# What allergies do you have? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2016, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776 "2016-11-13T05:44:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/41 "2016-11-15T18:35:06Z")
I get an allergic reaction to nickel, fortunately it doesn’t seem to be used in watches anymore. Oh, and the aluminium in deodorants too. Fortunately this isn’t an issue with me or those close to me. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/42 "2016-11-15T19:53:22Z")
I used to get sick every year on and around Halloween, for 15+ years. Now I still get sick in the fall but it seems to be later in the fall. For instance I am sick this week, clearly with allergies. I voted for “mold” because I am pretty sure that when leaves fall and get wet then get heated by the sun and then sit longer in the dark and get moldy and then get all moved around and the mold spores are in the air…I am allergic to that. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/43 "2016-11-15T21:24:32Z")
I am either allergic or very sensitive to some preservative added to most boxed foods like the flavored noodles/rice and some instant potatoes. I think I have an allergy to bananas too, and it’s fairly recent. I ate them my whole life until a few years ago. At first I just got really bad indigestion but the last few times I had shortness of breath and swelling in my throat and in my sinuses like I do with the box foods. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/44 "2016-11-15T22:46:35Z")
Sulfa drugs. I break out in hives all over and develop fever, vomiting, dizziness, and palpitations. Needless to say, I’m very careful to double-check any medication I’m given. I also developed hives after taking amoxicillin as a child, so I’ve never taken that again, but I’m not sure it was actually an allergy. Apparently amoxicillin can sometimes cause a rash that looks like hives but isn’t. I’ve taken penicillin with no problem. After I explain this stuff to doctors, none of them will give me anything penicillin-class anyway, but I have a feeling it might be OK. ---
**Author:** ![ripply](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f4b2a3/32.png) [@ripply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ripply)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2016, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/45 "2016-11-15T22:54:31Z")
I have some sort of weird allergy to garlic. Actually I’m not sure if it should be called an allergy or intolerance. The doctor described it as a ‘naso-gastric reaction’. Basically if I smell garlic at all, I get really sick with a migraine that lasts for days and leaves me bedridden with pain, vomiting, dizziness, vision problems etc. My throats feels swollen and inflamed. It’s all I can do to make it to the loo and back, but that’s it. The latest episode (I walked past a pizza shop) lasted a full week. If I eat something that has garlic purée in it, the same thing happens. But strangely, I can eat foods that contain garlic powder, so long as I can’t smell it and I don’t eat much of it. Even more weirdly, I had allergy testing done (skin prick testing and RAST) and garlic showed no reaction, but peaches did. I’ve never had any issues with peaches! ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/46 "2016-11-16T00:41:40Z")
Born in the 30s, no allergies. Not even to mosquito bites, although I did until I worked in a lab that had loads of chemicals around. While I worked there mosquitos didn’t bite me and after I stopped, they did but I didn’t react. I do have a mild reaction to bee stings though. Wasps are worse, but I don’t think that counts as allergies. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/47 "2016-11-16T02:47:42Z")
Penicillin. It makes me feverish and gives me hives. I may have had a minor allergy to chocolate for some years; starting in my late teens eating anything with chocolate in it would make my throat start to close up (not my airways, fortunately). After over a decade of avoiding chocolate it seems to have vanished though. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/48 "2016-11-16T02:58:49Z")
I am allergic to penicillin and many narcotics. Made recovering from knee surgery a delight, when I had one allergic reaction after another in the hospital. Tylenol and ice packs. Hooray. Oh, and fruit flies. Almost all fly biologists develop a strong allergy to them and I had myself scratch tested against fruit flies. The welt was twice as big as the positive control. ---
**Author:** ![ultimate11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/49beb7/32.png) [@ultimate11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultimate11)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/49 "2016-11-16T06:08:07Z")
Even though I was born in the 1990s (1994), I have no allergies myself. My assumption is genetics and a few family trips because back in the 90s, I was living in Chicago on 28th Street and Wallace. While I had a few experiences with the urban environment, I also had a few experiences with the rural environment because my mother was born in Ohio. So it was both nature and nurture, and that might explain why I have no allergies. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/50 "2016-11-16T20:14:09Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I need multiple choice for an accurate answer, the poll is only letting me make one choice. This. I am allergic to both water and mobile phones. ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776/51 "2016-11-16T20:54:00Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > My mom says I broke out in hives after she gave me aspirin when I was a baby. I’ve taken other things you aren’t supposed to take if you are allergic to aspirin, with no problem, but I haven’t tried aspirin to see if I am still/was ever actually allergic. My mother “read some article” about how there were undocumented widespread allergies to aspirin (you know, because THEY were making oodles of money selling aspirin and didn’t want the truth to come out) back when I was a kid. She swore for years I was “allergic” to aspirin based on whatever she thought she observed in me after reading that article. Naturally, as soon as I moved out on my own I proceeded to take aspirin any time I had a headache or minor aches and pains and experienced no observable negative effects whatsoever. But then, that was my mother.:rolleyes: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-allergies-do-you-have/771776.md?page=2)