Atopy? WTH?
Here's the deal. Two years ago I needed a creative outlet. And I needed to lose a few pounds. And I found out you can start a blog in, like, 10 seconds. A few hours later (my learning curve wasn't great), www.sofarsofat.blogspot.com was born. And Lo is was, well, eh. But it allowed me to vent and spill and be funny when I was in the mood, and to document my weight-loss journey and my life (kind of became my diary in the end). It didn't exactly go as planned/expected. I thought I'd lose like 10 pounds by cutting back on calories and burning more. I tried walking, green (oops, brown) smoothies, Zumba, P90X, an eliptical trainer, random yoga over Skype with my sister in Minnesota, and all kinds of stupidity in the name of losing just 10 pounds and getting fit again. Cuz I was never FAT, really, just pudgy. But pudgy was frickin' annoying, because I didn't do it on purpose, I didn't know how I got there, and I didn't want to be there (you know, Pudgeville). So I bought a new "high tech" digital scale. Wow -- so modern. And went at it.
I should mention that, at the time I started this, I was two years into a really frickin' annoying chronic itchy rash on my arms and legs, that kept me from sleeping and/or wearing shorts or skirts. So while I was trying to lose the weight, I was also trying to figure out the rash (which I had always believed to be related to my allergies) or at least control it. I went through a lot of sleepless nights on the computer trying to figure it out, since my allergists and dermatologists weren't doing much good. Finally, four years to the day of the sudden onset of said Itchy Rash (on March 11, 2011) I found a couple of technical medical articles from Dermnetnz.org that explained that doctors/scientists had recently discovered the mechanism for atopic dermatitis (my friend Itchy Rash), and they actually gave this information freely to the public. Imagine! Doctors shared this info with the world at no charge. And, for me, it was life changing.
I already knew that I had atopic dermatitis -- a form of eczema that is common for persons with allergic rhinitis (hay fever) and/or asthma. I've had hay fever since I was a kid and have spent many many nights watching B movies on a sofa with a box of Kleenexes on my chest and Mentholatum globbed all over my nostrils. Fun, fun, fun. But they have much better antihistamines these days that make it much easier to deal with the seasonal flares of rhinitis. And I've got 8 air purifiers in my 1,200 sq' house. What I couldn't deal with, was the chronic and inexplicable frickin' rashes that started after a day of INTENSE yard work (full immersion into allergens via trimming, mowing, whacking, raking and blowing the mess in my backyard at the height of spring in the Valley) on March 11, 2007. Because there was no antihistamine on earth that would keep me from lying awake at night with intense itching on the arms and legs. Which was why I was up surfing the net for articles at 1 am on Itchy Rash's 4th birthday. Anyway, already-long story still longer, I found out how Itchy Rash worked. My body does not produce enough (or proper?) filaggrin (a filament aggregating protein in the skin check the Wiki def). Somehow my filaggrin is defective, which means that my skin barrier is defective -- I can't keep water in or allergens out. That makes my skin really dry (not great in the desert) and extra porous. It means that if I contact an allergen (like say, dog or cat dander, or maybe Bermuda grass pollen, all of which is found all over my three furry critters and in my house and yard), then it penetrates the skin and I have an allergic/itchy rash/reaction. SHEET. It means that I effectively have contact allergies to the entire enormous list of things to which I am allergic. So in addition to not breathing anything in nature, I have to avoid touching it. Not easy to do when you love your pets, aka allergens/fomites. And, just for starters, I am allergic to most of the known natural world: grass, trees, ragweed, dust, pollen, mold, cats, dogs -- you name it, it has always made me sneeze and pump mucus like it's going out of style, and now it makes me break out in an itchy rash.
BUT, the good news is that this filaggrin defect, which causes me to need something like 5 of the 7 ceramides found in normal skin, can be ameliorated with either some really expensive prescription stuff from Big Pharma, or by a simple, inexpensive, OTC product called Cerave (ceramides in a vesicular emulsion that provides the protective barrier that my skin is missing). I still recall the magical soothing experience of my first contact with Cerave. Thank you Cerave, I love you.
SO, I have figured out how to make my skin feel better and protect myself from evil penetrating allergens without wearing long pants and long sleeves in July and August in Phoenix. And I have not had the rash in its fullest-blown form since the day I bought my first Cerave. Only the occasional random bump from gardening or accidental contact with nature or a bug bite (I'm allergic to bug bites and stings too -- surprise). But I was still pudgy and fatigued. (Did I mention the fatigue? Could have just been the sleepless nights, but I was REALLY tired all the time.) So I kept researching.
The Dermnetnz.org articles on atopic dermatitis noted a connection not only with rhinitis and asthma, but also with food allergies. So people like me, with "atopy" (LUV me some wiki) are likely to have food allergies as well. Huh. Because I had asked my allergists if it could be a food allergy and they'd given me the skin prick tests (which test for IgE reactions) and kept telling me "nope." But then I found a book on Amazon called Hidden Food Allergies, by James Braly, M.D., which said that there are food allergies that are not IgE-mediated. (Say what?) IgE-mediated food allergies are the classic allergies that EVERYONE knows about, like shell fish or peanut allergies that cause immediate anaphylactic shock and can actually kill you by squeezing your airways shut. I don't have those. But Dr. Braly explained an entirely different kind of allergy mediated by immunoglobulin G (IgG), which has a delayed onset of two hours to two days. And halle-frickin-luja, there is a blood test that will diagnose exactly what's botherin ya. So I sent away for my own personal prick test, milked a couple of fingers for as much of my freakishly-allergic blood as I could get into the little vials, and mailed it off.
It took 4-5 weeks to get the results, and I was really impatient, because I still wasn't feeling great, even though I was using the Cerave and it was helping -- some, it was helping some. But then the blood test came back and gave me all the gory details. They tested for 96 common foods and it was frickin' (I've had to add the word to my dictionary -- apologies to those who may be sensitive to my salty phraseology) GD dairy. Yes, frickin' dairy. Dairy. Which includes cheese. Cheese of all kinds. Cheese that I love. Cheese, like blue cheese on a filet mignon. Cheese, like goat cheese with cranberries in a spinach salad. Cheese, like brie covered in cracked pepper after a great ski day. Cheese, like the Parmesan that I shave all over my spaghetti. CHEESE LIKE THE DELICIOUS VIOLENT ORANGE CHEESE OF MY BELOVED KRAFT M&C! Not to mention Cheetos. How would I live?
Shit. Cheese. No more cheese. And, of course, no more milk, butter, whey, yogurt (I actually really like yogurt and was making my own delicious stuff at home), casein, etc. And no, before you ask, not even goat milk/cheese/whatever. All dairy. All gone. And eggs. What? Yes, eggs. And I love stupid eggs. And I have a sensitivity to wheat as well. I can eat it and it doesn't do me wrong the way that dairy does, but I can't eat it regularly, or it will. So, shit, GD, what was I to do?
And so began the experiment of the rest of my life. That's it. I have to avoid dairy, wheat, and eggs. And basically, since I lost all my extra squidge as soon as I stopped eating dairy, wheat and eggs (who knew?!), I needed a new blog. And this is it.
My new blog will cover life with allergies/atopy and (1) trying to avoid nature, including the entire out of doors, while creating my own urban garden and fruit/nut tree orchard (you see how my goals conflict, yes?) and (2) enjoying life and FOOD while avoiding dairy, wheat and eggs -- again, the problem is apparent. But not to fear. I am not alone, and just this week I have stolen a most excellent recipe for some gluten-free (get used to seeing "GF" here) flat bread that was really yummy. Find the GF flat bread recipe and beautiful photos here. This guy's blog is way better than mine will ever pretend to be. And his flat bread recipe is simple, fast, and good. And I've tried a lot of GF breads over the last few years. Most involve attempting to duplicate a classic French loaf and replacing the gluten with gums and/or gelatin, and it just is NOT possible with anything but wheat.
So, atopic living tip #1:
Don't try to make fake whatever-you're-allergic-to.
When I first got the news, I tried soy cheeses and dairy-free almond or coconut yogurts and GF breads. Yech. They just are not the same. They cannot live up to the original -- I was disappointed, and I think you will be too. The only substitutes that I have found that I really like so far are: (1) Earth Balance non-butter spread and (2) Vegenaise non-egg mayo. Both of these products are relatively healthy and taste like the real deal -- you can eat non-egg tuna salad and never miss the unborn chicken(s), and the Earth Balance not only looks and tastes like butter, but it acts like it too, so you can actually bake with it.
So there. That's it for today -- it's a long post, and there is a lot more to say, but I've got to go and do something productive, like earn a living. That would be good.
P.S. I should mention that between the Cerave and the IgG ELISA test that led me to avoid dairy, wheat and eggs, my eczema is generally nonexistent these days. But that comes at the cost of avoiding most of the current common American diet. And I still have seasonal rhinitis (having lots of it now, since spring came early this year) and the occasional gastrointestinal problem -- sometimes I just have these issues and I imagine it's something I have consumed, but I cannot always tell. Anyway, I will be continuing my atopic education as I tiptoe into the future. Am reading what, so far, seems to be an excellent book: Hay Fever and Allergies: Discovering the Real Culprits and Natural Solutions for Reversing Allergic Rhinitis, by Casey Adams, Ph. D. The author goes through the immune system and all forms of allergy (not just the rhinitis) in great detail with specific references to the most recent medical studies. And he explains it in a way that is understandable to a lay person (I get a headache from all the medical terminology). So far, I recommend it for information on allergies, if not how to cure them -- I haven't gotten to that part yet.
P.S. I should mention that between the Cerave and the IgG ELISA test that led me to avoid dairy, wheat and eggs, my eczema is generally nonexistent these days. But that comes at the cost of avoiding most of the current common American diet. And I still have seasonal rhinitis (having lots of it now, since spring came early this year) and the occasional gastrointestinal problem -- sometimes I just have these issues and I imagine it's something I have consumed, but I cannot always tell. Anyway, I will be continuing my atopic education as I tiptoe into the future. Am reading what, so far, seems to be an excellent book: Hay Fever and Allergies: Discovering the Real Culprits and Natural Solutions for Reversing Allergic Rhinitis, by Casey Adams, Ph. D. The author goes through the immune system and all forms of allergy (not just the rhinitis) in great detail with specific references to the most recent medical studies. And he explains it in a way that is understandable to a lay person (I get a headache from all the medical terminology). So far, I recommend it for information on allergies, if not how to cure them -- I haven't gotten to that part yet.
