Breaking the diet

This is now officially the worst cold I've had in  five years. Yesterday I broke the diet to try and kick start the immune system. We were at a function and I just ate what we were given. Chicken in herbs, rhubarb crumble - delicious! Then there was no decaf coffee so I just had half a cup of ordinary coffee. At least it kept me awake for a longish journey home. But no appetite for wine. Sadly, although I was spared the embarrassment of having to ask for appropriate food, I then had to face the embarrassment of mingling with people with a cold that was just getting worse.

There were effects from the caffeine at first - I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head.There have been no skin reactions I've noticed and no sinusitis or jaw ache. My throat is sore and my nose runny - you would expect that. I'm wondering whether these symptoms have been aggravated by breaking the diet. Although the rhinusitis and common cold always seem to have opposite causes, in fact they are both caused by immune system reactions. I may be doubling up.

RAS

A cold

I have gone down with a stinking, stonking, horrendous, wonderful cold - probably the worst cold I've had in five years.

For the last 24 hours I've been indulging in redbush tea. I ate a cream muffin with strawberry jam. I tried red grapes. My skin is fine, my throat is not but that is probably the cold virus.

I was going to indulge in wine tonight - but it is a real cold and is playing havoc with my tastebuds and appetite. So I haven't really enjoyed the redbush tea (it is rather old and may just be stale). All being well, thanks to a hyperactivated immune system it should be gone tomorrow.

RAS

A decaf tester?

What we need is a thermometer style stick to test coffee for absence of caffeine.

Today I bought a small decaf latte from a caterer which specifically advertised a decaf option. This was welcome - I'm not sure whether the availability of decaf is improving or whether I'm just more discerning. For instance at a motorway service station I will head for Costa or Starbucks and take a decaf into the restaurant. No point in asking there as the best I will get is a dreadfully made instant sachet. I do drink a lot of instant coffee but it needs milk.

As I came away my throat was choking and that left eye started to ache - a surefire sign that something is wrong. Apart from that I felt bright and cheerful. It was a pleasant day - and I felt quite high ... as you would after an unexpected shot of caffeine. One possibility - as I have noted before - is simply that filter decaf or whatever they use in coffee shops is not fully decaffed. Another is that staff don't always remember to get out a decaf sachet and think you won't notice.

So we need a discreet testing device. Can it be done? A device for testing for salicylate would also be handy - but a little more complex as it's not going to be found uniformly in any food. So it would have to be some kind of scanner - maybe a project for the 22nd century?

RAS

Caterers and muffins

I sent the following advice off to some caterers this week. Time will tell if I get an edible meal out of it:
It's salicylate allergy
What?
Unfortunately salicylate - much the same as aspirin - is in many fruit and vegetables, in caffeine and in most nuts, herbs and spices including pepper. The simplest solution is plain food and ungarnished vegetables with no sauces or gravy. All meats and sea food and cheese are good.


The following foods are good and commonly eaten:
Cabbage
Peas
Banana
Chocolate
Decaf coffee


Small mistakes are not fatal!


I'm not sure if I should have mentioned chocolate as I have largely given it up - but not in chocolate cake. Some supermarket chocolate muffins turned up in our house this week. I have eaten too many of them and feel unwell. I can only conclude they were stacked with loads of caffeine. This morning my left eye was sore - a sure sign of problems - and it is now spreading down my left jaw and left neck. I have taken a montelukast.

RAS

A little knowledge

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/my-midlife-allergy-crisis-can-you-suddenly-become-allergic-to-something-or-is-it-all-in-the-mind-2342098.html?

Where do we start? This gentleman, writing in a respectable British newspaper, has gastrointestinal symptoms and decides to be tested for "food allergy". How many allergies are marked purely by gastro-symptoms? Maybe cow's milk in children.

He then discovers he is not allergic to anything - having been told he could test for wheat by giving it up. He then rants on about "true immune-mediated" allergies, clearly recycling some highly condensed notes and quotes - moving allergy in one stroke from gastro-intestinal symptoms to life-threatening anaphylaxis.

Is there nothing in between, Dan? No mention of asthma, eczema, urticaria (hives to you), chronic rhinusitis (that's hay fever) let alone the chronic inflammatory conditions that are so badly diagnosed?

And it all concludes with some nonsense, apparently endorsed by an Allergy UK spokesperson, suggesting that we mostly eat too much wheat and dairy. Try living on bananas, fish and cabbage, I say.

Most of the comments are equally disturbing. Maybe it's just because the British are obsessed with their bowels.

* I was interested to see the main source is the London Allergy Clinic, about which I had heard little previously.  I'm amazed that when the NHS is so short of specialists they have the time to run a presumably lucrative joint private practice. I'd be interested to know if they provide effective on-going care for patients - or simply take fees for diagnosis.

RAS

PS My judgement may be a little harsh as originally it was gastro symptoms that alerted me to a possible problem. The second alert was when I started choking on my food. But it took me a while to relate it to a life-time of minor skin problems and the very disturbing ache in my left eye (which puzzled my optician). And I only dared go to the doctor when my tongue and lips started swelling.

Side-effects of Singulair

There's a new side-effect from montelukast reported by the US authorities here. And it's psychiatric. Actually it's not new but for some reason it's just hit the social media.

The range of effects includes "agitation, aggression, anxiousness, dream abnormalities and hallucinations, depression, insomnia, irritability, restlessness, suicidal thinking and behavior (including suicide), and tremor. "

I can't say I had noticed - I was like that (irritable and restless) before I started taking the drug so I will ask members of my family. If these effects exist they are nothing like the side-effects of anti-histamines. I had a relative who went through a period of temporary madness and lost the ability to distinguish between dreams and reality. That was how anti-histamines, taken in high doses regularly, felt. Deep, realistic and frightening dreams.

I wonder if some of those who have reported side-effects have confused them with the effects of anti-histamines which they might well have been taking also.

* In fact I think I'm much calmer now than I was five years ago, perhaps thanks to giving up caffeine. Can I report a beneficial neuro-psychiatric side-effect?

RAS

Wasp sting

After five years of avoiding them, a wasp got me on the head today. I was at an event so went to the First Aid tent to see if they had any anthisan. They didn't so they stuck an icepack on my head and kept me under observation.

When I got home an hour later I took a montelukast and an antihistamine tablet. I wasn't going to die from it - but a flush had spread across my face, my lips were tingling - as was the back of my hand where the C  made a faint reappearance.

It could have been worse - it could have been a jellyfish.  I've been on holiday and meant to report. I took montelukast daily when I was on holiday - and enjoyed the occasional wine and other dishes that were not strictly "allowed".  And there was plenty of sea and sunshine. I came back and stopped the daily pills and a week later, even prior to the wasp sting, I felt as if I was going down hill fast. Was it the pills - or the sea and sun?

RAS

Jellyfish alert

The C on the back of my hand stayed itchy for several days and grew , becoming more welt than weal. It's now scabby but is not obviously fading. And I'm reminded the jelly fish season is approaching. Last year on holiday we kept a high alert for jelly fish - without either letting it spoil our fun or having a clear idea what to do. If a flea bite can bring me out in weals, what will a jelly fish do? And what on earth does this have to do with salicylate?

My plan on holiday is to take a montelukast daily. Last year I drank quite a lot of wine - and suffered for it throughout the autumn. It will be hard to resist temptation - especially if it's cheaper than water.

RAS

Weal bad news?

I think I must have had an insect bite on my right hand. I had forgotten what insect bites can do. It itched a little and then went scaly. That was alarming as I thought I might be getting hives on my right side.

Over the last couple of days it has grown into a large C branded on the top of my hand. It's astonishing how useful this diary is - as I had completely forgotten about weals and welts. This happened two years ago when I was attacked by fleas and I identified the problem as papular urticaria.

In the light of today's news linking allergies to protection against cancer, it's maybe reassuring to know I can still get these bizarre reactions. However this particular welt itches like hell and I am wondering whether to try an anti-histamine cream, as I did before. I just hope it's not something worse - like scabies.

RAS

Cabbage and canaries

I was thinking that red cabbage might be the canary of our civilisation. Or possibly that its mysterious absence from the shelves is linked to the German e.coli outbreak. The Germans, I believe, love their red cabbage. I cannot think of any other reason for its disappearance - and  nobody has been able to suggest an explanation apart from e.coli.

Anyway tonight I found some in Tesco's - there were two red cabbages on the shelves. They were organic. But that's good news. They say you should mix red, orange, green and yellow fruit and vegetables in your diet to get a full range of nutrients. Well, red cabbage is the only red fruit or vegetable I can eat.

So maybe the canary has not croaked yet.

RAS