I had a small, very mild reaction to lobster and/or shrimp a couple years ago. Just a small lump in my throat and dryness. Ever since, I have stayed away from lobster and only tried shrimp in small amounts with an ever so slight reaction to the shrimp twice. (I touched some shrimp to my lip and tongue before eating it both times with no reaction, which is why I ate it.)
I understand that a serious reaction could come at any time of exposure, no matter how many times you have been exposed to the agent before. So, my question is, according to those of you who understand the rules of anaphylaxis, should I eat lobster? How big is the risk? How big is the risk if I touch some to my lip and wait 5 minutes?
Basically, you have antibodies to some proteins found in shrimp. The antibodies (called IgE) When the antibodies see the protein, they set off some different reactions, including causing a cell called a mast cell to to release some chemicals such as histamine. These cause the allergic response (congestion, vomiting etc.).
Seafood allergies can be life threatening, and touching them to your lip really isn’t good enough. Your non damaged skin can act as a barrier to the antigens. When an allergist does a skin test for allergies, he scratches the area first so that the allergen can enter the body. When you ingest the foods, the cells that start up the allergic response are activated.
My allergist will not even give people who suspect a seafood allergy a skin test for them because of the risks. Perhaps you had a reaction to something other than the shrimp, or you didn’t eat enough the next few times to set off a reaction. If I had an allergy to seafood, I wouldn’t eat lobster, or shrimp anymore. It would be best to find an allergist and tell him or her about your experiences.
This is a personal anecdote, and should in no way be taken as a recommendation to do as I have done.
I like seafood, and eat a lot of it. Twice in my life I have experienced allergic reactions to prawns - total body hives and itching for about an hour. I have treated these reactions with ill-advised contempt, and continue to eat and enjoy seafood.
Earlier this year I returned from a trip to China and found myself hypersensitive to a lot of foods. Peanut butter made my lips swell up. Again, I took the attitude that I’d either die or get better, and the sensitivity seemed to go away after a couple of weeks.
A lump in the throat is a somewhat more worrying symptom, and if I were you I’d consult with a professional. But you are not necessarily excluded from lobster forever more.
Individual risk quantification is difficult, if not impossible.
Shooting from the hip, there’s about a 1-10% chance that a person reporting those types of symptoms from past experiences could swell up and attempt to die from eating shellfish.
Do you like those odds?
If not, consider consulting an allergist about evaluating you safely to see if you truly might have a severe allergy.
QtM, who once had a guy die in front of him after eating shrimp. (My ego wouldn’t let me allow him to stay dead, however)
My mom began experiencing reactions to peanuts about 10 years ago. First time, the roof of her mouth got itchy. Second time, itchy roof of mouth again and rash around the lips. Third time, her lips and tongue swelled up. The allergist told her that if she ate peanuts again the next reaction could be fatal. In fact, he wouldn’t even do a skin test on her for peanuts because that alone could trigger a fatal reaction.
Allergic reactions to food aren’t something to play around with. I wouldn’t take the risk if I were you. And make sure you always have an extra-strength antihistamine on you in case you accidentally ingest shellfish and have a reaction.
Your immune system has processes that can strengthen weak reactions to antigens - antibody producing B cells go through a sort of evolutionary process to select for cells that produce the best antibodies. So someone that has a weak reaction to something now could conceivably develop a stronger reaction later upon further exposure.
I can’t really speak to how likely that is, so I second QtM’s recommendation to go see an allergist.
Just asking for a clarification on something…I realize that one can be born with a sensitivity to certain foods.
But in my case, I’ve been eating shrimp all my life w/no problems. I am 56 years old. Well, last year, I noticed that I got itchy spots at random on my body after eating a goodly portion of shrimp.
No welts, the itching itself was very mild. I thought maybe it was something the restaurant put in their shrimp, but I had the same reaction in other restaurants, in several different sates. So it couldn’t have been unique to a particular property.
Is it unusual to somehow develop a sensitivity to a food after over 50 years of eating it w/no effect?
Sorry if this is a little bit off-topic, but **Qadgop the Mercotan ** and Smeghead have me a bit worried now.
No, that’s not unusual. Seems to happen fairly often.
As a non-human example, we had a stallion who had been injured and required antibiotic treatment for several weeks. So the Vet was giving him injections of penicillin twice a week. After several weeks, he suddenly had a near-fatal reaction to penicillin; the same penicillin that he’d been getting for weeks.
Rather scary seeing a strong, vigorous stallion literally falling to his knees in about a minute, and the Vet frantically injecting him with an antidote, and using a huge needle to shoot adrenalin directly into his heart, and having our trainer attempting massage to keep his heart & lungs working, etc.
Over the years my dad has developed a life-threatening allergy to shellfish (lobster, crabs, shrimp, and the like). It first started when he was in his mid-30’s; he had a mild reaction after eating some steamed crabs. It had never happened before (and living in Baltimore, one tends to eat a lot of steamed crabs over the years), so he wasn’t really sure if it was the seafood, something in the Old Bay seasoning, or what. His next few exposures were exponentially more severe. The last one resulted in a 911 call and an ambulance ride to the hospital.
These days (25 years later) even slight exposure (say, a knife used to cut shellfish which is then used to cut his food, or food being fried in the same oil as shellfish) would mean going into anaphylaxis pronto. He tries to keep an epi pen with him when he eats out (to my annoyance, he isn’t always very good about it). He always asks waiters to warn the chefs about his allergy, and he avoids Chinese restaurants in particular because of the strong potential for cross contamination and miscommunication.
Are some foods (like, say, shellfish and peanuts to judge by the anectdotes given) much more likely to cause this type of reaction where there was none before? Are there any other foods that are similarly likely to cause this?
(BTW as a molecular biologist it has always amazed me that as intense as the heat of boiling hot deep-fry oil is it still isn’t hot enough to denature whatever the structure of some food protein molecules is that cause these types of reactions…I have heard stories like that of Nimue’s father many times.)
Here is a link to the A&P website at UNM. It is a good basic explination of the body’s immune response. At the bottom of the page is some info on allergic reactions and how they work.
You become allergic too what ever you body builds antibodies for. People with allergies shouldn’t use a touch this and find out method. You can swell up in less than five minutes to the point of not breathing. You can also swell to the point where the skin gets blisters from the cells bursting. Adreniling injected immediatly into your system can pause a reaction for about 10 minutes, but then it continues. It a get to the hospital stop gap only, so don’t touch alergens to your lips.
It’s really amazing, isn’t it? And pretty scary for anyone with that severe an allergy. My dad’s in food science and is knowledgable about this sort of thing, but I always wonder about your average person who develops a severe allergy… Do their doctors educate them about just how dangerous seemingly trivial exposure is? I’m sure we’ve all heard about the person with the severe peanut allergy who goes into anaphylaxis because someone across the room opened a bag of peanuts…
To answer your previous question, certain foods DO seem to make for more severe allergies than others. Fish, shellfish, and peanuts are among the worst offenders but I don’t know what it is about their nature that makes people so vulnerable to developing allergies to them. Because of my family history, I’m holding off introducing my son (17 months) to these allergens, just in case.
I have also read that young children who develop allergies, especially to peanuts, have a reasonable chance of outgrowing them later in childhood. But adults who develop allergies are stuck with them. This info has been gleaned out of numerous parenting books and articles on the topic of introducing foods to babies. I don’t know enough about the science behind it to explain why, though.