Allergy Treatment Questions

[SnoBaby]

I have been getting allergy shots for the past month, and I only went off gluten a week ago. Here's what I'm wondering...

If allergy shots are supposed to trigger an immune system response in order to build up your tolerance to the allergen, can they be successful if they are being administered when the patient's immune system is weakened (ie. a patient who has Celiac but was eating gluten)?

Also, I asked my doctor about food allergy testing, but that leads me to another question... if I have Celiac disease, what does testing me for allergies to "wheat," and "rye," etc result in? I know that Celiac is not an allergy. I'm just wondering what the outcome should be regarding an "allergy" response.

[missy'smom]

If you test positive to any of the gluten grains via allergy testing then you have an allergy to that grain in addition to Celiac. It is possible to have both and an allergy may manifest with some symptoms that are not typical of celiac disease. This is important to know for some beacuse an accidental exposure to wheat for example, may trigger an allergic reaction that would require them to carry an epi-pen, which is not necessary for someone who just has celiac disease.

[SnoBaby]

If you test positive to any of the gluten grains via allergy testing then you have an allergy to that grain in addition to Celiac. It is possible to have both and an allergy may manifest with some symptoms that are not typical of celiac disease. This is important to know for some beacuse an accidental exposure to wheat for example, may trigger an allergic reaction that would require them to carry an epi-pen, which is not necessary for someone who just has celiac disease.

Thank you. That clarifies a question that popped up but I didn't ask. However, I should have also clarified that the allergy shots I've been getting are not for food allergies but for environmental ones (grasses, mite/mold, etc). [don't know if that makes a difference in responding to my original post or not.]

[Simona19]

I don't know what kind of reactions you should have. I can just tell you what I experienced.

My Allergologist gave me injections to test milk and wheat allergy. I reacted to milk right away, but nothing happened with wheat. I left her office. After about hour and half the spot where the wheat was injected became red. It lasted for more than 24 hours. I made pictures from the red spot at 5:00PM. It was red. Two days later in the morning I stop by my Allergologist's office and show her the pictures. The place where she gave me injection was visible still.

Results: Milk - allergy 1+; wheat - imediate 0, delayed reaction 2+ from scale 0-4.

After two weeks I went back and she repeated the test for wheat, but now she used prick test. It was definitely negative for wheat allergy.

I asked her what it means. She told me that I don't have allergy to wheat; that she don't know, if I have celiac disease, but she can tell me for sure that I'm wheat intolerant. The reaction was more related to digestive issues. She used some medical name for it, but I forgot.

[Gemini]

I have been getting allergy shots for the past month, and I only went off gluten a week ago. Here's what I'm wondering...

If allergy shots are supposed to trigger an immune system response in order to build up your tolerance to the allergen, can they be successful if they are being administered when the patient's immune system is weakened (ie. a patient who has Celiac but was eating gluten)?

Celiac disease does not weaken the immune system in any way.....unless you reach the point of severe malnutrition with it and become very run down. Celiac is a disease of overactive immune response. I received allergy shots for 12 years and stopped them 2 years ago, more to see what would happen if I did. Half of the shots were given when I was undiagnosed and the other half after diagnosis and a gluten free diet. The shots helped tremendously so I would recommend them to people with severe allergy problems. I use nothing for my allergies and never did...just the shots. It has been 2 years and I am having some reactions to those damn dust mites since turning the heat on for the season. I am not bothered all the time and my reactions are not bad or frequent enough to resume shots. I would say keep with them and don't worry about the Celiac interfering with your shots....it won't! I felt better from the shots long before I was diagnosed with the Celiac.