Memo to self - never eat mussels again

[watervole]

Well over twenty years ago, I went out for a meal with [Unknown site tag] and we had mussels and they were delicious and caused me no problems at all.

A couple of times since then, I've tried to repeat the experience and both times I was ill. I put it down to food poisoning, but also made a mental note that I might have a food intolerance of some kind.

Last night proved it conclusively. We both had mussles, but only I ended up vomiting everything up a few hours later. I now have a horribly sore throat (as you might expect from stomach acid passing that way) and feel pretty washed out as I wasn't well enough to get to bed until 1am.

I read somewhere (but have no idea where) that the first time you eat a particular food, you may be okay, but the body develops a reaction to it - so you only feel ill the second and subsequent times. Does anyone know more about this?

PS. If anyone was planning to phone me, this might not be the best day for it...

Comments

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere (but have no idea where) that the first time you eat a particular food, you may be okay, but the body develops a reaction to it - so you only feel ill the second and subsequent times.

I've heard of this happening with other allergies, eg. bee stings. As I understand it the body only develops an immune response to the "problem" substance after the first time it encounters it.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere (but have no idea where) that the first time you eat a particular food, you may be okay, but the body develops a reaction to it - so you only feel ill the second and subsequent times

Well this has certainly happened with me and the onion and cabbage families. My allergies started with the strongest of the families, garlic and dark green cabbage and has gradually spread to all the members right down to spring onions and swede. so I would be careful of related shellfish as well if I were you.

[inamac.livejournal.com]

Oh poor you. Lil may be able to tell you about my brush with mussels after a superb seafood dinner on Jersey (I don't remember much beyond the gutter in the car park...) Definitely never again.

And I think that was my first and only encounter with them - I have no problems with other seafood, but I did read somewhere that over 50% of the population is allergic to mussels so we're not alone.

Allergic response

[johnrw.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere (but have no idea where) that the first time you eat a particular food, you may be okay, but the body develops a reaction to it - so you only feel ill the second and subsequent times. Does anyone know more about this?

This also occurs with Bee and wasp stings and is due to the way your body responds -I'd have to delve into my reference works to be sure but it's a trained reaction. The body react to the allergen (Bee stings in this example) by mobilising two responses, the first isn't quite as effective at neutralising the sting effects as the second but does not cause tissue inflammation the second gives rise to the swelling and irritation. but takes longer to become significant. Initial and first few exposures result in the second response becoming more pronounced in some people.

This is a heritable trait! and upon repeated exposure the response of the second (inflammatory & irritation) response becomes exaggerated and can result in anaphalactic shock which requires Epinephrine and possibly adrenaline to avoid coma and death.

The rate at which people become sensitised varies wildly for most people it never becomes serious but for a few it can become life threatening.

My grandfather used to keep bees and my father helped -which meant getting stung on occasion- with no ill effects. But for twenty or so years we didn't keep them at all. When we started again my father was fine and I learnt from him then one day last year we was stung on the ear and twenty minutes later was in A&E from the reaction. He no longer goes near the hives and carries antihistamine tablets in case of another sting. He was stung just once too often!

[vampry.livejournal.com]

I don't know if food allergies work the same as others but my ex was okay the first time he took penicillin but later developed an allergy to it.

[katlinel.livejournal.com]

Oh, horrible. I hope you've managed to get some rest.

My cat allergy developed after having cats, and then living away from home for several months. When I researched this, it turned out to be a fairly common allergic response for cat allergy. I don't have any particular links for that information.