I only knew about my soap/detergent/perfume allergy when I was very young (probably 7 yrs old) because I would get rashes and bad headaches. The reaction was so immediate, there was no doubt.

When I was a teenager, I got headaches to the point that my teeth and gums would go numb. They blamed it on my sinuses, but didn't say what caused it. When my daughter was born with severe allergies, I said "must be her dad" (allergies are often genetic) because I really didn't think mine were severe enough to worry about.

The only "sensitivity" I did take seriously (besides soap, perfume, etc.), was to dairy/beef when I was about 20 yrs old. My doctor told me I was getting cysts/boils due to some protein or calcium (can't remember) in dairy/beef . . . about the same time that my eye doctor told me I excreting excess protein/calcium deposits on my contacts . . . about the same time my hairdresser said it was calcium/protein that was causing a hair problem (can't remember what the hair problem was). I virtually cut dairy/beef out of my diet, for about 10 yrs, and was healthy.

I started eating beef/drinking dairy again when I lived in New Zealand. Shortly after changing my diet, I was dx with probable MS . . . but in retrospect, remembered similar sensations/symptoms from when I was a teenager.

No one mentioned allergies until my surgery for sinus polyps in the late 90's. It was only after that that I could actually recognize an allergic reaction (I tend to tune things out ).

When I first started researching MS, I found that it was a fairly new disease (except one isolated case from around the 1500's), and it dated back to the mid-1800's. I researched what changed then (industrial revolution), and discovered that it was called the "rich man's disease" back then because poor people never got it.

That was when beef started to be grain fed, to fatten them for quick sale. Poor people still ate the grass fed beef off their farms . . .

Grain also became a larger part of our diet, with cereals, breads, etc. . .

Yes, I think allergies contribute somehow to MS, and I think grain (and how cows process it) has something to do with it.

I love grains though.

Cherie