I was "allergic" to yogurt but now I am wondering what it actually was.

Hello so the women in my family, myself, mom, grandma and my sister. All had/have an allergy where when we eat ANY kind of tomato or tomato product and then spend time in the sun we develope hives and a burning feeling like mild acid has been poured on our skin. I was wondering during if anyone on here has ever heard of something like this.

Hi! Well I thought I'd come to people that deal with this all the time and see where I might start looking. I'm not somebody who has food allergies that I know of. I have only had an allergic reaction to one food source that I know of in my life. Blue diamond, almonds, wasabi and soy sauce. Isn't that random? I first tried them when they came out a couple decades ago. Had a really scary reaction with some hives and weird feelings of pinpricks in my skin and blood rushing around. Things that average people would understand was an allergy. I guess that's what it was and didn't pick them up again until 10 years later. Second guessing myself, I tried them again and had a similar smaller reaction. Can you guess where this is going? I ordered regular Blue diamond smoke almonds from a delivery service today. They swapped out these and I thought, I know. I'll try some and see if I'm still allergic. I really didn't trust my own experience because I'm not allergic to anything else that I know of. I ate five of them and the reaction started so I did a full dose of Benadryl hours later. I'm still feeling the pin pricks and I'll take another Benadryl dose and hopefully it'll go away by tomorrow. I brought this up with the doctor before and it's basically, "Yeah, well, if you're sensitive to it, don't eat it." Absolutely. Makes sense. But, I want to know what the heck I'm reacting to. I can eat wasabi. I can eat soy sauce. I can eat other items from that same product line. Where on Earth do I start looking at the ingredients to figure out what the culprit is? Thanks for any insight.

About 15 years ago I started having pretty intense itching / hives on my upper torso after eating non-organic cherries. It took some trial and error before I realized what was causing it. Since then, I've been fine just avoiding non-organic ones.

This week it happened again, but with non-organic blackberries. I'm not convinced that it's the fruit itself that is bothering me because I don't have any other symptoms. The itching feels very much like an antibiotic allergy I had as a kid.

Has anyone else experienced this? Could it be something they are spraying on the fruit? I'd like to identify it if possible so I can know what all I need to avoid or buy organic.

recently developed mild lactose intolerance after drinking a ton of milk my whole life, same with a soy milk allergy and drinking it gives me hives (tofu is fine though). recently i’ve had issues with coffee (oat milk added), and after throwing up a few weeks ago i thought i had a coffee allergy since i use a bit of oat milk for cereal and french toast. i just drank oat milk and almost puked from nausea (stayed tuned though). is it over for me? my only hope is almond milk but it’s only a matter of time

should i get allergy tested, even though it’s expensive? i have a good amount of already suspected allergens like sesame and strawberries (not food but pollen/dust if that counts). none are life threatening though (yet)

Hey everyone, I'm wondering before you dine out, what precautions do you typically take? (I'm tree nut ana here.) For example, do you call restaurants ahead of time, check menus online, use certain apps, or stick to a list of safe places? Or do you just wing it and hope for the best? And if you've ever had a reaction despite precautions, how do you handle that situation with the restaurant staff? Also, does your approach change when you're traveling or in a foreign country?

Personally I've had way too many close calls and reactions despite informing the wait staff about my allergies, which can be super frustrating. I'm curious to see what tools or resources others have found helpful to make dining out safer and less stressful.

Looking forward to swapping tips!

At a gardening workshop and the soil mix they’re teaching us includes peanut meal. I’m going to use it flor flowers not veggies. How do y’all avoid peanuts in soil when gardening with veggies?

Somehow, drug companies have escaped a requirement to label allergens in their products in the United States. The Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act of 2004 (FALCPA) only required the labeling of major food allergens in food but not in drugs. So drug companies could be filling their pills up with wheat all this time and would have zero legal obligation to disclose it.

A new bill in the House of Representatives, H.R.4263 (The ADINA Act: Allergen Disclosure in Non-food Articles) would require drug companies to label whether their drug contains any ingredient derived directly or indirectly from any "major food allergen" or a "gluten containing grain" (defined as wheat, barley, rye, and their crossbred hybrids).

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/4263/text

This legislation is long overdue, but hopefully with this being an election year and the bill having bipartisan support, we can get it passed. Call you representatives and senators to demand they pass this bill.

Does anyone know what is in artificial butter flavor? We made popcorn last night with flavacol and Golden Barrel artificial butter flavored coconut oil.

I had a mild reaction, and not allergic to corn that I know of, so it’s come down to either one or the other that Flavacol or the artificial butter flavored coconut oil was the culprit.

FWIW, I’m going to the allergist in May, and I’ve been avoiding soy as a potential culprit.

Warning to all my fellow legume allergy sufferers, McDonald’s UK have added pea protein to all buns. If you suffer from this you’ll know it’s becoming increasingly difficult to avoid this ingredient. It is now in pastries (such as Starbucks croissants, ffs) and plenty of fast food, processed meats.

I found this allergy easy to avoid for the first 25 years of my life but the last 13 years have been harder and harder. I am having allergic reactions once a month now being caught out by things I would NEVER have had to worry about before, like ice cream last month.

This is the fastest growing allergy currently but Anaphylaxis UK won’t add it to the top 14 because not enough of us are dying of it…yet! Because it will get worse. The allergy is rising at the same rate as the prevalence of pea protein in ultra-processed food.

I’m tired of people being dismissive and saying things like, “Just stay home!” to people with allergies, as though we don’t already swerve loads of social activities because we’re trying to not be a problem or put ourselves at risk. There is no place for peas in bloody croissants, ice cream and bread. It is ridiculous.

It’s not there in place of something else, like dairy or wheat, it’s in there AS WELL AS those other allergens and is only there to cut costs. I feel sorry for all the kids who will grow up now with this allergy who will really struggle to have normal social lives and who will need to worry about every bit of food they eat outside of their home. It literally gets worse every month.

hi i’m 19 years old and i also possibly have ibs (doctor never confirmed fully). my doctor told me they found a high count of eosinophils in my stomach that may indicate a food allergy. i assumed i was allergic to some type of ingredient or additive that gives me ibs like symptoms.

i have a really bad intolerance to caffeine and when i drink it it makes my heart race, i get the sweats, i get dizzy, my hands start tingling and then i projectile vomit everywhere. recently the same thing has been happening with alcohol.

even the smallest sips of alcohol make me have that reaction and i’m so curious if you can even be allergic to alcohol. given my stomach condition i wouldn’t be surprised but is it a thing? what do i do about it?

For starters not necessarily newly diagnosed? Although to be honest it was never fully explained to me the symptoms of an allergic reaction and I actually questioned if the diagnosis of a shellfish allergy was correct when getting allergy tested as I have loved shrimp as well as squid and crab a majority of my life. At least until working in a pet store where I discovered that crickets make me incredibly itchy, at first I disregarded it as a psychological thing until I had a late night epiphany about how shrimp are just underwater bugs, and drew the correlation with the crickets, with a google search confirming my thought. I only get to eat sea food on special occasions so I haven't had any consistent exposure with any shellfish besides the crickets, but I recently had to decide to cut shellfish out after a scary encounter with some shrimp sushi, in which I began to have trouble breathing. Lately I have been dealing with some pretty severe nausea almost constantly, thought it was medication side effects, but it has continued after stopping and i suppose I'm wondering if physical contact with an allergen could be the cause of the nausea? I also would greatly appreciate any advice on what I should be looking out for in terms of reactions? I admittedly am not very good at determining how much danger I am in physically due to nerve damage and the way I was raised. I believe I've covered most info that could be useful but feel free to ask about any specifics

So in the last month I think I’ve narrowed down corn to be one of the things causing digestive problems. I’ve NEVER had any food allergies, sensitivities etc so I’m kind of freaking out now that I have food, skin and god knows what else sensitivities that came on so quickly in the last two years. I do wanna make it clear I’m NOT ALLERGIC, it’s just a bad sensitivity… so far. Knock on wood.

Anytime I ate food with corn or corn meal I got symptoms that affected my stomach and skin. My favourite food of all time which is popcorn 🥲, Doritos, gluten free cheetos, rye bread, bagels, cheese buns, etc which all contained corn/corn meal high in the ingredient list. Beans might also be an irritant but idk for sure. Things like corn syrup aren’t really an issue thankfully. Im waiting on allergy testing and idk how long that’s gonna be so I just have to make do on my own.

Gluten free foods are so easy to find but corn is in everything! I’m ordering sorghum seeds online to try and make sorghum popcorn. I switched to eating white bread with no corn for sandwiches and so far it’s helped a bit.

Store bought or homemade recipes that are easy to make is what I’m looking for. I don’t eat much meat and no seafood (not an allergy, just not a fan)