Is This Enough Evidence?

[frenchiemama]

Ok, here is the evidence:

- bad hand eczema, especially bad in the past 6 months or so, but nearly always present.

- apparent corrolation between dairy consumption and temporary worsening of skin problems

- stopped eating dairy, skin cleared up within days. Hasn't been this clear since I don't even know when.

- "tested" last night, at 3 spoonfuls of ice cream and a small hunk of cheese. NOTHING happened.

Do you think that this is enough evidence of a dairy problem? I actually don't really even miss dairy, but I don't want to go through the extra hassle (and in some cases expense) of avoiding something if I don't need to. Seems silly.

[Ursa Major]

Well, apparently nothing happened YET. Or nothing obvious, anyway. Since you have been dairy free for a while, you may well get a delayed reaction now. I wouldn't be so quick to claim that nothing happened. Your rash (or other symptoms) could take up to two weeks to appear! Plus, one small hunk of cheese and three spoonfuls of ice cream isn't very much. If you are intent on testing it, drink a large glass of milk and eat a large bowl of ice cream. That should give you the reaction you are waiting for, if dairy is the problem.

Last year I would get horrible stomach cramps and terrible diarrhea within twenty minutes of eating gluten. Now it takes a whole WEEK to get the awful diarrhea!

Anyway, obviously you know that you have plenty of evidence that dairy is a problem. Your skin problems went away when you eliminated dairy.

Three of my grandchildren used to have awful eczema, which cleared up when they were taken off dairy. Dairy is known to cause eczema.

[frenchiemama]

It's possible that something will happen, but hasn't yet. My elbow is feeling a little itchy. I guess I was expecting an instant reaction like I get with gluten (start feeling sick almost as soon as the food hits my stomach and my skin breaks out within an hour or two). I was just reluctant to accept the relationship on the basis of the eczema going away when I went dairy free, because that *could* have been a coincidence. It's just shoddy scientific process to accept the hypothesis on the basis of one initial response, so I feel compelled to test it more than once. It probably is dairy, but I'm the kind of person who will constantly have doubt until I feel that it's been proven without question. I'm willing to admit that I'm a bit nuts.

[jenvan]

Dairy doesn't give me an immediate reaction. Make sure you are writing things down so you don't miss something over a several day period. I can eat dairy fine in the moment--no biggie. But a day or two or maybe even three later, constipation, brain fog...

[frenchiemama]

Ok, now I'm breaking out all over the place. It has been 6 days since I tested myself with dairy, I never would have suspected a relationship after this long if others hadn't said something about delayed reactions. Very interesting.