Possible Rice Allergy?

[Guest]

Hi Everyone,

 

I tried rice tonight for the first time. How commonly is someone allergic to rice? Maybe it's just a coincidence, but as I was eating the rice, I started sneezing, became congested, and then got a headache. With my other allergies that I tested allergic to I've never observed this type of reaction when eating them. We haven't tested rice because I never would eat it before.

 

Carolyn

[kim]

Carolyn,

 

Apparently, rice allergies are more common in places like Japan where a lot of it is eaten, but yes, it can cause the symptoms that you described. These looked informative.

 

http://allergy.healthcentersonline.com/foo...riceallergy.cfm

 

http://www.food-allergens.de/symposium-vol...ce-abstract.htm

 

I had also read somewhere quite a while ago, that rice can be high in arsenic, since it is used to keep rats from eating it when being shipped. Don't know if that pertains to all rice. Hope not, I love it, but have started using brown rice mainly because of the carb digestion process (healthier).

 

Kim

[orthomolecular]

Hi Everyone,

 

I tried rice tonight for the first time. How commonly is someone allergic to rice? Maybe it's just a coincidence, but as I was eating the rice, I started sneezing, became congested, and then got a headache. With my other allergies that I tested allergic to I've never observed this type of reaction when eating them. We haven't tested rice because I never would eat it before.

 

Carolyn

 

Rice is high in histidine. Histidine is an amino acid that the body converts into histamine. Histamine makes you sneeze, turns your skin red, makes your eyes water, etc. You may have high histamine levels which were made worse by the rice. High histamine would explain your allergies. You can ask you doctor to do a blood test to check your histamine levels. Orthomolecular uses high doses of nutrtional supplements to balance histamine levels in the body. This is not the same idea as taking anti-histamines.

[kim]

orthomolecular,

 

I was wondering if you could comment on whether you feel blood or urine testing would give the most accurate info on amino acid deficiencies?

 

 

Kim

[Guest]

I tried rice again for supper as I wanted to see what happened if anything this time. This time I didn't start sneezing, but got an itchy noise and a headache. I took my histamine drops before tics increased and the headache went away. At the end of the year I can be tested to find out for sure if I'm allergic to rice or not. I was really hoping it was just a coincidence as I really didn't want to be allergic to rice also. I'm just about allergic to everything and don't want another food on the list especially a subsitute food.

 

By the way, when I ate rice the time before this one, I still had a headache and increased tics the next day. After contacting my doctor to see if it was okay if I gave my allergy shot that had the histamine in it as I didn't have any histamine drops, I gave the shot. Shortly after the headache went away and tics got better.

 

Carolyn