An elimination diet could be very helpful. In my case, a five-day fast helped me to feel better and understand that food was playing a role in my illness.

Best of luck to you both. Keep me posted.

Melanie

I “stumbled” upon this blog while doing some research for my daughter who has been going through hell – and two visits to the Emergency Room – for the past month with a horrendous blistery rash on her hands – and now face. I have been telling her all along that I felt that in addition to stress and environmental expsorue – it was tied to diet, because she is also having gastro and UTI symptoms. Then I found your site – EUREKA! Thank you. I sent it to her immediately and will get her to an acupuncturist/herbalist ASAP. I think that when she reads this she will find comfort in knowing that she is not alone and that there is help out there.

Yes, we are lucky to live in a city where people are pretty supportive about food freakiness. I have also found my Western doctors here in Portland to be a lot more open-minded about Chinese medicine than I would have expected. I’m really grateful for that lead article in Portland Monthly a couple months back (Portland’s Best Doctors 2008).

I’m also lucky, and your story reminded me of this, that the Western doctors I’ve found here have been pretty on top of the food allergy situation in my case. It’s astounding for me to know that an actual RN has had a difficult time getting doctors to recognize or acknowledge the power of food allergies. I do know now, however, how incredibly difficult they can be to diagnose and understand, and how unique each body is in terms of food. I sometimes wonder just how many illnesses and diseases could be cured by eliminating certain foods.

Thanks again for sharing your story with me. And good luck with all of your GF and other food allergy adventures. Keep me posted!

Best,
Melanie

I love your blog. I have gluten and dairy and soy intolerance too, but also a severe allergy to cane sugar, and a severe allergy to moldy anything. Portland is one of the better places for people like us to live, thankfully. I first discovered my gluten intolerance by doing a food elimination diet to get rid of a persistent unbelievably (I know you know what I’m talking about) itchy rash. People who have never had DH cannot really imagine the degree of itchiness that makes you want to scoop out the itchy spot with a kitchen spoon. After four miserable years of the rash, it was gone in three weeks of gluten-free eating, and the skin totally healed to the point you couldn’t know there had been a rash in about three months. I had a lot of other health problems ranging from annoying to excruciatingly painful, and am about 99% better on a strict dairy, sugar, and gluten-free diet. I am an R.N., with a background in education, and am using my experience to help others. I do gluten-free dietary and lifestyle coaching, and recently self-published a book called “Gluten-Free PORTLAND – A Resource Guide. I also plan to offer gluten-free cooking and baking classes, along with my individual dietary counseling.

I am glad you are finding success with your chinese medicine and accupuncture. It has taken a lot of my own personal experience to overcome the western medical training I’ve had, but there is so much we don’t know about how our bodies respond to things, and western medicine is too focused on using pharmaceuticals to treat symptoms, not at getting to the bottom of what is causing the symptoms.

No doctor I’d been to had ever suggested gluten intolerance, or even food allergies. I figured it out on my own when I started doing research on the internet.

Wendy

Please keep in touch!

I am curious to hear about your mother’s experience with an acupuncturist if she chooses to explore that route. Let me know how it goes.

Best wishes to you both!
Melanie

Thanks for sharing and please feel free to comment back.

Wow, the Boregonian saves the day? That’s gotta be a first.

I’m so glad that eliminating wheat cleared your rash. That’s awesome. I’m continuing to improve and my hands are nearly rash-free. Woohoo! I need to update my Chinese Witch Doctor post because I want to urge all pompholyx sufferers to go see a Chinese herbalist/acupuncturist. I guess what miffs me the most is that any Western doctor you see will tell you there is no cure for it, but the Chinese doctors seem to think differently. I’m still mystified by the whole thing, but the proof is in my hands.

Funny about those falafels. I should have known! But I actually really like the Moosewood Lowfat cookbook, and I have a couple of her older titles from my days as a vegetarian. C’est la vie.

If you have that falafel recipe, I’d love to lay my hands on it…so would my husband as he keeps kvetching about wanting to make “good” ones.

Thanks again for reading and commenting!

Melanie

I read the post about your falafel disaster…but seriously, Molly Katzen? What did you expect? (I have a friend who for some reason persisted in using the Moosewood cookbook; the margins were overflowing with notes and corrections to the recipes because they NEVER turned out.) I found a recipe online a few years ago that is absolutely amazing. A falafel revelation. Really! Light, tender, flavorful…I’ll find it and share.