Oral Allergy Syndrome (oas)

[wowzer]

I was just reading about OAS. It has to do with the instant symptoms you get when you eat a food you are allergic to. The symptoms can be itchy throat, tingling, burning mouth soon after eating certain foods. If I drink orange juice, my throat will itch and eventually I even get blisters in my throat. I do realize I'm dealing with food allergies too. I just thought it was interesting.

[LizMaude]

I was just reading about OAS. It has to do with the instant symptoms you get when you eat a food you are allergic to. The symptoms can be itchy throat, tingling, burning mouth soon after eating certain foods. If I drink orange juice, my throat will itch and eventually I even get blisters in my throat. I do realize I'm dealing with food allergies too. I just thought it was interesting.

I have OAS to a lot of fruits and veggies. I think my symptoms are getting better now that I've been on the gluten-free diet for a little while.

[wowzer]

Now that you mention it my symptoms of OAS have improved since I went gluten free the beginning of the year. You are the first to answer this post from so long ago.

[SunnyDyRain]

I have OAS too. I react to honeydew and cantaloupe. this is related to my ragweed allergy. I avoid them because I have had my throat close up and needed to use my inhaler just to keep my air passages open until the bendryl worked. I'd be willing to try one piece, but i'd like to wait until ragweed season is over thinking that my body might not react as bad then. The allergy got gradually worse for me.

[Idiote Savante Goddess]

I have food, environmental and seasonal allergies, am waiting for test results for gluten intolerance, and get OAS frequently. My allergist said the easiest way to deal with it is not to eat fruits when they are in season and cheap.

There's good information out there-- not that I can remember the name of the website, but some kindly Canadians prepared a table showing what fruits and veg you're likely to react to when various pollen levels are high: ragweed, birch, mugwort -- there's a few others. The ragweed-melon-cantaloupe connection is pretty well known, some of the others are a little more obscure.

[wowzer]

I have see the lists of the allergy groups. My doctor gave me copies so I could choose want I wanted to be tested for. I kept looking at it and couldn't decide. I kind of know already. The ragweed/melon I know for sure. I still haven't pursued it any farther. It's enought trying to avoid gluten.

[Michi8]

Yes, I have OAS. It's related to my severe birch pollen allergy, and has gotten worse over the last 10 years. I cannot eat any raw tree fruit (apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, etc) or nuts (almonds & hazelnuts/filberts) but can eat them cooked (cooking changes the protein). I've seen lists of possible cross-reactive foods...apparently wheat can be a problem for birch pollen cross-reaction as well.

It's frustrating to be allergic to such basic foods. When people hear I can't just bite into an apple, they're pretty disbelieving. Sometimes I can't resist having a fresh apple and I pay for it later...first with the mouth and throat reactions, and then later in my gut. At least my peanut allergy became less severe. So now I can eat peanuts without problem...though I seem to still have a reaction depending on how the peanuts are prepared (probably a cooked vs. raw issue with peanuts too.)

Michelle