I nearly died again! Food allergies and trust in Taiwan!

[headhonchoII]

I think the not getting dirty is definitely a big part. The rough theory is that as parasites tend to damp down our innate immune system we have co-evolved with them (all mammals) to boost our innate immune system. Remove the parasites and your immune system is naturally revving too high! It's a simple but powerful theory.
There are people who infect themselves with parasites and have claimed good and almost instant results. Docs don't know what to do as they know that giving somebody a parasite can be hard to control, they are a VERY conservative profession. They have been very slow to realize that many microbes and parasites can be used to protect us and make us healthy again. Pharmaceutical companies won't get behind it until they can powder and patent the active ingredients.

GMO, chemicals, processed food etc, I don't think they have any real influence on allergies specifically.

In the case of life threatening allergies, I think it may be worthwhile to examine a parasite type therapy, bizarre as it sounds.

[taiwansteve]

To the original poster of this. Like you, I have allergies, anaphalaxic shock syndrome, and asthma. I totally understand what you're going through. If you're serious about fixing your problem, or at least lessening the problems you have, you may contact me (stepheninhk @ yahoo . com) Or if anyone else has questions they may need answered. I'll be glad to help you out too. Learn a few things first. Doctors here are not dumb to the idea, but just don't quite understand it. Most common allergies in Taiwan according to my doctor were mangoes (yes, mangoes) and seafood and wine/alcohol. Most people here think it's just a rash thing, and goes away. Until you explain to them that you may actually die, then they usually don't get the point. Always stress that fact. Also, according to the Taiwanese government, allergies are considered a "personal" problem, while food poisoning is considered their problem. That means, if you have allergies, you MUST tell them FIRST. If you have clearly done that, and you get sick, you can sue for compensation/injuries or even criminal charges.

Things to do: 1) Always be vigilant against servers and cooks. Many sauces have mixtures of things in them. Look out for satay ("sha cha jiang") which may have fish, seafood and nuts it. Double and triple guess your servers. If you get served something that is totally wrong. Tell them. Or just simply walk out.

2) You got served a shit stick in life by God. So not much you can do about it, but do your best to avoid the problem. I do my best to stay away from places where I think there might be a problem. However, sometimes it's just not always possible. Weddings are always a big problem for me.

3) The best allergy doc in Taiwan is a lady at the Taichung Veterans Hospital who is just simply amazing at her stuff. Get tested by her.

4) Epi pens exist, but not quite the same as you would find in your home country. I can tell you more on how to get one if you're interested.

5) There are a lot of people who just don't understand the idea of allergies until someone gets sick in front of them. My famly included.

6) Good luck. If you need more help just ask.

[John]

4) Epi pens exist, but not quite the same as you would find in your home country. I can tell you more on how to get one if you're interested.

I am interested.

[taiwansteve]

Find a local allergist/asthma doctor at a hospital (I use Mackay) and tell them your problem. You will not get an epi pen exactly, but rather a vial of adrenaline (and you need to buy a syringe). Same thing but you do the whole thing yourself.

Stephen

[finley]

Just a news snippet that you may find interesting: Nature Deprivation Linked to Allergies and Asthma

[Taiwan_Student]

Important Questions....

1. I want to give blood. Can a person of with server allegies give blood? BTW, I've had my blood tested and it came back negative for allergies a few years ago. I declined to take the scratch test. Should I trust this test

2. Can one get a serious recaction from smell, such fish and seafood cooking at a wedding or in a house. I feel miserable but some people say that it can cause a reaction, I"m not eating anything. If yes, please send me a llink to some official documentation. Otherwise it's just heresay.
Thanks

[housecat]

My son and I are in the States now and we have had to instances of an allergic reaction to fish/seafood in him even though he hasn't eaten either. The first was a deep fried burrito that he was served at a friend's house. The oil used to fry it was first used to fry fish sticks. The second was after I fed him some sweet and spicy chicken I'd made from a kit. The kit listed NO seafood ingredients, but I called the manufacture and found that the same facility is sometimes used to make products that do contain seafood.

Both times, my son's reaction was relatively small. I gave him oral steroids the first time, the second time I did nothing and waited to see if it would get worse, as it was very mild. It got better after about 6-12 hours. The point is that you can never, never, never be too careful! If your reaction is severe enough, you need to keep your med's close and have a PLAN for how you're going to handle yourself. Good luck.

[taiwansteve]

To answer the following questions

1. I want to give blood. Can a person of with server allegies give blood? BTW, I've had my blood tested and it came back negative for allergies a few years ago. I declined to take the scratch test. Should I trust this test

A: You can. However, if you're using meds, you can't.

2. Can one get a serious recaction from smell, such fish and seafood cooking at a wedding or in a house. I feel miserable but some people say that it can cause a reaction, I"m not eating anything. If yes, please send me a llink to some official documentation. Otherwise it's just heresay.
Thanks

You can definitely get a serious reaction from smells. Some people can get extremely sick from heavy perfumes or seafood or nut smells. My personal experience via vomiting from fish soup being cooked, plus the swelling/infecting my eyes is direct proof. Taiwan does have laws against stinky foods. If you think that the stinky tofu guy on your street is bothering you, you can complain about that too. But note the difference between offensive smells such as stinky tofu, dirty socks which turn people off or cause some heaving/vomiting vs allergic reaction to certain scents such as perfumes or nuts which cause people to go into asthma attacks almost instantly and/or closing of air pipes.

[Novaspes]

double post, sorry

[Novaspes]

They understand what an allergy is. But they dont have the training/awareness campaigns that we do so of course, they dont make it a priority.

Awareness campaigns are unheard of where I come from, but still we pay attention to what we put in our damn food! Here is just too "ma-fan" to think about this kind of things. Allergies are not mainstream and, like any other minority in Taiwan, allergic people are ignored, treated with contempt and given the "wtf are you on about" look.

5) There are a lot of people who just don't understand the idea of allergies until someone gets sick in front of them. My famly included.

How is that even possible? I do not mean to offend your family, but may it be that they do not care too much and are too stuck with the idea that allergies are some sort of personal fixation, like not wanting to eat fish because you don't like the taste?