I saw a man with severe hives (medical terminology: urticaria) 4 days ago. His wife and he wanted to talk about the possibility of him having a food allergy. After evaluating him by history, physical exam, allergy prick skin tests, we agreed on him beginning an elimination diet. This term means to me to not only remove the food suspected of causing the hives, but go to an extreme of restricting the diet a short list of foods. These foods are organic and known not to cause hives even rarely. A common group of foods is rice, lamb, and pineapple. This diet is maintained for 2 to 4 weeks. Wait and see if the symptoms resolve slowly. A new food may be added every 2 days. Read label very carefully, because there are many ways to hide foods.
More information can be found at: the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network, WebMD, and the Dieticians Association of Australia.
If you want to avoid a particular food in your diet, don't forget this entry.
This entry is an improvement of a post on 2/9/09 on the same topic, because it was not good enough. I hope this helps more.
Your Allergy Dude
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