Self diagnosed - any advice?

[whitehart7378]

Hi
I am a 36 year old male, never really had any allergies that I am aware of. I have been going to the doctors for about a year with various different symptoms, the main ones being stomach cramps followed by diarrhoea, nausea and tiredness, rashes on my upper arms, wheezing and a few other seemlingly not so serious symptoms that individually are all fairly common things. The stomach cramps was put down to IBS, the wheezing was put down to asthma even though I did the blow test and blew it off the scale!! but they gave me an inhaler anyway?? I think the doctor thought I was just mad but recently it has just got worse and worse so I went on the internet and put in all my symptoms and computers being computers..i.e. purely logical came back at me with a possible lactose intolerance or dairy allergy....this was four days ago and I have cut all dairy from my diet and I have not had a stomach cramp for four days - unheard of - I feel generally just better and even the rashes on my arms seem to be subsiding, they haven't gone yet I think that would be a miracle but there are definite signs that this could be the whole problem. I would welcome anyones thoughts, questions, advice please. Thank you

[Copper]

Hi and welcome to the site.

I think that rashes are usually associated with an allergy rather than an intolerance.

The stomach problems are a perfect description of my lactose intolerance. The way to prove it is dairy for sure is to remove all dairy from your diet for at least two weeks, if you feel better then it must be dairy causing the problem. I guess the ultimate test is to then try some dairy and then see what happens, depends how brave you are feeling by then :)

If it is dairy allergy you need to remove all dairy from your diet. You will be surprised how much dairy is hidden in foods. When you, or the person doing the shopping in your household, buys food you will need to check the ingredient lists. This page on this site has a handy list of alternative names for dairy

http://www.dairyfreeuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=738

It is probably a good idea to print this list and take it to the supermarket until you get used to the alternative names.

If it is lactose intolerance you don't have to remove all dairy from your diet. It is tricky trying to work out how much lactose you can tolerate. I found that my tolerance kept going down and now I am totally lactose intolerant!

You should be warned that lactose is often found in tablets as it is a cheap binder. The over the counter things like paracetamol contain maize starch which is good for me. I always check before buying these as they might change the ingredients.

It is very daunting when you first start a dairy free diet but it does get easier. The only other thing I would suggest is to try and not replace all the dairy with all soya. I did keep my soya intake to a minimum and yet I still developed a soya intolerance. The same thing happened to my daughter. :eek:

If you need any alternative food suggestions do ask as we are sure to have some ideas.

I hope that you keep in touch.