Laugh if you will, but it is serious and DAMHIK
Like the title says, laugh if you will but this is serious (but funny in retrospect) and Don't Ask Me How I Know!
Some people (maybe even some of you) are allergic to aspirin. A person with this allergy probably won't know until they take one. When they do they may experience Anaphylaxis or Anaphylactic shock. :eek: Their face will swell up till their eyes close and their throat and chest will constrict making breathing extremely difficult. This may happen within 15-20 minutes of taking a single aspirin. Unless treated promptly with large doses of steroids, antihistamines, oxygen and adrenalin the person may die. Of course this person will make sure that they don't take any more aspirin once they've had anaphylaxis.
However......
What this person may not know, and probably because their doctor didn't know either is that about 50% of people who are allergic to aspirin are also intolerant of Salycilates in their diet.(this is not a reliable figure BTW, no large scale research has been done, but do you want to take the chance?). Aspirin is Acetylsalysilic acid and used to be derived from willow bark. Unbeknownst to a lot of people (including, it seems GPs) is the fact that a lot of common foods contain large amounts of salycilates. Mandarins, almonds, green capsicum and rum all contain large doses.
Now just suppose that someone gave an aspirin allergic person a bottle of "moonshine" rum. Unbeknownst to the moonshiner or the recipient of the bottle this rum had absolutely huge amounts of salycilates in it. Person has a few rums over the space of a week, wakes up one night with intolerable itching in all the really sensitive areas :( . Goes to chemist, gets steroid creams and anti fungal creams and applies liberally. Of course it's winter and mandarins are in season, so person tries to eat healthily, scoffs a few mandarins each day, plus, as usual a hand full of almonds each day as well. Things go from bad to worse, intolerable itching and burning, so a bit of aloe vera is applied - always works on burns. It's wonderfully soothing but soon the itching and burning is back with a vengeance, and the skin that's had aloe vera applied is really angry red and raised.
Off to see the doctor, he's not sure what it is but bombards it with doses of steroids, antihistamines, stronger steroid cream and more anti fungal cream - just in case. Orders a few blood tests for allergies just to check too. Poor patient is really suffering and finding it hard to sleep so a stiff rum before bed each night is consumed to help. By this time the patient has itchy hives over most of his body and is going out of his mind. Blood tests come back showing dust mite allergy but the doctor believes it's something that's been ingested due to the symmetry if the hives. After hours of web surfing sites dealing with allergies the connection is made :o .
Almonds, mandarins, rum and aloe vera all contain large amounts of salycilates! Not to mention red apples, grapes, dates, sultanas and tea. If you are aspirin allergic (or know of someone who is) do a web surf and find out about salycilates in food. Know what to avoid, you may not be salycilate intolerant, but maybe you are. Maybe you'll only get a bit of a rash, but possibly you'll have anaphylaxis! :eek:
Just Don't Ask Me How I Know Okay?
Mick :o
