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How Much Gluten Causes a Reaction?
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TooManyHats
- Rockhopper Penguin
- Posts: 550
- Joined: Fri Jan 14, 2011 9:30 pm
- Location: New Jersey
Tex, that was my suspicion. I've thought for several years that I was allergic to fish and shellfish, but my PCP's blood test results came back "normal". I know I'm allergic to pollen and mold and grasses, and I've had bad reactions to crab, etc. I'll try those hash browns again, without the fish, and see what happens.
Pat C.
"Don't sweat the small stuff.
P.S. (It's all small stuff!)"
"Don't sweat the small stuff.
P.S. (It's all small stuff!)"
Pat,
The antibodies that are causing your problems with foods that contain histamines, are not likely to show up in a blood test - they're present in the mucosa of your intestines, but they don't seem to be detectable in blood.
If you take an antihistamine, such as Benadryl, or Claratin, before eating fish, and it prevents the symptoms from developing, then you can be pretty sure that mast cells are causing the problem.
Tex
The antibodies that are causing your problems with foods that contain histamines, are not likely to show up in a blood test - they're present in the mucosa of your intestines, but they don't seem to be detectable in blood.
If you take an antihistamine, such as Benadryl, or Claratin, before eating fish, and it prevents the symptoms from developing, then you can be pretty sure that mast cells are causing the problem.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
Well, yes, they're white cells, since they originate in bone marrow. They're similar to basophils, (basophil granulocytes), but unlike basophils, which emerge from bone marrow fully developed, mast cells remain in an immature form, until they reach the tissue where they will "hang out", and they mature there, (they mature on site, because the location, that is, type of tissue, determines the final characteristics of the mast cells). There are two basic types of mast cells, (those from connective tissue and those from mucosal tissue). We are concerned with those from mucosal tissue, or course, since they are the type found in the mucosa of our intestines.Pat wrote:Are mast cells the white blood cells that attack the invading foods?
They don't actually attack susceptible foods, (at least not directly) - they release histamines, which trigger the activation of other lymphocytes, cytokines, etc., (which actually launch the attack), and this in turn generates the classic histamine-based allergy symptoms, including rash, weals, itching, watery eyes and nose, and possible anaphylactic symptoms which can cause shock, respiratory distress, etc.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I'm pretty sure the problem is not that most doctors aren't able to explain things of this sort, but that they would rather not get into any long, detailed descriptions, with the additional questions that are sure to follow, because they're anxious to get on to the next patient, and possibly a round of golf, later. 
You're most welcome, of course,
Tex
You're most welcome, of course,
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.