Lars, I've never had any tests..but I'm guessing that a level 3, means you don't need an epi..but they most likely will cause some kind of reaction...hives, upset stomach..itchy rectum, maybe even headaches.
Also if the results were worthy of concern you'd be seeing a doctor sooner than a 6 week follow up.
I do find it very interesting that you seem to be allergic to almost every grain!! I mean even most Celiacs can eat rice, oats(given they are gluten free) and corn.
Since you aren't "allergic" to dairy, that just means you are lactose intolerant if dairy bothers you..You can eat hard/firm cheese with no problem right?
I think that you should continue to eat the granola if you aren't having any reactions. As well as rice and other grains too. Just watch for any "oddities" then omit that item and see if things are different.
There are certain things I can't eat..but often it's brands or types..some times it bothers me, sometimes it doesn't..I've not quite figured it out if it's a brand thing, a growing region or a combination on some things.

Yes, I guess if the results had been drastic, the doctor would have scheduled an appointment for me. I had made the 6 week follow up appointment before I got the allergy results, however, which came in the mail.

I almost always have an upset stomach, but I think that is due to the blood pressure medicine that I take. I don't think it's good for me to have diarrhea every day, however. I think tea might upset my stomach also, but not nearly as much as coffee.

What's an epi?

Lars

Have you ever had an problem with food allergies? Why did you ask to have these tests done? I'm surprised he even did them, they are certainly not necessary and are usually only done when someone suddenly has a serious problem with a particular food. For example, my son had some testing done a few years ago, when he was about 21, when his mouth and throat swelled up after eating a fresh apple. He now knows he has a problem with fresh, thin skinned fruit (!?), but not cooked thin skinned fruit.

If food allergies have never been a problem, don't worry about it.

An epi pen is a brand name/generic name for a medication pen..it gives one with severe allergic reactions enough time to hold the allergeric reaction long enough to get to the hospital for further treatment.
No diahrea every day is a BAD thing..maybe that granola does inflict you "reactions".

Here is a link that might be useful: epi pen

I asked to have the tests done because I have frequent diarrhea, and I thought that it was a reaction to certain foods. I do know that I get diarrhea immediately after having milk and/or coffee, but I guess that is not an allergy. At least now I know after having the test done that I am NOT allergic to milk, and previously I thought that perhaps I was. I've never had a rash or swelling from food, but I was not aware that that was a necessary symptom of an allergy. I wanted to have the tests done to confirm that I DON'T have allergies, and at least with milk, that was successful.

Lars

Lactose intolerance is NOT the same as an allergy. You can get the trots from milk and milk prodicts because your body doesn't digest lactose properly.
Have you been tested for diverticulosis? have you had a lower GI done?
I suspect that you are not allergic to all those grains, but to something else....Your body can stand a considerable amount of allergens, but when your system becomes overloaded, then you get the reaction. Simplistic, but the premise of overloading on allergens is sound.
If you are having frequent diarreah (cant' spell worth anything!....was going to say worth a toot...but that seemed too much of the subject)I suspect you are having a reaction to something....not necessarily an allergic reaction but rather one of intolerance.
Milk, too many beans, too much coarse fiber, ibuprofin in the amounts to deal with a broken bone or a very bad sprain, too much hot salsa, tomato overdose in season, corn overdose, in season...zuchinni skin ( I always knew it made my hands itch...but it turns out it makes my gut itch too!)
Think intolerance rather than allergies.
And I think these blood test allergy tests, especially when given by an internist and especially when the patient is having problems, are hugely flawed.
Linda C

link below might help with the dairy thing...

and this might give you some more questions to ask your doctor...Diarrhea ???Q&A

Here is a link that might be useful: LI or Allergy to dairy

I agree with Linda. I had some of those tests in the spring and once I read up on the mixed results that can occur, I had my doubts about their accuracy. According to some articles I've read, the same patient can test get widely different results from the same test done at different times.
In my case, I felt like it meant they wanted to sell me an allergy shot every week for the rest of my life, which I refused. (I went to an allergist for testing of a sudden recurring rash, and he tried to convince me I'm allergic to every tree, shrub, grass and mold in the western US in spite of this being the first time I ever had the rash and have zero history of any plant-based allergies -- including poison ivy. I am allergic to penicillin -- so OF COURSE I'd test positive for molds.) They were so convinced I'd just go along with the shots that he ordered the serum before he even got the test results back. So, you could say I'm just a lot cynical about these tests.
Why not try an experiment and do an elimination diet? That's where you take one specific food out of your diet for a time (usually two weeks). If there is not change in how you feel, you add that food back and eliminate the next food on the list. It doesn't cost anything, and you're only out the inconvenience of eating around that specific food for a couple weeks.

Renee, that's exactly what my doctor suggested that I do - try an elimination test. However, that is flawed as well, I think. Suppose I eliminated one food and I still have symptoms. That doesn't mean that it is not part of the cause, since there could be multiple causes, which I suspect is the case. It could be part of the problem, but not the only part.

I guess I would have to eliminate everything and then just try one food at a time. Some days (which are few), I don't have any problems, and I don't know why. I seem to have fewer problems when I travel (as long as I avoid coffee, milk, and other known irritants). I'm going to be visiting Texas at Thanksgiving, and I should be able to do some elimination tests then, since there are fewer food choices for me there. However, I still believe that the blood pressure medicine is the main culprit, since I didn't have the problem to such a degree until I started taking that. Diarrhea is one of the listed side effects of two of the medications I am taking. I'm taking three BP medications and one cholesterol medication. However, I take the BP medication every day, and I don't have symptoms every day - just ALMOST every day.

Lars

Well, why not try eliminating _all_ grains for a couple of weeks and see what happens? If the diarrhoea goes away, try reintroducing each grain one at a time. If it comes back, stop that grain, get clear, then try another one. Then you'll know it's the grains and which ones, if not all.

Either way accomplishes the same thing, so whichever is easier for you is the way to go. I think you're supposed to carefully journal your foods/reactions for those weeks, too.

Lars, this is a real long shot, but I know someone this happened to -- could it be even remotely possible that your dishwasher isn't properly rinsing the soap from dishes? I know someone who had daily diarrhea and when she had to call for service on the dishwasher because the door lock broke, the repairman discovered a problem with the rinse cycle/jets. He fixed that and she realized a week later that her digestive problems had gone away. Like I said, a long shot, but still....

Linda, I forgot to answer these questions:
Have you been tested for diverticulitis? have you had a lower GI done?
"No" to both of them, but then I don't know what either of those are. You are the first one to bring this up to me.

I rather doubt that the dishwasher is the problem - it seems to be working fine, and if it were the problem, DB would have the same symptoms, and he doesn't, and we eat the same foods, more or less. I really think that the BP medicine has made me more sensitive, but then I take those every day and don't have symptoms every day (although almost every day).

It would be very difficult for me to remove all grains, I think. I could possibly eliminate all but one and then switch to a different grain each week. I have a huge supply of granola right now, however, because it was on sale at the market last week!

Lars

Good point about the dish soap. I've heard that before. Has anyone mentioned Irritable Bowel Syndrome? I'm guessing you don't smoke, but that can be a factor also. If the meds you take made a small symptom worse, then you still had something going on before you started the bp meds, imho.

Different people react different ways. In the case I mention, there was only her and a partner, and the partner wasn't affected. Then again, her partner could eat just about anything and the friend had to be more careful.

Diverticulosis is the formation of pockets in the intestines. Diverticulitis is when one or more of the pockets becomes inflamed (usually due to trapped materials). As much as I dislike using Wikipedia as a source material, they actually have a decent description of the symptoms.

Hi Lars,

I have never posted on this forum because (not a whine) my family has diverse health problems that require "cafeteria style" cooking, so I enjoy vicariously here. Your post struck a chord with me, however because my daughter experienced similar problems, except she also was nauseous with sporadic vomiting, for three years until she had an endoscopy. We too started with the allergy testing because I have food allergies, but nothing was definitive. Upon a nutritionist's advice, we remove all cow's milk protein from her diet just to see. This is different from removing lactose. It requires all casein, whey, etc. products be removed from the diet. In many instances, Lactose Free products still contain casein, whey, etc. and were not an option for us. There are a lot of websites that provide more information, but I can't begin to tell you how long it took me to find a milk-free margarine. While her lower GI problems stopped, the nausea did not. Finally, an endoscopy indicated that she had reflux and a biopsy showed that she was lactose intolerant. She now takes OTC medication that work for her.

That said, one reason that I empathized with your post is that it took me so long to find out what was wrong for her. Could you call the allergist to ask him to explain the results? Or ask to speak with the nutritionist? So many times I ran into a dead end with the results, and I felt like we were back to square one. In retrospect, I should have been more assertive. I guess a fair question to ask the doctor "Is where should I go from here?"

Good luck with everything.

Cathy

Beanthere dunthat: Oh my goodness! When this was going on, I became absolutely neurotic about rinsing dishes LOL!

There is something called 'leaky gut syndrome', which can cause your body to react to many things you eat. My daughter had a blood test done by a lab in Florida that only does food allergy and sensitivity tests and she was found to have reacted to 24 foods, most of which we commonly ate. They were rated from 1 to 3, with 3 being the strongest reaction. She had to do an elimination, rotation diet, so I went on it with her. It helped me a lot, but itdidn't change her much. I think she just needed to be on it longer, but she wasn't interested. I did find a good cookbook that helped me with ideas. It's "Allergy and Candida Cooking", by Sondra Lewis. It shows you how to do a rotation diet and other things to help. It's so hard to buy packaged foods when you have an allergy since they have parts of foods in them that one may not realize is from their allergen.

My other daughter had a period of time where she had frequent stomach aches, some of which would affect her quite a bit. They got worse as time went on. I'd give her plain, unsweetened yogurt with fruit thinking it would sooth her, only to find out later that she had a milk allergy. So once I removed dairy, she healed and was fine. The test was just an ear prick for a drop of blood, then a quick test and we found out before we left. This was with a naturopathic doctor.

My mom has had so much trouble with BP meds, ended up in the hospital several times one year from the side effects. There are things you can do through diet, exercise, and supplements to help control it without drugs, but you need a doctor knowledgeable on it to have good results and there aren't many MDs that do it that way, not enough money in it for them. I won't go off on that tangent though. I just hate to see people suffer needlessly.

I wish you the best in getting to the root of your problem and you're probably right that your meds are a part of it. Check out the book I mentioned. Some sites let you read parts of a book before you buy it.

IBS??????? Nerves??????

I had problems for years but when I eliminated everything with Red Dye #40 from my diet (and meds), I was symptom free. Although it is a pain, I would write down everything I ate for a couple of weeks and see what is different on the days that you don't have a problem. I was shocked to learn how many things had red dye in them. My pharmacists had watched me have reactions to drugs that did not have related ingredients and tolerate others that should have bothered me. Turned out they did have a common ingredient.........the red dye. The doctor didn't discover my problem, I did. After a glass of pink lemonade almost sent me to the hospital, and it was the only thing I had consumed, we started putting all of it together. If not your meds, then I would suspect and additive or dye. Good luck.

Lars, it really struck me that you said you "It would be very difficult for me to remove all grains, I think.", yet, those are the very allergens bothering you. Could the allergist be right?

Because, if you eat those every meal? day? couldn't that truly be what causes your symptoms? I know believing it would mean you'd have to give up everything you like, but it might be worth it. I too am learning to live without them. Instead of granola, have soy bars. Instead of pasta, bread, etc., add more veggies or very lean proteins to the meal. I just can't say strongly enough; it can be done, and you might feel loads better. (Not to mention how much weight loss happens, well, for me). Your side effect might be lower cholesterol. I wish you the best.

Thanks for all the advice - I'm taking it all very seriously, and I think I will have my doctor recommend me to a nutritionist. Someone here recommended one to me, but it was rather expensive, and I didn't have insurance at that time, but I am able to afford it now.

Yesterday and today I had to go to Irvine for computer training at the company's expense, and it wasn't cheap. The two day class cost $1,000 and I will be going to another two classes next month. Monday's commute took 2 hours, and I had to get up at 5:00 a.m. to have breakfast early enough for my stomach to settle before I could leave. I also took some Immodium. Fortunately, I normally have a rather short commute of only 15 minutes each way, but there are other times when I need to make long trips for work. I don't like to drive when my stomach is upset, but I do always keep Immodium with me. I'm happy that they chose me to go to the classes because I think that means that they intend to keep me around. The IT person who recommended me said that she wants me to be involved with implementation because I've worked with the boss for the longest time and also have the best understanding of how the operation should work.

I'm going to look into the red dye thing - some of the Benedryl pills are pink, and I wonder if they contain red dye. If the red dye comes from achiote (I don't know the English word for it), it shouldn't be a problem for me.

Lars

You can get Benedryl that is dye-free, but it is hard to find. You will be amazed at how many things have Red 40, like bar-b-que sauce, yogurt, many medicines. One brand of cake mix has it on the label for both yellow and chocolate cake. Then of course, all the red and pink things like jello, candy, some jelly, canned cherries, cherry pie filling, many toppings, ice cream, mixes with artificial berries. It's everywhere.

A small percentage of people can taste red dye and it gives food a bitter taste to them. I am one of those people, so I have never been big on eating "red" things that other people think taste great. That is probably why I am not dead. I remember getting sick as a child on a desert that had red jello in it, and once ended up in the emergency room after taking a common (pink) med. In those days, I think I had to get a lot of it before I had a real problem. I always had problems after I would fly because I always took a pink motion sickness pill. I didn't know that everyone else didn't have gas, bloating, and diarrhea after flying. LOL Since I tend to get dizzy easily I had taken a lot of pink motion sickness meds before I discovered Meclizine. Also check any kind of vitamins you may take. Beware of anything red, pink or orange.

I do really well most of the time, but occasionally when eating out I will get something without knowing it. If I get very much, I will have severe cramping within minutes. I practically live in the bathroom for the next two hours because my system will just try to "flush" it out. In addition, I have pains in my heart. During a very serious attack I will just be freezing and can't get warm. I sit in a hot tub of water, and keep running it hot until I finally warm up. I shake like I am having a siezure. Do you do any of these things?

When it started to get so bad about 10 or 12 years ago, I thought I had some serious stomach or bowel disorder. Then I would get better and be fine for a few days, so I would think well, maybe not.

If it does turn out that it is red dye, we are not alone. More and more people each year and learning that it bothers them. I am not a drinker, but I read an article about a lady being taken to the emergency after having a drink with grenadine.

I hope this is not what is wrong, but at least if it is, you can control it. You will have to give up a few things, and maybe prepare more things from scratch, but you will soon learn what to avoid. Good luck. Carol

Lars,

I notice that you take medicines for both blood pressure and cholesterol. I also have been prescribed medications for those conditions by my cardiologist. After being unable to tolerate the first cholesterol medicine (Lipitor) because of diarrhea, it was changed to a medicine (don't have the name at the moment) which was slightly better but still caused diarrhea. It is my understanding that this is not unusual. The blood pressure medicine causes me no problems.

Jim

If, your test results are on a level of 1-3, 3 being the worst, eliminate those items. Also, rotate your diet. If you have beef today, have chicken or pork the next, ect. Also, vary your fruits and veggies. I had food allergy blood tests done 22 years ago. My worst is garlic, tho I can eat onions, but red onions give me stomach cramps. I CAN NOT EAT GARLIC, I get hives from the neck up. I am allergic to wheat, but not oats, or barley. White potatoes, yeast, bakers and brewers, mushrooms, beef, turkey, chicken was a one or a two, the rest are threes. Egg yolks but not whites. My main symptom is weight gain. I have followed the diet twice and lost 10 pounds a month on it, but each time got pregnant. I don't care what parts may now be missing, but I WILL NOT go back on that diet, as I know God works miracles and I'm not giving him the incentive to give me another child at the age of 49! I just can't eat garlic.

So after all this info, yes, food allergies are real. They can cause real health problems. I was told to eliminate everything on the list, except for chicken and rice, just limit them, as I needed something to eat. Then, after three months, slowly start re-introducing, items, one at a time. If I had a reaction to that item, discontinue it and don't re-introduce it.

I, like you, take more than one BP med. So far it hasn't caused a problem. Could yours be causing your problems? Maybe. Ask your dr. if he is willing to try changing the meds, one at a time, to see if it helps. Could it be a dye in the foods/meds? Maybe. The only way to find out is to eliminate it.Keep a diary of what goes in your mouth. EVERYTHING. And how it affects you.

READ EVERY LABEL ON EVERY FOOD YOU BUY. Would you believe how many prepared foods have garlic in them? Almost everything! You will find that it takes twice as long to grocery shop because you have to read all the labels, but it works. Even things you think have only one ingredient in, read the label anyway. You might get a surprise.

good luck.
I hope you find something that works for you. Being sick is no fun.

And good luck in the training and keeping the job.

Tami

I think I will be able to go on a restrictive diet when I go to Texas for Thanksgiving. The first thing I do when I visit my parents is to go to the grocery store to buy what I want to eat while I will be there, since they don't eat the same foods that I do. This will make it easy for me to be selective.

My test results were based on 1-7, with 7 being the worst. It looked like 3 was minor, although my doctor said it was high enough to be of concern. I'm fairly sure that my BP medicine is part of the problem because it started being chronic when I started on the medications. One of the medications is HCTZ, and diarrhea is one of the listed side effects, and it also listed for Atenolol, although it is low on the list. The third medicine is Cozaar, for which diarrhea is an even more common side effect, but I had the problem before I started taking Cozaar. I'm on these medications because I don't have any more serious side effects with them, and I did have worse side effects with some other drugs that my doctor tried. One of them made me so sleepy and tired that I was unable to function.

I'll talk to my doctor about possibly change my medications, but he might be reluctant to change something that is already working.

Lars

Lars, explain to the doc that you'd like to combine all those meds due to possible bad side effects. Then ask him to prescribe Benicar w/ Hctz. The insurance companies balk at it if you haven't tried and failed with other drugs. I think that this one pill should help you narrow the med reaction factor. I'm quite familiar with all of them!

Like soonergrandmom, my daughter has a food dye allergy. Hers is Blue Dye #1 and she did make a very scary trip to the hospital. After dozens of allergy tests, the allergist finally figured it out but the only way to test for it is to give a dose of the dye. Scary! She was 14 when diagnosed and is now 18. She is a fanatical label reader and avoids any suspect foods. To date, she has had only one minor scare where her tongue got itchy. She sticks to what she calls "close to the source" foods i.e. veggies, homemade bread, home canned goods, etc for the most part though it's tough now that she's away at college. We just stocked her up before she left.

Lars, definitly try to get your dr to clear the Benecar with the insurance company! I started taking it a year ago, in addition to Verapamil. Between the two, my BP is the best it has ever been and I have been able to drop from 2 Verapamil to 1 with the Benecar. I wish you luck in getting this under control. I can be a difficult road, but I am sure you will perservere. Both of my kids are allergic to blue koolaid type drinks. Please keep us posted.

Tami

Sad to see no more updates about how anyone is doing or how things turned out for Lars. If anyone is still following this....I've found that in my life it is not so much the grains that are the problem but the residual pesticides and herbicides. Once I switched to locally grown organic, my problems all but disappeared. This after a lifetime of diarrhea nearly every day and asthma that had me living the life of a near-invalid. Same with meat and milk---no growth hormones, antibiotics, etc. Sure it all costs a bit more, but I save a ton in medical bills each year and my quality of life has improved a million percent. :)