Hi Terry

I just saw these posts - I don't know if you are still visiting this board, but I just wanted to contribute some of my experiences. You are possibly already aware of the information I am about to give - but if not - it made a real difference to me and it may to you.

What caught my eye about your post was where you wrote:

"I have so many food allergies - and they change all the time. I'll think I'm okay with a particular food one day, and then the next, I feel sick after eating it."

I am allergic to dairy, wheat, soy, gluten and intolerant to scillicyllates, amines, sulphites among others. Perfumes, most smells used to be able to topple me on a bad day.

It was not until I realised the difference between and allergy and an intolerance and the meaning of "loading" that I actually got a really good grip on my health and got rid of life long chronic diarrhea,alternating with chronic constipation, haemrrhoids, abdominal bloating, headaches, nausea, constant depression,suicidal feelings, constant fatigue, anger outbursts and chronic broken sleep.

I first heard about scillycillates when I started getting migranes. First one, then another about 6 weeks later. They picked up momentum until I was getting one every second day. Incredible pain which lasted for about 5-7 hours and finished when I threw up.This lasted for about 6months. I was desperate.

I rang the local allergy clinic and said, you may think I am crazy, but I know I am reacting to food. It can't be an allergy, because sometimes I can eat something and I know I am just fine. Another day, I will eat the same thing and I just know that it is what is toppling me over.

She asked me if anything affected my breathing. Oddly enough, minties - a white mint boiled sweet/candy has always given me a little sharp intake of breath. (thank God that I had noticed that reaction).

Oh, she said, Your problem is scillyllates. It is a natural chemical preservative found in all fruit and vegetables. It is not an allergy, it has to do with loading. Your body treats it as a toxin. It can take so much, but more than that and it topples. I will send you a list of all the fruits and veges, whether they are low, high or very high and then you just need to modify you intake to whatever it needs to be not to have a migraine.I suggest you just avoid all the very high ones.

I got her to give me a list over the phone so I could start straight away. So many of my favourite foods were high - Peppermint tea with honey (about the two highest you can get and I always had them together!)Avodacoes! You name it, it was there. Pineapple - yum!

Well, that was when I was 22 years old and I have probably had a handful of migraines since then and I am now 37.

However, aside from eliminating my migraines ( for which I was soooooo grateful) my health went steadily down hill from there, with the above symptoms in place - minus the migraines. Eventually, I was diagnosed a couple of years ago with an underactive thyroid, but even with treatment, the symptoms remained.

It was only last year that I learnt that there are other natural chemicals that bounce people around too in a book designed primarily for children with behavioural and health issues.

I was talking with a friend who was busy cooking for a special diet she had her kids/family on.They were on an Elimination Diet to identify food allergies and chemical sensitivites. They were going to challenge scillicyllates next week.

My ears pricked up - I had never heard anyone else mention scillicyllates before.

I got the book - Fed Up by Sue Dengate.

We started the next day - eating only what they refer to as "fail safe" foods.

I felt better than I had in years - so did my husband. I could sleep again. My energy started coming back, My bloating disappeared. I was happy. My moods were even. I didn't feel desperate and for the first time in my life I had normal BM's. No diarrhea.

I did not do the scillicyllate challenge. My husband did. He woke up the next morning screaming - he had such bad cramp in his legs. We finally had the answer as to why he could not stand for any length of time without his legs aching and his back hurting. We used to not be able to walk for more than about 10 minutes at a time - he would be in too much pain.

Now we keep his scillicylate levels low and he can walk for hours.We even did a big climb of the Chinese Wall!!!

Next we did the amines challenge. Amines are also very high in some fruits like oranges, but also very high in anything that is cooked until it is brown.

Well, amines are the trigger for my emotional reaction. after eating them I feel very off-balance and emotional. I feel unsettled. I go to bed late - not wanting to sleep, regardless of how tired I am. I wake up around 3am - fearful and obsessing and going over some past event - having regrets - feeling extremly anxious. I lay awake for maybe two hours. So awake.

Next more I am so tired. I anger very easily, I am snappy irrational - weepy. Then the Depression sets in. I went through so many days and months of my life like this. A real roller coaster. I thought I was going crazy.

My husband had the opposite reaction to the amines challenge. He went to sleep straight after work which he always did(which he hadn't done while eating only failsafe foods which we did for over a month before doing the challenges)He woke for dinner and went straight to bed. We had found the answer to why he had spent so many weekends asleep till 2pm on Saturday, waking only to eat something and then sleeping till 8pm - eating and then going back to sleep till 2pm the next day.

We went through the various challenges and were left with a very restricted diet.Basically, for us, rice, potatoes, steamed chicken, carrots, eggs, the odd bit of sashimi salmon (high amines but a treat)and things like puffed rice and special breads.

We have both been alot happier, alot more emotionally stable, balanced and we both sleep and wake feeling good and we fight alot less than we used to.

Reactions vary from person to person. It is only by doing challenges after at least five good days that you can clearly determine how a specific chemical affects you.

Now I am on day 25 of the lemonade fast and Bowel Cleanse with two Liver Flushes under my belt. My husband is busy flushing load after load of parasites and has one Liver Flush under his belt with another planned for next weekend. Somewhere in there, we both became so toxic that our bodies could not handle regular food. We are trying to address that and see where our journey takes us next.

I hope this helps in some way and wish luck and good health to all who are reading this as part of their search for answers to their health problems.

Tiratu

What kind of probiotics do you currently take?