Bunny Trails

[Soloist]

Well now it took us 4 tries to find a dr that wasn’t prescription happy. We eventually had to drive close to 50 miles to find this osteopathic medicine dr. He ran allergy tests to see if she was allergic to foods and it happened she was so all she had to do was stop eating them and her GI pains disappeared. He couldn’t get rid of her biggest pain though… me.

I'd like to learn more, since my allergist told me it's not medically possible to test for food allergies. Could you share some more information about this?

Maybe it’s just a shortage of drs or maybe it’s the shortage of doctors who are trained to be digging deeper like the DOs (Doctors of Osteopathic medicine).

In my area, DOs are quite common, practice at all the major hospital networks, and seem to practice medicine the same way that MDs do. My family's doctor is a DO.

Wife: they have blood tests for food and environmental allergies. They’re not going to do a skin test on someone who might have an anaphylactic reaction to something so maybe that’s what you’re talking about. The skin test though are less likely to come up with false positives, but one of our children tested pretty high for dust mites and ragweed, and very minor for milk and scallops (blood test from doctors office), which it’s possible they might be slightly sensitive to milk, but we didn’t drop it, and it seems like the symptoms were more environmental for that one. I’m sure it would be different if milk ended up testing a lot higher.

The allergist we talked to said that they do blood tests for people with higher risk of anaphylactic reactions. They also said not to worry about the milk because the child’s numbers were low enough that it might not actually be a big deal

[JohnL]

A good dr who takes the time to find a cause is scarce these days. I don’t know why it’s so hard to find a good diagnostician. Maybe it’s just a shortage of drs or maybe it’s the shortage of doctors who are trained to be digging deeper like the DOs (Doctors of Osteopathic medicine).

AI is actually helping a lot with diagnosis. I think this is a really good use of it.

I’m not sure I agree with that because of all the reported errors in AI. AI can’t really look over the physical person, check for cold hands and doesn’t have trained intuition either. I don’t think it will ever replace a flesh and blood doctor. It’s too limited.

[JohnH]

Wife: they have blood tests for food and environmental allergies. They’re not going to do a skin test on someone who might have an anaphylactic reaction to something so maybe that’s what you’re talking about. The skin test though are less likely to come up with false positives, but one of our children tested pretty high for dust mites and ragweed, and very minor for milk and scallops (blood test from doctors office), which it’s possible they might be slightly sensitive to milk, but we didn’t drop it, and it seems like the symptoms were more environmental for that one. I’m sure it would be different if milk ended up testing a lot higher.

The allergist we talked to said that they do blood tests for people with higher risk of anaphylactic reactions. They also said not to worry about the milk because the child’s numbers were low enough that it might not actually be a big deal

There aren’t blood tests for food allergies with any kind of reliability unless your allergy is so bad you will go into anaphylactic shock upon eating a certain food. Most people in that category already know what their foods are.

In short, blood tests for low level allergies border on pseudoscience and have no clinical relevance. Lots of people get them from questionable places and then think they have a bunch of allergies.

Skin tests are reliable.

[Soloist]

Wife: they have blood tests for food and environmental allergies. They’re not going to do a skin test on someone who might have an anaphylactic reaction to something so maybe that’s what you’re talking about. The skin test though are less likely to come up with false positives, but one of our children tested pretty high for dust mites and ragweed, and very minor for milk and scallops (blood test from doctors office), which it’s possible they might be slightly sensitive to milk, but we didn’t drop it, and it seems like the symptoms were more environmental for that one. I’m sure it would be different if milk ended up testing a lot higher.

The allergist we talked to said that they do blood tests for people with higher risk of anaphylactic reactions. They also said not to worry about the milk because the child’s numbers were low enough that it might not actually be a big deal

There aren’t blood tests for food allergies with any kind of reliability unless your allergy is so bad you will go into anaphylactic shock upon eating a certain food. Most people in that category already know what their foods are.

In short, blood tests for low level allergies border on pseudoscience and have no clinical relevance. Lots of people get them from questionable places and then think they have a bunch of allergies.

Skin tests are reliable.

Wife: You’re probably right. We were going in because my child came down with random hives and breathing issues, which happened once before, but we had chalked it up to a sickness, but the dust mites completely made sense, because we had hung up a thrift store curtain which hung near their bed that we hadn’t washed right before the hives incident, and they tested moderate to severe on it I think (maybe 70s or more?). They also had those levels for ragweed.
The milk was only in the 40s, but our nurse practitioner basically brushed off the environmental, and wanted us to drop milk, which they drink every single day most of their life. She said also to avoid scallops, which isn’t very hard to do, but that was also like maybe 15 to 25. Milk was why I ended up looking at the allergist/skin test route, but as long as that child is not having any major issues, we hadn’t bothered doing it. The one allergist I talked to, but didn’t make an appointment with, didn’t think it was a big deal, and the new doctor doesn’t think so either.
Child does have sinus issues chronically, so I’ve considered doing a skin test, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet, and that might just be the environmental stuff.

[JohnL]

Wife: they have blood tests for food and environmental allergies. They’re not going to do a skin test on someone who might have an anaphylactic reaction to something so maybe that’s what you’re talking about. The skin test though are less likely to come up with false positives, but one of our children tested pretty high for dust mites and ragweed, and very minor for milk and scallops (blood test from doctors office), which it’s possible they might be slightly sensitive to milk, but we didn’t drop it, and it seems like the symptoms were more environmental for that one. I’m sure it would be different if milk ended up testing a lot higher.

The allergist we talked to said that they do blood tests for people with higher risk of anaphylactic reactions. They also said not to worry about the milk because the child’s numbers were low enough that it might not actually be a big deal

Well now those blood tests have been improved to the point that they pulled up every single food my wife reacted to. They gave her a chart with the reactive levels marked for each food and environmental category.
It might could be that there’s different brands of those blood tests made by different companies too. I don’t know all the particulars about who makes them and how the different brands are different from each other. All I know is they worked well enough to give my wife the info she needed to find relief from a very painful condition.

[JohnH]

Wife: they have blood tests for food and environmental allergies. They’re not going to do a skin test on someone who might have an anaphylactic reaction to something so maybe that’s what you’re talking about. The skin test though are less likely to come up with false positives, but one of our children tested pretty high for dust mites and ragweed, and very minor for milk and scallops (blood test from doctors office), which it’s possible they might be slightly sensitive to milk, but we didn’t drop it, and it seems like the symptoms were more environmental for that one. I’m sure it would be different if milk ended up testing a lot higher.

The allergist we talked to said that they do blood tests for people with higher risk of anaphylactic reactions. They also said not to worry about the milk because the child’s numbers were low enough that it might not actually be a big deal

There aren’t blood tests for food allergies with any kind of reliability unless your allergy is so bad you will go into anaphylactic shock upon eating a certain food. Most people in that category already know what their foods are.

In short, blood tests for low level allergies border on pseudoscience and have no clinical relevance. Lots of people get them from questionable places and then think they have a bunch of allergies.

Skin tests are reliable.

Wife: You’re probably right. We were going in because my child came down with random hives and breathing issues, which happened once before, but we had chalked it up to a sickness, but the dust mites completely made sense, because we had hung up a thrift store curtain which hung near their bed that we hadn’t washed right before the hives incident, and they tested moderate to severe on it I think (maybe 70s or more?). They also had those levels for ragweed.
The milk was only in the 40s, but our nurse practitioner basically brushed off the environmental, and wanted us to drop milk, which they drink every single day most of their life. She said also to avoid scallops, which isn’t very hard to do, but that was also like maybe 15 to 25. Milk was why I ended up looking at the allergist/skin test route, but as long as that child is not having any major issues, we hadn’t bothered doing it. The one allergist I talked to, but didn’t make an appointment with, didn’t think it was a big deal, and the new doctor doesn’t think so either.
Child does have sinus issues chronically, so I’ve considered doing a skin test, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet, and that might just be the environmental stuff.

See an allergist instead of an NP. There really isn’t any clinical significance to things other than skin tests for assessing allergies that affect breathing.

The currently reliable way to diagnose food allergies is a careful elimination diet that then reintroduced one food stuff for a week at a time and waits for symptoms to reappear. Needless to say very few people want to do this option.

[temporal1]

Well now it took us 4 tries to find a dr that wasn’t prescription happy.

Finding a good doctor is like finding a good mechanic. It can be tricky to find the one that knows exactly what that noise in the front end is from.

I seem to be on the spectrum and was having a lot of struggles this past year. When they came out and said Tylenol could be causing it. I stopped taking it and found most of my challenges went away. Not sure if it is psychosomatic or what. Just know I am doing much better. I was taking Tylenol about 3 times a week and feeling the need to up that some. I stopped taking it and after about 2 weeks, I didn't feel the need to even take Aleve but maybe once every 2 weeks. My head cleared. I am much calmer and I can sit in a room for meetings without feeling like I am coming out of my skin. I can handle eye contact of people again. Tylenol may work for others, but found it is not good for me.

Different ones in my family have had various odd, even reverse reactions to medications, including me, i’m not at all surprised to read this. Some of us are sensitive to perfumes+dyes, literally to the point of being life threatening. Thankfully, frangrance-free, latex-free products have become pretty easy to find.

i’ve learned to be careful about potentially off reactions to meds, and everything.
i tend to need smaller doses of prescription drugs.

When i had eye surgery last year, the surgeon assured me i would be awake, it was to be a “twilight” sedation.
Nope. i was completely out right away. i wish i’d been able to see the anesthesiologist’s and surgeon’s reaction in OR!

The surgeon was able to get the job done without me.

[Soloist]

The currently reliable way to diagnose food allergies is a careful elimination diet that then reintroduced one food stuff for a week at a time and waits for symptoms to reappear. Needless to say very few people want to do this option.

Ironically this can actually cause problems too.

[ohio jones]

How much does an AI bot get paid to post links on Mennonet?

Gets paid in quite a few tokens, and also gets a "reward". I guess you could say it also gets paid in power and water.

Interestingly, the bot has just reported its own post as spam: The reported message has the only purpose to advertise for a website or another product.

[mike]

How much does an AI bot get paid to post links on Mennonet?

Gets paid in quite a few tokens, and also gets a "reward". I guess you could say it also gets paid in power and water.

Interestingly, the bot has just reported its own post as spam: The reported message has the only purpose to advertise for a website or another product.

I laughed when I saw that.