True Stories: Hannah
We have known about food and chemical intolerances for a long time because autoimmune disease runs in my family (lupus, FMS, graves disease & hashimotos thyroiditis, rosacea). This year we discovered my own 'family heirloom' - morphea, a milder form of scleroderma.
Several years ago, my husband was diagnosed BiPolar. He had been a printer for 20 years and we believe the constant exposure to the solvents and other harsh chemicals pushed him over the edge into a condition which Scandinavian researchers identify as "chronic solvent- induced neurotoxicity". We endured more than 7 years of nightmare rollercoaster rides until his body had detoxed enough to maintain relative stability as long as he carefully follows his doctor's protocol. He is no longer able to pursue his profession as a printer and is attempting to retrain into other areas – it’s slow going as his brain function and ability to learn has been permanently affected by the chronic exposure to toxic chemicals, as well as by the bipolar condition itself.
Our older son was diagnosed, at age 7, by an autism specialist, with a grab-bag dx of Tourette's Spectum Disorder including ADD with severe Hyperactivity, OCD, and ODD. At that time he was a ball of constant noise and spastic motion, continually in trouble at school and home because of his utter lack of impulse control. After 3 years of therapy, including detox chelation for Lead, Aluminum, Tin & Mercury, as well as Neurofeedback retraining to balance and reduce brain overactivity and neurosensory therapy for several sensory problems (extremely oversensitive to smell, taste, touch but underactive proprioceptively which caused him to feel compelled to kick, hit, & crash into things and people around him) AND many, many tests to identify food and chemical allergies, we have learned to watch out for the following triggers:
Dairy
Myself, my husband and especially my son. Lots of rhinitis and my son shuts off his cognitive center so he goes on 'autopilot' but not able to reason cause & effect very well. I have post-nasal drip and lots of mucous, sluggish insides and IBS flares.
Canola
For my son, canola triggers the oppositionality. He gets very irritable and irrational.
Onion
My husband - migraines and AMAZING DELUSIONAL MOOD SWINGS!!! The worst offenders are all variety leeks and onions, including green onion tops. Fresh or cooked doesn’t matter. Onion powder too, makes him vaguely irritable and gives him an upset stomach. The only ones tolerated are just small amounts of chives, garlic, and shallot. All the rest are REALLY BAD MEDICINE!!
We even have a sign in our kitchen saying BEWARE THE ONION. We put it up after a particularly bad attack where my poor hubby actually became convinced I was trying to poison him! It doesn’t show on any tests, and it must be really uncommon, I have only ever met one other person who had a similar experience with alliums.
Preservatives
A number of these really trigger bad hyperactivity and mood swings in my now-otherwise fairly peaceful son.
Aluminium
My son is very sensitive. Foods wrapped in foil or drinks in soda cans make him spazzy, oppositional and really hard to manage.
Salicylates
These affect my son, but not usually in foods exept during cherry season when he really overdoes it! Then his nose starts stinging inside and he gets pretty wacky. Which leads me to the odd reaction that several of us recently experienced...
Oats (plus Cherry)
We thought a while back that oats might be causing digestive problems for myself and my husband, and for our son to get really loopy. So we stopped having oatmeal and changed out our bread and noticed that this seemed to help but oats are supposed to be so good for you right? So, lately I’ve been baking a lot of muffins using oatbran for extra fiber. Unfortunately, I wasn’t making the connection to the rising 'wierdness' levels at home again.... then cherry season hit.
We did our annual picking and gobbling, and then I made up a big batch of Really Yummy Fresh Cherry And Oat Bran Muffins. What a supercharged combo that was! Every single one of us, including our younger son, who doesn’t usually seem affected, became really wound-up and emotional, and over the course of several days there were quite a few hysterical screaming fits over really mundane little things! I blew a fuse, went through my cupboards and got rid of EVERYTHING with any oats.
Since then I have been trying to find any information or similar examples of this kind of reaction to oats or the combination of oats and salicylates. Nothing out there-- ANYONE ??? Are we just really odd people?? I would love to hear from someone else with a similar experience.