Can allergies or food intolerances be cyclical, or a phase?
Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 10:07 am
Hi Talk Allergy Team,
I am curious as to whether food allergies (or in my case intolerance) can be a phase in ones life as opposed to forever. Up until my early 20's, I was able to eat everything fine. However I did have to go through some pretty major surgery to due very angry ulcerative colitis and subsequently had my colon removed at 17 and a stoma for a few years before it was reversed. At that time, I knew certain things upset my UC so I avoided spices etc but generally I was fine with wheat, dairy and had a healthy, varied diet.
Somewhere between 20 and 22 I randomly developed intolerance to gluten, wheat and dairy. I'm 28 now and have since had to totally change my diet just to be able to control pain and get by every day. I've been on the fodmap diet for at least 4-5 years now, and I switched to gluten and wheat free substitutes, and soya alternatives years ago. I also take 6 sachets of VSL #3 a day to replace my gut bacteria.
I have found the fodmap diet helpful, but due to my previous UC and now general IBS I find I can't eat veg and fruit anymore, or spices, greasy foods, excess sugar, caffeine, alcohol, nuts. It's really frustrating, as I basically live off of protein and starch and multivitamins and I don't feel I eat a healthy diet. So I'm wondering: as these intolerances came about quite abruptly, is it possible they could leave somewhere in my 30's and I could go back to a normal life? I've already been allergy tested and it came back with things I already knew like pollen, animal dander, dust, a little for nuts and I'm not prepared to put my gut through a full coeliac test as I've heard it's not got a high success rate.
At the moment I'm too scared to try re-introducing wheat as it used to cause so much pain, and equally with dairy as I'm quite lactose intolerant. I work full time and don't have any time or the stamina to try just going back to normal food, as the knock on effect is I can't leave the bathroom or I'm too sore to go to work... So do you think they will just leave eventually, or is this it?
Thanks!
I am curious as to whether food allergies (or in my case intolerance) can be a phase in ones life as opposed to forever. Up until my early 20's, I was able to eat everything fine. However I did have to go through some pretty major surgery to due very angry ulcerative colitis and subsequently had my colon removed at 17 and a stoma for a few years before it was reversed. At that time, I knew certain things upset my UC so I avoided spices etc but generally I was fine with wheat, dairy and had a healthy, varied diet.
Somewhere between 20 and 22 I randomly developed intolerance to gluten, wheat and dairy. I'm 28 now and have since had to totally change my diet just to be able to control pain and get by every day. I've been on the fodmap diet for at least 4-5 years now, and I switched to gluten and wheat free substitutes, and soya alternatives years ago. I also take 6 sachets of VSL #3 a day to replace my gut bacteria.
I have found the fodmap diet helpful, but due to my previous UC and now general IBS I find I can't eat veg and fruit anymore, or spices, greasy foods, excess sugar, caffeine, alcohol, nuts. It's really frustrating, as I basically live off of protein and starch and multivitamins and I don't feel I eat a healthy diet. So I'm wondering: as these intolerances came about quite abruptly, is it possible they could leave somewhere in my 30's and I could go back to a normal life? I've already been allergy tested and it came back with things I already knew like pollen, animal dander, dust, a little for nuts and I'm not prepared to put my gut through a full coeliac test as I've heard it's not got a high success rate.
At the moment I'm too scared to try re-introducing wheat as it used to cause so much pain, and equally with dairy as I'm quite lactose intolerant. I work full time and don't have any time or the stamina to try just going back to normal food, as the knock on effect is I can't leave the bathroom or I'm too sore to go to work... So do you think they will just leave eventually, or is this it?
Thanks!