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Grass allergy and eating wheat

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Hello! I'm a 25 year old female and I was diagnosed last summer with severe grass allergies. I've been thinking of ways to help reduce my exposure, and I thought that perhaps eating wheat might be contributing to my problem. My thought process is that since wheat is related to common grass, it may be causing a reaction when I eat it. (Please understand that I can have an allergic reaction to grass even when it's not pollinating... just touching grass makes me break out.) Would going to a wheat/gluten free diet help me, or am I overreacting?
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replied September 27th, 2009
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Well, you could certainly try it. I don't think the two automatically go hand in hand but it is common for people with allergies to also have food allergies. I am allergic to grass also (and horses, and dust, and mold... even trees lol) but I have never had a problem with wheat/ gluten. I do, however have an allergic reaction whenever I eat nuts.
So, do a little experiment. Try to avoid gluten for a week and see if that improves things. I must caution you, though, that gluten is in all kinds of foods that you would not expect to find it in, so your task will not be easy.
Good luck.
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replied October 5th, 2009
Hi!! Grass allergies generally are caused by two "igniters": 1) Pollen from grass (we breath this pollen and our body reacts to it) 2) Chemicals in grass (our skin is in contact with this chemicals and cause allergic reactions). None of this is related to "eating grass". You should maybe ask your physicians for some tests to see if you are not allergic to eat some kinds of foods (not necessarily wheat/grains, etc). If your Physician has already told you that there is no risk then you do not have to worry about eating wheat. Hope That you can share what have you decided and why. THANKS!
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replied February 15th, 2012
I had a full resperatory reaction to grass for years, and eventually got very sick. After I stopped eating all monocots, ALL of my symptoms were diminished. Only when the season is the highest do I experience symptoms.
Including: Garlic, Wheat, Sorghum, Corn, Pineapple, Oats,
I can attribute various symptoms to each.
Including drowsiness, constipation, memory loss, temperature modulation, weight gain, moodiness,
Takes 4 days to clear your system.
It's a fair assumption that if you are allergic to grass, you might not want to be eating it. Since the protiens in the grass are not far from the ones in the pollen, it would be possible that one or all have an immunomodulatory affect.
Next digestion of such grasses is in much greater quantities than in the air! So even if it would be low, the concentrations are high.
I find the magic wears off if I eat 1 tsp and wait 20 min.
I have developed such a high sensitivity after years of failing to eat better, I go blind, sneeze, or get 'angry' when I'm wrong.
There is no doctor who will treat this. I checked.
FYI after 1 year, BP is down 20 pnts, weight is down 45lbs, and for the first time in my life I can run. I think it's worth a try.
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replied May 18th, 2013
I decided to go gluten-free April 2012 in an effort to combat the constant urinary tract infections I was experiencing. This decision was based on family history, internet research and my doctorate-level knowledge in molecular biology and biomedical research. Happily, the UTI symptoms diminished dramatically; interestingly, my BP went down from 140/90 to 110/70 and much of my anxiety symptoms diminished too. But this is not about me, it's about my husband.
In an effort to support me - and because I do the grocery shopping <grin> - he decided to eat a gluten-free diet too. He did this with a lot of cheating <more grins> from April 2012 to December 2012; however, in January 2013, after seeing the results I was getting, he decided to be more strict about his diet.
Since his teenaged years, he has suffered from sinus congestion and breathing difficulties. This was evident throughout the year and it would go into overdrive during allergy season and he suffered terrible symptoms: runny eyes, nasal congestion, fatigue, mental fog, etc. Since he lived in hot, humid Florida at the time, you can imagine how difficult things must've been for him, even at a young age. In fact, he suffered so greatly it forced him to move to a drier climate for some years, to escape his allergies.
When my husband went gluten-free in January, his nasal congestion cleared up in a couple of weeks and he started to experience some clarity in thinking. We were both happy with this result but never dreamed that this would also impact his life more dramatically in the spring. Well, allergy season has started and he has not developed any of his typical allergy symptoms at all. His breathing is clear, his thinking is clear, his BP is good and his mood is great. In fact, yesterday, he spent four hours cutting grass at my parents' farm - a task for which he normally wears a mask and takes his usual dose of Benadryl - and he did not experience any symptoms at all.
You cannot imagine how profoundly this has changed his life. He has more energy, thinks more clearly and breathes more freely. He used to dread the impending spring season so greatly that it impacted his level of happiness and quality of life. Essentially, he would lose four months of every year to his allergies, resulting in a cumulative loss of 10 years over the last 30 years. He has one-third of his life back now and he is ecstatic.
My advice to you, and I realize this is about four years late, is to give a wheat- or gluten-free diet a try. But, I would recommend longer than a week. I would try such a diet for at least a month and ideally, probably 2-3 months, to see if you experience any relief in allergy symptoms. It's become much more easy to implement a gluten-free diet these days but you do need to be very mindful of the fact that many processed foods contain wheat/gluten. Going out to eat will greatly diminish your menu choices but I strongly believe that you will find the sacrifices worth it.
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