Salicylates Sensitivity

[Rachel--24]

Ursula,

I know what you mean about the frusteration in changing everything...again. I had to change all my hair products and cosmetics for about the third time...not to mention a whole new diet. I thought I was doing everything right and eating so healthy but apparantly I was doing everything wrong for my body. I wasnt using coconut oil or honey because in the past I had bad reactions to both of those...especially the coconut oil. I had thought I was allergic to coconut because the reaction was so severe. I had been eating tons of berries, melons, apples, almonds, broccoli, mandarins and a bunch of other veggies and it was taking a toll. I got to being depressed every day again....the joint and muscle pain were back too. Its better now that I've eliminated this stuff but its so difficult to keep changing my diet...I end up throwing alot of food away.

Thats great that you are noticing a change for the better already as well. Good luck to you!

[Rachel--24]

Ok...for anyone who was following this thread, I saw my new doc yesterday and we taked for a long time about my symptoms and then I was given a phsyical. When she checked my nose she was shocked and told me I had huge polyps and that my tissue was swollen and the polyps were back into my cheek or sinus area. I've had pain here for the entire time I've been sick and it didnt clear up after gluten-free like alot of the other symptoms did.

I just left my HMO because they were the WORST doctors ever. I had an MRI of my head and a catscan of the sinuses and I was told everything looked good. I saw the ENT twice and my new doc couldnt believe that they missed these polyps...she said that my nose was completely raw inside. When I last saw the ENT (6 months ago) he told me to see a psychiatrist because there was nothing wrong physically. My nose LOOKS swollen to me and it definately hurts at the bridge which is where the polyps are. I've been dealing with this for 3 years now.

Now I have to have surgery to remove the polyps...this is much scarier to me than the endoscopy was but I'm hoping it will finally relieve the pain and pressure in my head.

I asked her what could cause the polyps and she said aspirin/salicylates could do it. I guess I was definately on to something when I wrote about salicylates a couple weeks ago. I havent taken aspirin since the first few months of my illness...I was taking aspirin to relieve headaches caused by my Graves Disease but the aspirin only worsened my pain and I've been sick since. I think the aspirin triggered the sensitivity and now I react to ALL salicylates.

I'm still not sure about the gluten sensitivity and how much that factors in...if at all. The new doctors specialize in GS so hopefully we'll be able to figure everything out. Its looking like I probably have both conditions because of the malabsorption, weight loss and bloating. I'll have to wait for Dr. Fine's studies to get published to know more about the significance of those tests. I did get ALOT better going gluten-free but for now I wonder if it was gluten or the food dyes, preservatives and salicylates causing the symptoms. I react to those ingredients in gluten-free processed foods so a normal diet would definately make me sick regardless of whether I was gluten intolerant or not. Staying gluten-free is really not a big deal anyway....Salicylate free is much harder so far....especially since it gets absorbed into the skin unlike gluten. Bummer.

[Ursa Major]

Rachel, I am sorry you have to have surgery for polyps, but glad that at least your nose and sinus problems have been figured out. Hopefully you'll feel much better after the surgery.

Hearing that the polyps made your nose raw makes me think. My nose is always crusted on the inside, and I get nosebleeds. And I always have a headache. I had polyps removed once as a child, maybe I should have that checked out myself.

[Nancym]

Rachel, do you have any links to this sensitivity? I'm still trying to get to the bottom of my aches and pains, perhaps this could help.

[Rachel--24]

Rachel, do you have any links to this sensitivity? I'm still trying to get to the bottom of my aches and pains, perhaps this could help.

Hi Nancy

There are some links posted a little further up on this thread. They were posted by gf4life. I also posted some links on the first page...some of the links might be the same as what she posted.

Ursulsa, Did you read gf4life's post? Here son also has problems with nasal polyps. Apparantly they are very common with salicylate sensitivity. I read that most people who are sensitive to aspirin have polyps.

I'm going back to see the nutritionalist later today. We'll talk about my diet. Hopefully he knows something about salicylates but he mainly specializes in gluten sensitivity. I'll post about how that goes on another thread.

[Nancym]

Whoops! Missed that excellent list. You know, this could explain some things, like why my eyelid swells up to the size of a walnut every now and then.

[leah1234]

poor thing, i can't imagine being salicylate sensitivite and gluten intolerant, There is a really good cookbook that is great for anyone who is salicylate sensitivite, and most of the receipes are gluten free too it's called "friendly food" it's an Australian book, but you should be able to buy it from amazon . com, just search for it. it's realy great, if amazon sell out, demand they get more!

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

WOW... I think, I might be on to something here.

I had some hip trouble coming on a few months ago and finally about 3 weeks ago it was so bad (I posted this on here as an emergency), that I almost went to the emergency room. I couldn't stand, lay down, or walk for days and had three chiropractor appointments . My left foot was numb from the little toe and the toe beside it along the outside edge pretty much almost to the heal and my hip had a painful burning sensation. This got worse, when touched. Upon research I found out that this occurs in both gluten ataxia and fibromyalgia. And since I have some other symptoms, that fibromyalgics have, I figured, that salicylates might be triggering this.

In fact, when I was 21 or 22 (I can't remember, I'm now 34), I had an incident, where I reacted really bad on an Aspirin. I got hives everywhere in my face, got dizzy and the bottoms of my hands and feet were throbbing with needle pins and looked like there are white spots on red. So I guess, I had an allergic reaction back then. Well, easy enough, I took antihistamins, everything went away and I never ate another Aspirin again. About 3 months ago I started receiving food stamps. Ever since then I "indulged" in foods (gluten free of course) I couldn't have had other times. And that's when the problems came back. Every once in a while strawberries gave me a headache before and sometimes some other fruits, but I never thought anything of it. But could this be an allergy or intolerance to salicylates? Not sure...

Then I had this pain attack I described earlier. It was caused by eating an entire box of chocolate platelets covered with non-pareils. Looking back it could have been other stuff, too. The non-pareils stuff I have eaten only like 5 pieces at a time, but not an entire box before. So now I'm wondering, if it is salicylates, amines (somebody mentioned, there's amines in chocolate), sugar... or a combination of those? Another thing could just be plain gluten, since there wasn't a label on the chocolate platelets, but I've had them before, like on 5 little pieces or so and never had a reaction. Unless they changed the way they made them. But anyways, the fact that I reacted to Aspirin before and strawberries sometimes give me a headache, what do you think? Exclusion diet with salicylates? Or everything mentioned? I don't have insurance, so I have to help myself.

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

Oh, just read, that peppermint has high amounts of salicylates, too. I remember alone in the last month I drank like 3 packages of peppermint tea, cause I'm trying to loose weight and the peppermint flavor is the only flavor I don't need sugar with.

[IrishHeart]

Oh, just read, that peppermint has high amounts of salicylates, too. I remember alone in the last month I drank like 3 packages of peppermint tea, cause I'm trying to loose weight and the peppermint flavor is the only flavor I don't need sugar with.

This link is from a few years ago and the original poster may not see your questions, hon.