\"Overdose\" reactions and cross-reactivity

Hi journstep, I'm not sure if I understood your question - correct me if I didn't.

I'm adult onset PA. The diagnosis came about after I had the brilliant idea of eating nuts 'for my health'. I made a New Year's resolution to improve my diet - so in early January, 2 1/2 years ago I bought a bag of raw Spanish peanuts. Every day I would put about 1/4-1/3 cup of peanuts in a dish....and during the day I would eat a peanut when I happened to walk past the plate of nuts.

I did this for two weeks - was sick for the entire two weeks. I quit eating them - experienced a miraculous recovery so bought another bag of nuts. I ate 1/4 cup of peanuts all at once and had an anaphylactic reaction within about 15 minutes.

My allergist said that I thoroughly sensitized myself by eating peanuts all day for two weeks. But when I started eating peanuts for my health, I was probably already moderately allergic.

I can think of numerous times prior to this when I became very sick after eating peanuts....but as I have primarily GI reactions that hit a couple of hours after eating the peanuts - I didn't make the connection.

So I caused the allergy to become anaphylactic by eating nuts all day long for two weeks.....but I was heading in that direction anyway.

Sometimes I wonder if I might 'outgrow' PA - but I think it is wishful thinking. It is easy to be lulled into a false sense of security when you haven't had a reaction in a long time because you're so careful with your diet. Then, I find myself thinking - 'maybe I'm not PA anymore'.

I asked my first allergist about eating 'may contains'. He scoffed and said - 'of course you can. Don't make a big deal out of this. It took a lot of peanuts to give you an ana reaction'. I wasn't so sure that he knew what he was talking about, because I knew that even after a couple of peanuts I was nauseated. So the next day, I ate 1/2 peanut and had stomach cramping and diarrhea within 3 or 4 minutes.

Don't try this at home! I realized immediately I'd done something really stupid - but on the other hand, I also discovered that my allergist DIDN'T know what he was talking about.

My new allergist told me that once you've had an ana reaction, your tolerance level for the allergen can drop dramatically.

[This message has been edited by Adele (edited August 03, 2007).]

Hi, I can't answer your question in rel'n to peanuts because I've had the peanut allergy all of my life. But I've noticed a pattern with some of my "newer" allergies which sounds a bit like Adele's experience with peanuts. (I'm putting "newer" in quotation marks because in some cases, I suspect I was always a bit allergic.)

To give a few examples: After I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy (later I found out that I'm celiac as well), I started to eat a lot of corn and potatoes. *A lot* of corn and potatoes. (I miss the days when I'd inhale a huge mixing bowl full of popcorn smothered in butter!)

Anyhow, corn was something I limited for most of my life. Usually, I could eat one but not two corn on the cobs. But sometimes I'd only have half of one . . . depending on whether it bothered my throat or not. Corn starchy things usually made my throat sting very slightly, but I never considered that an allergic reaction per se.

After developing the wheat allergy, I ignored/developed an unhealthy skepticism about the cause of hives after eating popcorn! I did realize, however, that I shouldn't eat corn or corn flour anymore. It got to the point where two kernels of corn would make my throat itchy. I got tested for corn . . both the SPT and the RAST were positive. I don't really think I'd have an ana reaction to corn, but one never knows.

I'm now allergic to potatoes too. One mouthful will make my throat sting/itch. I tend to react to things that cross react with latex (and I'm allergic to latex too--my allergist thinks I was sensitized to latex through being allergic to foods that cross react.)

So, yes, from my experience I think that you can become more sensitive by overdosing on an allergen!

Just to add something---I do know one person who had an adult onset allergy to corn (and a severe allergy at that) who "outgrew" it. I'm not 100% sure, but I have the impression that he didn't try corn again on his own----he strictly avoided any corn or corn-derived products for a period of time and then went back for testing.

Original poster here. I should clarify that one of the factors that leads my doctor to think my FA will resolve eventually is that in my immediate and known extended family, every one of the relatives who had FA at one time (all non-ANA, each to a different, single top 8 allergen) either had one fluke reaction that never happened again, or avoided the allergen for a while, eventually outgrew it, was able to resume eating the food involved, and has had no further problems for years. In two of the cases, the FA was adolescent or adult-onset. I've also heard a few similar situations *not* in my family directly from the adults involved. So I know it does happen sometimes and it's not just fantasy out of thin air. Hopefully,I have whatever might be in the gene pool for that. Although I didn't eat large amounts of TN/PN very often, I'm quite sure I wasn't even mildly allergic until the actual reaction happened. I ate the same exact food item several times in the 3 or 4 days before that, and nothing happened, so I was obviously sensitized to something in the product (presumably the nut ingredients; my doctor says maybe some unknown chemical additive or processing contamination instead, but obviously can't test that.) between the second to last and the last time I ate the product a day apart.

But that's just background. My actual question, if anybody knows, is if people who become FA through "overdoses" are more, less, or equally likely to have cross reactivity as people who become sensitized in other ways. In other words, how likely is it that the recent negative RASTs to related TN and PN are really negative?

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(relatively recent adult onset non-ANA TNA/inconclusive PA)

I think I see what you're saying.

I have had reactions to pn when I would say I've overdosed (on a business trip eating several PBJ sandwiches because I had the opportunity to since I wasn't with DS who is PA). I was up most of the night with GI problems.

At the time I just thought it was because I am not used to digesting the peanut protein, but I had a couple of similar reactions (I am ana to shellfish, too, and my symptoms are GI).

My rast, or ImmunoCap rather, is negative for peanut.

The other day at work at a meeting I actually ate some mixed nuts (I won't be seeing DS for more than a week, and he won't be in the house I am in right now ever again, so I felt safe having them wrt him). I did not react. I did feel the tiniest of bumps on my lip, but there was no redness, and the whole time I was worried about created a reaction psychosomatically if that makes sense.

The PBJ on a business trip where I reacted--I ate a ton of it. So that would qualify for your consideration of "overdose."

However, I don't know that I buy that theory. I don't know why I have had symptoms--but I do not consider myself PA now.