Connection between autoimmune diseases and allergies
 

Hi Everyone, we have battled some pretty tough allergies in our family. My daughter had severe food allergies and I always read that what follows these are autoimmune diseases (allergies are from an overactive immune system. It is reacting to harmless things. If it continues to overreact it will then start to attack your own body). My daughter's food allergies are a thing of the past now that we found our alternate doc and he fixed her messed up gut normal flora and gave her food allergy shots (LDA). I am undergoing the same treatment. Anyway, that was the background... My cousin through marriage was diagnosed with MS within the last decade. She lives far away and I was not in contact with her or her husband. I just saw her husband a few weeks ago and told him about this allergy/autoimmune connection. As we talked we realized that his wife has the same food allergy symptoms that I had. I did not have the typical symptoms of food allergy. I had reflux, stomach pain and hemorrhoids (from the inflammation). I would never have realized that I had food allergies until after my daughter was successfully treated then I went to the same doc and said please treat my toiletry allergies (I was allergic to all shampoo, soaps, etc.). He said you have food allergies too and I said "I do not!". On the drive home I thought about my GI symptoms and that yes, these could be from allergies. I was tested (direct injection of allergens into arm, not scratch test or blood test) and yes, I was allergic to 80% of the foods that he tested. Anyway, any feedback?

Hi, Sannah. I have actually started to research this just recently. Not just food allergies but allergies in general (airborne, chemical, etc.). Although things come and go for me, the most recent steady sx I have are waking up in the morning with my hands feeling like they're full of fluid and numb -- the feeling isn't as pronounced as the day goes on but it does remain. (A few months ago it was tingling but with a few shakes I was good to go.)

I know this could be the beginning of an arthritic thing (autoimmune unto itself) and even with that thought alone, I'm a little suspicious. I have wall-to-wall carpeting in my bedroom, inherited from the previous owner, and I think it's chock full of dust. For about a week I slept in the second bedroom which has no carpeting and about the third day in, I noticed my hands were NOT bothering me like they had. I returned to the bedroom and it started again. Yesterday afternoon I bought some Benedryl to see if it would do anything and I THINK it actually helped. There's more to my story but the carpet suspicion put me over the edge (I cannot WAIT to have it removed!)

So whatever connection and IF there is one, I think it's interesting, just even on a symptomatic level. I can't say this is what caused lesions on my brain but I think it has something to do with the way the way my sx are presenting. Also, my last blood tests showed allergens -- first time EVER.

I don't know how or if this connects but when they do MS research in mice, the disease they give them (EAE) stands for Experimental Autoimmune encephalomyelitis but is ALSO sometimes referred to as Experimental ALLERGIC Encephalomyelitis. Like I said, I'm just starting to look into this.

I happen to be going for food allergy testing soon. I read a professional article on gluten issues, and found out that people can have a very mild problem with gluten that does not become a real problem until later in life.

I am not allergic to the usual things that produce allergies.

Thank you for bringing up this subject.

Well I was DX with Fibro years ago and than finally MCS and now I'm allergic to lots of meds and now foods also. :Hum:

Faith, Hmmm is right! No clue about the medication but in terms of allergens, it does sense to me that if this type of thing creates an immune response it could present a problem. Food-wise, that's somewhat the basis of the diets recommended for MS and other auto-immune diseases.

Still so much that is unknown but sometimes I really do wonder about the more "simple" things that don't get as much attention perhaps they should.

Here's 2 articles about allergies and the immune system. This was just a quick search -- if you Google you'll find over 2,000,000 more!

http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu...rgy/system.cfm

http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.js...nav=Groupspace

It just makes perfect sense to me that MS and Allergies are somehow connected. The onset of MS may, indeed, be an allergic reaction..:confused:

Like others, I don't think we all got here the same way. I think we have a malfunction in common but probably not all caused by the same thing or things. There are also plenty of people with allergies who don't have MS or another "defined" autoimmune disease. If there are those for whom allergies played into MS I suspect that a breach in the blood-brain barrier is part of the equation. It just seems too simple unto itself but despite any specuation about causation, I do think it makes sense that allergies could at least exacerbate symptoms.

FYI, after this thread appeared I did a quick search for MS and allergies and was interested to see 2 articles from PubMed. However, note that they were both from the '50s!!!! :eek: Here's one of them -- the article begins "For the past ten years there has been an increasing acceptance of the theory that allergenic reaction is a causative factor in multiple sclerosis..."

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/art...?artid=1521914

As with the other search, over 2,000,000 hits were returned. I didn't have time to look but hopefully there's something in a more medically oriented publication that's more recent!

Hi Beary, our medical system has seemed to favor treating symptoms with meds rather than really cure an/or prevent the diseases. The power of the med companies in our health care system is frightening. There is a lot of profit to be made here by not curing/preventing diseases and medicating them for life.

I went to our alternative doc's website (www.colecenter.com) and saw that he treats MS (he is located in Cincinnati, OH). I just called and talked to someone there and this is what she told me: Dr. Cole looks at the patient to see what the root cause of the MS is (genetics, toxins, or allergies) and treats this. If you continue with his treatment your MS will not progress but they have not had any patients who have recovered what they have lost. He uses detox and hyperbaric treatments and if you have allergies he will treat those also (ours have been very successfully treated by him). The woman told me that allergies can cause the MS but that these other factors can cause it also without any allergic component.

I believe that you are also correct that not everyone with allergies develops autoimmune diseases. My parents have had food allergies for decades (the sneaky ones like I have where you really don't realize that this is what is causing your symptoms) and they are in their 70's without any autoimmune diseases.

Googling the history of MS, I found this....

In the 1960s MS was thought to be caused by allergic reaction; It was treated with Vitamins & Antihistimines; The life expectancy after diagnosis was thought to be, 25 years.