Severe food allergies can be helped by dissolving cromolyn sodium (brand name Gastrochrom) in hot water to gargle and swallow 20 minutes before meals. It will adhere to the mast cells in your digestive system and keep them quiet so they do not initiate an allergy response. After a few days of regular use your gut will begin to heal. Continue to avoid known food triggers for 6 months then a rare exposure to a food allergen should cause little or no response.

Katrina,

I read your post last night form May 2008 and I hope you are still on this blog. I too only have eyes issues, swollen and flakey like elephant eyes. I am allergic to nickel, my makeup and mascara. I have tried several brands of makeup but all have caused my eyes to swell. I am starting a nickel free diet today, along with Vitamin C and Poopy seeds to help prevent the ni from absorbing.

Have your symptoms improved? Are you able to wear make up? Please give me an update on your condition and any helpful advise you may have!

Thank you so very much !

Kathi

I have been allergic to nickel since I was a child.

The Allerderm kit was awesome. I have had improvements already.
I have found nickel cupboard handles and my deep freezer handle and my tweezers of all thinks. I am hoping if I can stop my skin from contacting metal my food reactions will calm down.

I think I will never eat chocolate or oats again. It is a nuisance but not the end of the world.

Hey,
So glad to help. I know how upsetting this can be.
I've been trying the low nickel diet and it is making a difference in the few weeks so far. I was eating all the wrong things. Oatmeal,rice and beans,lots of chocolate,dried fruit and nuts,peanut butter and jelly crackers, i really miss a 1/3 glass full of honey roasted peanuts and pour a can of coke on top-yum why shrimp. Anyway steak,pizza and strawberry shortcake do help. Foodlion deli is also benefitting from all the macaroni salad and potato salad that is easy to eat.
What are you doing about the door handles? I have wrapped electrical tape on some (only thing I could think of) and replaced others. I'm still not sure about stainless things like silverware and coffee makers but real silver and cold brew coffee are next to try at home but everywhere else I don't know.

I am not worried about stainless steel - i read a report by a Dr Sharma (I think that was his name) out of India and the nickel was not released by the stainless steel. I was worried about the element in an electric kettle and replaced it with an all stainless steel one with a hidden element.

I wrapped handles with electrical tape, painters tape and masking tape. We will change most over time. I was most surprised that my "gold pens" released nickel. Hubby said - polished brass.

I do not have much of a rash except if I contact nickel but I have ear pain, crusty eyes, sinus trouble and maybe even asthma from dietary nickel. I was eating a very high nickel diet and now I know as little a 4 almonds (red skin on) will bother me for days afterwards. My fear is it will progress to a rash. I was surprised that coconut oil gave me a nickel rash and I had to switched my electric razor to nickel free because I noticed a high nickel diet was starting to make my legs itchy

I have been trying to get my Dr to refer me to a dietitian to help me replace the nutrients not in my current diet. I ate a high fiber diet until recently.

I make a lot of my own rice pudding in the slow cooker. It is less sweet then the purchased varieties. I even mix in black rice at the end - looks kind of gross but gives me some of the phyto nutrients I am missing.

This nickel thing is a pain but there a many worse things out there. At least we know what the problem is and how to go about helping ourselves.

Nickel seems to be in almost everything from margarine to soy products to anything hydrogenated along with alot of processed things. I think it will become worse than mercury or lead the way its being pumped into food and the environment. Once the threshold is crossed its almost impossible to avoid.

I was wrong about things I thought had no nickel and were ok to eat. You got me thinking about talking to a dietian because my rash is back on my foot. Not sure what caused it. Maybe ashes from a wood boiler or from 18 volt nickel tool batteries or is it soy or the chips I decided to eat? But like you said it could be worse! Sometimes we don't realize how blessed we really are. Thanks for the coconut tip I've been eating coconut popsicles-they were great. Bye

This has been a great thread. A brief background on myself - I'm one of the unbearably itchy, swollen eyelids/eye area victims. I was given steroid cream that helped completely, but I can't stay on it forever. So, a few weeks ago, I went through the patch test, and nickel/cobalt was the only thing that flared up (and boy howdy, did it). Got some non-steroidal creams to try, but so far nothing is solving the problem.

I'm just starting the try the diet, but it is, as you all know, extremely difficult. It took me two hours to grocery shop, and I still think I ended up with some of the "maybe not" foods. (Question - is all vegetable oil - sunflower, safflower, canola - a "no"?)

Seems like everyone is a little different with their food allergies. I've looked around and I'm going with the Penn State diet list (I think it was mentioned). It inlcludes the usual suspects. I'm hoping that just these ingredients will do the trick and eliminate the symtoms, but if not, the suggestions here have been very informative. I'm especially mourning the loss of black tea and spinach/veggies. And I'm really not ready to give up my red wine, but... My eyes itch and hurt and are completely horrible to look at!!!

Thanks for starting this thread, Rhapsody. I'll be sure and post again if I have any significant discoveries.

I use mostly olive oil, canola oil and a bit of butter. No hydrogenated fats - they use nickel as a catalyst. I can't eat tomato sauce.

For the past four years, since entering my late thirties, I have developed a recurring nickel allergy, brought on particularly by the eating of dark chocolate. Even cutting chocolate out of my diet, however, did not prevent long episodes, requiring me to cut out even more foods. However, for the past year I have been entirely free (apart from one episode which i will describe) from any dermatitis on my hands or feet since I started moisturizing my hands and feet several times daily with organic coconut oil. The only outbreak I had was when traveling my jar of coconut oil broke in my bag and I went a few weeks without using it. I managed to purchase a replacement only after a couple of weeks by which time I had already begun to develop an outbreak. I immediately began applying the coconut oil every couple of hours and within a few days the symptoms completely disappeared, making me realize for the first time that it was my switch to coconut oil which had been preventing my outbreaks over the past year. I recommend all sufferers try this method as it is entirely without any health risk unlike the prolonged use of steroidal creams. Thankfully organic coconut oil is also relative cheap and a jar lasts a very long time even when applied frequently. I am now even able to eat foods containing nickel (except chocolate) without having outbreaks.

After a along bout with increasing dermatitis I was finally diagnosed with a nickel allergy. In hopes to keep this short I suffered a cold with a fever and my rash bloomed all over and it was still months before a skin test finally proved nickel was the cause. In reading I found that nickel is rid through my skin and far-infrared (FIR) sauna, steam or dry sauna would help, I had access to a steam room. At this time I was covering my body twice a day with steroid cream as the only relief of the constant itching. After one week doing a steam room and towel dry rub I was 60% better in symptoms. At the end of two weeks 80% better and down to just once a day. The steam room is part one. I believe the fever I had for 13 hours caused my liver to dump a large amount of stored nickel at one time. Step two, I turned to IV chelation and I'm finally feeling better. My joints no longer hurt. My headaches are gone. My blood sugars are finally under control, I am a insulin dependent. My eyesight has been returned to perfect vision and as a control I have changed nothing else in my lifestyle.

I just had my eighth chelation and I am expecting to do 14 to 21 IV chelation treatments. A revealing story happened on my seventh treatment. I have been having upper back pains and I had not tied the muscle pain to the rash on that same area. I woke the morning of the seventh treatment with real discomfort in my neck and upper back. The chelation treatment takes almost two hours and at the end of the treatment I had no pain and I've had no pain since.

Do your own research. After seeing two dermatologist and being told to just change my diet and it should diminish over time was not answer, nor is taking a antihistamine or steroid cream good for the long term. For me the steam room and IV chelation is ridding my body the nickel that is causing so much havoc in my body and life.

I should also say I have never had any contact dermatitis with gold or stainless.

Best wishes everyone, I hope others get the same relief I have gotten.