Food Allergies – Do The Doctors Always Get it Right? – According to a paper published in JAMA, Dr. Marc Riedl, an allergist and immunologist at UCLA believes that many Americans are reporting food allergies to their doctors that might not be true.

He believes many patients could be misinterpreting heart burn or a food intolerance as an allergy. He doesn’t stop with patient interpretations, either. He actually thinks that doctors could be misinterpreting scratch tests as well.

We have a tendency to personalize reports like this – read it and say, “I knew I wasn’t allergic,” and go out and eat something that sends us to the ER, but that is something that needs to be addressed with your physician and a second opinion if you deem it necessary.

My own story of being allergic and then not being allergic goes like this:
While visiting NYC with some friends, we stopped in a fairly nice restaurant. I was in a good mood and wanted to treat myself so I wound up ordering the 12 Jumbo Shrimp on a rice dish cooked in chicken broth.
Delicious.

Then, about 20 minutes later, I started feeling weird – I was breaking out in hives. My friends and I found a pharmacy where I purchased some Benadryl and I promised to let them know immediately if my throat started closing up. I made it back home that night without further incident and had even started looking better about 2 hours after the first symptoms. I know I should have gone straight to the ER but I was young and in no mood for spending my hard-earned cash on a train ticket only to wind up a hospital if I didn’t have to.

Once home, a conference with my doctor convinced me to stay away from shellfish but the thought of it was awful because I LOVE shellfish. Shrimp, clams, oysters, lobster, crab – you name it, I eat it. I couldn’t believe she was telling me that I suddenly had issues with something I ate at least 3 times a month (Clam Chowder Fridays was my favorite lunch) and had eaten constantly for over 30 years.

I had another incident of hives after eating pot stickers at a kiosk in a train station.
Now I have a problem – no shellfish in those pot stickers – so I went back to my doctor, had a fit, and she shipped me off to the allergist.

The skin test made me look like I had just picked up a bad prison tattoo on both arms. Every single scratch came alive as positive. I was devastated.

The allergist came into the room, took one look at me and said, “I know what your problem is. Does anything besides the control scratch itch?”

I said, “Nothing else but the control is driving me right up the wall.”

He gave a quick explanation of what he thought I had but also gave me a nice video to watch on administering an epi-pen, ordered blood serum tests and in a couple of weeks, the results came back negative for everything.

Huh?

What I have isn’t actually a food allergy. It’s a skin disease called dermographism and in my case, it’s a very mild form. One of the side-effects/symptoms is MSG and sulfate sensitivity. If I am exposed to high amounts of MSG in combination with food high in sulfates, I break out in hives and need to take an antihistamine.

I went through the food challenge – eating small amounts of what I might be allergic to and everything was fine.

Back to that dinner – shrimp is high in sulfates and the chicken broth in the rice had MSG.
The kiosk at the train station? MSG.
Things in my life started making more sense than the original shellfish allergy diagnosis.

Nowadays, I just stay away from MSG in restaurants and have given up red wine (that wasn’t a problem for me – I’m a beer lover).

I even managed to get my Clam Chowder Fridays back.

So, from my point of view, Dr. Riedl has a valid argument but I hope he raises awareness with caution. Food challenges should be given under strict supervision because there can be tragic consequences if the test goes wrong.