[sageikosa]

When in her teens, my daughter developed a peanut allergy during her time in drum corps such that it was confirmed with skin patch tests and she had to carry an epi-pen. After about a year it just went away and she's back to "normal".

[sethammons]

Several years ago, I developed a bad allergic reaction to mango. Hyper sensitive skin that will rash and welt with the slightest irritation, such as sitting in a car and wearing a seat belt. This will last for over a month. I carry an EpiPen in case my throat swells shut. I know allergies can come and go, so I may no longer be allergic, but I dare not find out.

[js2]

Mango skin has a similar allergen as that in poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac. My sister cannot touch the skin w/o getting a rash. However, if it's already peeled she can eat it w/o issue. I understand this is not uncommon:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mango#Potential_for_contact_de...

[sethammons]

Of this I was aware, and thanks for bringing it up for general knowledge! For me, oddly, I can walk through poison oak no problem, as long as I don't have an open cut. Near a cut, the area will get all "poison-oaky" and rash and itch still.

[nradov]

Interesting. I'm extremely sensitive to urushiol but mango skin doesn't affect me.

[6d6b73]

Did she changed her diet in that time? Personally I noticed that the diet is what really drives the allergies. What's more, my son developed dog allergies, and we were about to give up our dog, but before that we decided to change the diet of .. the dog. Believe it or not, after 6 months my son is no longer allergic to our four-legged family member, but also to most other dogs.

[Spacemolte]

That sounds really interesting, that's one of those things i would never even have thought about. Can you elaborate on what dog food you used before and after?

[6d6b73]

I also would not suspect that this could help, but we noticed that he did not react to my sister' dog, that has a very strict diet (below) but was reacting to other dogs. So it made sense to try switching the diet before giving up on the dog.

Before my dog was getting a mix of dry and "wet" food, from various companies, and occasional scraps from the table. Currently we only feed him dry food from Orijen, and plan on introducing some other "wet" food soon. He's also getting a good quality bones with a lot of bone marrow, and about once a week some boneless sardines in olive oil.

[nucleardog]

A bit of anecdata - but all of our animals (few dogs, couple cats) have shed significantly less and had a much healthier looking coat once we switched them to better foods.

The reduction in shedding going from kibble that's primarily rice and corn to something that's actually nutritionally appropriate ingredients for a dog/cat was astounding (but should have been unsurprising).

My understanding is that pet allergies are generally allergies to the shed hair and skin, so a healthier diet may have reduced that significantly.

(For anyone curious, a basic analysis of a "cheap" food: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/alpo-dog-food... And a basic analysis of a "good" food: http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/acana-singles...)

[sageikosa]

She first noticed that she was feeling sick and started eliminating foods until we guessed it was the peanut butter sandwiches she was eating for lunch on tour. She did see an allergists who confirmed (with pretty obvious evidence) the reaction to peanuts.

She stopped eating peanuts for about a year, then gradually found she was capable of eating them again (her favorite candy was Reese's peanut butter cups, so a heartbreaking year that was). My belief is she is more cautious on the volume and frequency of her consumption now, but is otherwise unrestricted.

My guess was always that she must've had some low-grade infection (viral or otherwise) and the response was also broadly interacting with the proteins in peanuts.

The immune system isn't a designed system, it's a series of responses (and the ability to generate new response) that we broadly call a system because the net effect is as if there were some dynamic thing protecting us. Sometimes it just does its thing without regard to the segmentation faults it creates.

[jvolkman]

I do wonder about how many kids that think they have peanut allergies (or otherwise) have actually lost or outgrown them.

My anecdote: our daughter was diagnosed with a peanut allergy at ~7 months of age. She developed hives after eating some peanut butter and we confirmed the allergy at our allergist's office with a skin test. We were told to give it another shot in ~5 years, but to avoid all nuts and carry an epi-pen in the meantime.

But just about a year later after an insurance change, our new pediatrician encouraged us to do another test with our new allergist. A blood test came back negative, and the ultimate test - eating increasing amounts of peanut butter in the allergist's office over a couple of hours - was fine.

[agumonkey]

Seems that the allergy subsystem is very psychology dependent.

[Lewton]

I don't see how you got that from the anecdote

[agumonkey]

It's not from the anecdote, I had many many allergies and they appear much more if I'm in a stressful or unfamiliar context.

[sethammons]

Stress is not just a mental state. There are real, physiological changes, such as rising cortisol levels. To say that it is just a "psychology dependent" situation is to say it is all in your head.

[agumonkey]

I didn't mean to imply mental problems, but emotion can trigger imbalances in how your system produce and regulate this molecules.

[dekhn]

that's not psychology, that's neuroscience, and while generally observed, the phenomenon you describe isnt understood.

[DataWorker]

Only if you don't realize how psychology involves and implies biology.

[sageikosa]

Probably hormonal or sympathetic nervous system responses helping that along.

[agumonkey]

Presumably yes.

[raducu]

I developed an extreme sensitivity to caffeine after overdosing on another stimulant. Before, I could drink 5-6 espressos without a problem, after the incident, ~25mgs of caffeine gets pretty uncomfortable.

[agumonkey]

I had to stop eating almost everything in a grieving period, bodies are .. weird.