Hives From Seafood

[Jib]

Was talking to my ex girlfriend today and she's suspecting an allergy to seafood. She loves shrimp, crab legs, and scallops, but more recently has been having outbreaks whenever she has them. It might be only shrimp as far as I know, but she's been breaking out in hives on her face and neck shortly after having shrimp or other shellfish.

Is there any Peat perspective on what causes this, and any potential cures?

 

[Literally]

Look up histamine intolerance.

 

[Beefcake]

Was talking to my ex girlfriend today and she's suspecting an allergy to seafood. She loves shrimp, crab legs, and scallops, but more recently has been having outbreaks whenever she has them. It might be only shrimp as far as I know, but she's been breaking out in hives on her face and neck shortly after having shrimp or other shellfish.

Is there any Peat perspective on what causes this, and any potential cures?

I only know that allergy to seafood is rather common thing. Usually more serious than what you’re girlfriend is experiencing. Histamine is related as it’s what causes most allergic responses. How this system works is more complex. Usually the allergy is more crustacians such as shrimp, crab, crayfish and lobster and not so much clams and moussels. But I would be cautious with those aswell. General treatment is to avoid the food you are allergic to. The most severe would be anaphylactic shock that would result into death. Some people grow out of the allergy with age. Believed that body gets used to allergen and response becomes neutral. If this is the case chronic low exposure might speed the process up but this is just me speculating at the moment. The best recommendation is to avoid the allergen totally.
PS a quick google search reveals that vitamin A, vitamin D and B12 deficiency are both linked to several types of allergies. So your girlfriend maybe should have her vitamin D and B12 tested and supplemented?

 

[LUH 3417]

Was talking to my ex girlfriend today and she's suspecting an allergy to seafood. She loves shrimp, crab legs, and scallops, but more recently has been having outbreaks whenever she has them. It might be only shrimp as far as I know, but she's been breaking out in hives on her face and neck shortly after having shrimp or other shellfish.

Is there any Peat perspective on what causes this, and any potential cures?

I believe Peat has said anything can be an allergen when you are hypothyroid or your metabolism is compromised. I have had periods of total body hives and fits of sneezing from nearly everything. Looking back I was extremely stressed during those periods. I think Peat would say something like improving thyroid function and metabolism may relieve an allergic response.

I once emailed him about my own allergies, which on a blood test showed I was allergic to pork, beef, and dairy.

He replied:
Have you checked your temperature and pulse rate since using thyroid? Desiccated thyroid takes at least two weeks for a given daily dose to have its full effect. Antibodies to foods aren’t enough to definitely identify allergies. Without cheese or milk it’s very hard to get enough calcium.

I then asked him why he believed a blood test was not enough to identify allergies and he replied:

Molecular Nutrition, Volume51, Issue1
Special Issue: Reviews 2007 January 2007 Pages 135-147
IgE‐Mediated food allergy diagnosis: Current status and new perspectives
Riccardo Asero Barbara K. Ballmer‐Weber Kirsten Beyer Amedeo Conti Ruta Dubakiene Montserrat Fernandez‐Rivas Karin Hoffmann‐Sommergruber Jonas Lidholm Tihomir Mustakov Joanne N. G. Oude Elberink Richard S. H. Pumphrey Per Stahl Skov Ronald van Ree Berber J. Vlieg‐Boerstra Reinhard Hiller Jonathan O. Hourihane Marek Kowalski Nikos G. Papadopoulos Jean‐Michel Wal E. N. Clare Mills Stefan Vieths ...
In June 2005, the work of the EU Integrated Project EuroPrevall was started. EuroPrevall is the largest research project on food allergy ever performed in Europe. Major aims of the project are to generate for the first time reliable data on the prevalence of food allergies across Europe and on the natural course of food allergy development in infants. Improvement of in vitro diagnosis of food allergies is another important aim of the project. The present review summarizes current knowledge about the clinical presentation of food allergy and critically reviews available diagnostic tools at the beginning of the project period. A major problem in diagnosis is a relatively poor ‘clinical specificity’, i. e. both positive skin tests and in vitro tests for specific IgE are frequent in sensitized subjects without food allergy symptoms. So far, no in vitro test reliably predicts clinical food allergy. EuroPrevall aims at improving the predictive value of such tests by proceeding from diagnosis based on allergen extracts to purified allergen molecules, taking into account the affinity of the IgE–allergen interaction, and evaluating the potential of biological in vitro tests such as histamine release tests or basophil activation tests including assays performed with permanently growing cell lines.