This post and the upcoming posts will break down the previously posted graphics collection. I’ll elaborate a little more from my life perspective on each slide in an effort to help those who are just discovering this Journey for themselves.
Let’s say that you just got diagnosed with a corn allergy, and you feel helpless, right? The list is freaking HUGE of things to avoid, and, to top it off? It’s incomplete in all reality which you’ll find either by researching online or on your own through reactions. You have to reach out to manufacturers if you’re really trying to avoid corn contamination. I am thankful I’m not anaphylactic to corn, or not in a life threatening way where I absolutely need to use an EpiPen.
I get a lot of information from CornAllergyGirl.com and highly recommend going to her site for more in depth information, my site is not dedicated to corn allergy advocacy in its entirety. This is just something I decided to add in, it takes up so much of my life I might as well!
My hobby is meant to help people with the knowledge and skills I have obtained. This is definitely an area I can educate many people on whenever and however possible. We need more awareness for the livelihoods of many people spread out across the USA and on so that we can begin to have easier more affordable quality lives.
The development to this allergy is detrimental to your lifestyle and ability to fit into the society around you, even more so than a typical nut or soy allergy. We’re not labeled for and not considered a top allergen. And, No, we’re not the only ones, there are people out there with other rare allergies not recognized, such as a cinnamon allergy. You’d be surprised the places cinnamon is used too, but we won’t go down that rabbit hole!
This rabbit hole is for the Corn allergy peoples. I will be touching base on the way this allergy has hit my psyche too. My life story will further elaborate on how I think corn was always something I was sensitive to, but theres more to it than that for me. The corn allergy was just a major life changer that really could have lead to a suicide at several points in my life on this journey.
Mental health is VERY important to keep in check when dealing with such a socially isolating allergy. Some people are very social creatures and this allergy all but tucks you away in your house and away from society, especially if you have any level of airborne sensitivity. You don’t go out to eat, it’s hard to work an office job where peoples favorite snack in the office is popcorn amongst other things like corn laden fast food. It’s hard to work any job without risk of allergy exposure with this really and there is really nothing your employer can do to help you out if you step back and really assess things.
It is illogical to expect the world to change up for you when you develop this allergy, you have to change your approach and safeguard yourself! The laws of supply and demand will always apply when it comes to our food and products we buy, so until a massive movement happens where people demand clear labeling and force the FDA and other manufacturers to change the way they produce things, corn is going to be there. It’s the oil of all these different industries, from food to medical to household, hygiene, construction, you name it. Corn will more than likely be there somehow, some way.
My Allergy Trigger list that I stick to:
These are all items I avoid on ingredient labels for food , medication and as best I can, hygiene products. Anything I do not recognize and cannot quickly find a decent answer online I will always avoid for precaution and safety until I get an answer from a manufacturer. Even then…I sort of just avoid things that aren’t clear to me how they are made.
This List is SOOOOO Long!
Corn Allergy Contamination is no exception even when it comes to over the counter allergy medications.
When my journey began, I had no idea what was causing my litany of symptoms. It started with Lymphadenopathy (random swollen lymph nodes) and frequent migraines, chronic pain, chronic sinus infections amongst a litany of other symptoms. I couldn’t explain it all in one sitting with a doctor!
The ground breaking moment in my journey was discovering and eliminating corn laden medications. Compounding Benadryl was a must for me to avoid ulcers and GI bleeding. The corn derivatives in Benadryl were eating my stomach health away, quickly!
Prescribed & OTC Medications
This slide further just condense down my experience. I was clueless when my journey began just how much corn was in everything. My doctor at that time had advised me with a very small and inconclusive list that I just needed to avoid corn, corn syrup, and corn starch basically. There was no pointing me to the corn allergy girl site!
Boy was she really overlooking a lot of things with my diet and medications! All the money lost, I’ll never get back!
Looking back over my journey notes, I started with a food journal in August of 2014. I really wished this compounding medications information was more up front for me back when this began for me. I could have avoided losing thousands of dollars in medications that I simply would not be able to take in the long run because they were corn laden. I hope that whoever comes across this article that has just recently developed a corn allergy can avoid making this same mistake I did.
My symptoms from reactions are wide range from neurological to physiological or both at the same time. While I really believe I may have always been sensitive to Corn Derivatives, I don’t believe the obvious allergy reactions would have ever became notable unless I was drinking booze, no matter which way you slice my life story. This seems to be true for me. Alcohol truly does amplify reactions in the body.
As a child I had breathing problems in my very small youth, it had been correlated with a furnace. I broke out in hives frequently and needed an inhaler. I would have temper-tantrums and sleep disturbance – all of my youth and well into my 20’s. I didn’t discover how to eliminate my insomnia until after eliminating the corn. I no longer have sleep issues and emotions are better balanced without the allergy triggers in my life. When I was child, hives were summed up to be emotional exacerbation. I had a lot of drama surrounding me as a child, so that played a role, but I don’t think it was so much the emotions as it was the products used around me playing a bigger role in my ability to respond. Place me in a tub of Dove bubble bath soap and the hives and itching mess was on. They just wrote it off as “She’s a ginger, she’s sensitive.”
Today I can recognize when I get ‘corned’ and can tell when a bout of ‘corn rage’ is going to be an issue for a few days due to an exposure. It’ll start with a ‘ping’ in the center of my head, and a migraine will start and sometimes quickly dissipate only to leave me with this overwhelming sensation of irritation at anything and everything. This can last up to 3 days to 2 weeks for me, depending on what I’m eating and how I’m being exposed. I discovered cleaning chemicals are the very worst offenders for me. I may be chemically sensitive as well but I have yet to confirm medically.
I stopped spending money with the doctors, they wasted enough of my time and money with their misguidance and refusal to actually compound medications once I brought it to their attention. I was able to find more information online to safeguard my health by myself with habit changes within 2 years time after firing my doctor. I am still learning today and now have a naturopath for guidance. It’s well worth the money to get better advice from a naturopath that when you listen and adhere to what they tell you to eat, and habits to change, you find your health bounces up in a positive trend. That’s money well spent rather than a bunch of routine fruitless visits for a prescription Rolodex salesman that poorly bandages your issues or adds to the problem with things that have more side effects than solutions for your body and what you’re already dealing with.
Anyway, bringing this post to a close regarding medications. It is pertinent on your corn allergy to realize that your medications are processed with a LOT of unnecessary fillers, and necessary ones as well, but for the most part…you really only need a delivery method for any medication. Manufacturers have found combining a litany of these fillers as a way to deliver to be somehow more price effective? I’ve spent years down this rabbit hole and had to step back. It’s too easy to get upset about the fact that a 2 ingredient medication costs quadruple what a 10+ ingredient medication costs and why in the world it is the way it is.
The key factor here though that I wanted to get across is even if your allergy is mild, mine was labeled a “Level 1” and I quote the doctor “It’s so low it can’t possibly be causing your problem…I’m sending you to an oncologist and allergist.” The allergist concluded that her test was wrong. My diet elimination concluded that they were both wrong and that corn was indeed the cause of my ailments. Crippling migraines, thyroid issues, chronic pain, chronic lymphadenopathy, reactive hypoglycemia, MS and lupus like symptoms, all of that went away when I started really clearing my diet up and eliminating all corn byproducts in my life. Both topically and internally.
I pray to see things change in my lifetime regarding medication manufacturing and I hope to see more doctors and health care professionals take a few serious notes from the 100s of 1000’s of people like myself spread out who can also ring this same bell I’m clamoring on. Just because your allergy is mild does not mean it is NOT affecting your health in massive ways. Just because your throat doesn’t swell shut and your face doesn’t turn blue in 30 seconds from a corn allergy trigger and you don’t need an EpiPen to save your life, doesn’t mean it isn’t damaging your body in ways that can be irreversible.
Happy ventures, stay safe out there!
#cornallergy
#cornallergylife
#cornallergyawareness
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