90 Diet Wise
However there may be a more serious explanation for this quartet and you
should consult a physician before dismissing them as diet related.
Classic “floaters” (dark flecks circulating within your field of view)
I have noticed can be caused or made worse by allergic reactions.
Skin
The surface of your body is a classic marker for signs an allergy. Probably
the most outstanding allergy rash we call urticaria; it is hot, itchy and raised
in bumps, like a nettle sting (Urtica is the Latin word for nettle). A variant
of that, called giant urticaria, is really about fluids escaping from the blood
vessels, causing major swellings. This can be so bad as to close a person’s
throat and cause difficulty breathing. Arguably, it is but a short step from
this to anaphylaxis, the dread and often fatal allergic reaction, in which the
patient passes rapidly into shock and circulatory collapse.
Another interesting variant we call dermographia, which literally
means “skin writing.” When the skin is this sensitive, slight pressure on the
skin produces the typical urticarial wheal. Just stroking the skin of the back
would make it possible to write words, which emerge as wheals – hence
the name of this condition. But the same effect occurs where buckles, bra
straps, elastic knickers and other pressure points irritate the skin.
Eczema is a common and debilitating skin eruption that can make
life miserable due to itching and scratching. Often it goes with asthma and
hay fever in a combination we call “atopic”, meaning an inherited severe
generalized allergy tendency. Such individuals are often in a miserable
condition, hardly able to live normally; they look bright red (inflammation),
scratch and wheeze, and may deposit skin flakes on the rug and in bed like a
biological snow. Stress seems to play a part too, exacerbating the condition
relentlessly.
Atopy is tougher but still responds extremely well to discovering
and following the right diet, which reduces the system overload and allows
recovery.
Casebook 6.
This is a good point to relate the case in which an infant literally peed
himself back to size! At the age of eight months he had severe eczema – so
bad in fact that physicians had even tried steroid creams, in desperation
(a very serious and dangerous undertaking in one so young and with this