ALLERGY – the ‘masked’ enemy within

An allergy in most times can be explained by a Swahili saying “Kikulacho ki nguoni mwako” meaning that most of the allergy causes are just lying around your surroundings.

 

When a body reacts to something, most people have a tendency of thinking that it’s a disease from somewhere far or an infection spread by another person and we ignore the fact that it could be an allergy.

 

 

Not considering allergy when it happens is what makes allergic conditions most chronic conditions in the world. You come to realize it after spending too much money on pharmacies and hospitals.

 

The reason being that most of the symptoms for allergy are also the same symptoms for conditions like common cold and other infections.

 

How does an allergy come about anyway?

As per an article published by Mark Manual in December 2022, the immune system is your body’s defense system, helping to protect you from illness and infection. The immune system usually reacts to and attacks bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells.

 

However, sometimes your immune system will misinterpret some of the substances as body invaders and hence will form a reaction (antibodies) against them by releasing some chemicals like histamines that is responsible for allergic symptoms we see.

 

In 2012 when I was in my first year as a medical school student, I developed a slow onset of dry cough which was mostly getting worse in the evening after dinner – almost every damn day.

 

The cough was very severe that I began to doubt myself that maybe it was tuberculosis or HIV as you know us, medical professionals, have a tendency to diagnose ourselves with big diseases.

 

So I went to the hospital to perform various tests, mostly chest x-ray (which showed no disease), full blood picture, HIV test, sputum test etc., which were all normal.

 

I began to change doctors to see if one of them could help me with a different medication but despite that there was no improvement at all.

 

I used most of the common antibiotics but still no any improvement. The funny thing about this cough was that, some evenings it didn’t show up and some evenings it was worse. I never experienced any fever or chest pain, or night sweats or any loss of weight, nothing like that.

 

My first semester, I didn’t have a student loan so I used to receive some pocket money from my father; Had my brother Sunje who used to help me with some cash and my sister Bertha Makidika who used to help me with dinner. I remember I used to ride to her house to go eat dinner and come back, we were family.

 

During those moments I noticed something I didn’t pay attention to that much. Whenever I ate food from canteen, that day I would cough a lot but I would not cough if I ate chips from the streets.

 

After all the cough continued on and off and some nights I couldn’t sleep at all. My friends used to tease me saying I have HIV.

 

When the semester ended, I went back home for holiday and as usual in the evening I was coughing but not like the way it was at school.

 

My Uncle, the late Dr Kalumuna (may he continue resting in paradise), after telling him my scenario, he prescribed for me small pills called Prednisolone after describing what I told him as allergy and he told me these pills are for allergy.

 

I was still a young medical student then so I didn’t know anything about the pills. What surprised me was that every time after taking those pills, my cough would disappear for good.

 

So I started depending on these pills even when I went to back to school but this made me realise that I was dealing with some reactions here so I began to open my eyes especially on food.

 

I started being keen with many things from foods to sprays etc. My first exercise was to skip tea. I stopped taking tea especially the black one for like a whole week to see what could happen.

 

The cough was still coming so, I started to observe my lunch and dinner. By this time I came to realise one big thing which turned around everything.

If I cooked my own food at ghetto I was not coughing, but when I ate at restaurants I was coughing, this made me more curious, so I strictly started to cook food at ghetto and suddenly the cough disappeared – without any more medications.

That’s when it came into my mind that most likely I was allergic to some stuffs, so I became more keen and this time I discovered some stuffs which were the triggers.

 

First the ginger in the food and juice was making me cough; second I was allergic to fish, which I was never aware of. Third, I was allergic to coconut, which I also never knew before.

 

Now why was I most likely to have this prolonged cough? Those three foods were the most common utilized foods. People in that area always cook their foods with coconut, and ginger, that’s their culture and since the town was near by the river, fish was our common food.

 

Again I came to find out that I was reacting to body sprays etc.

 

When I stopped those things, I never experienced cough again, only some mild form if I was tempted to eat some foods due to some circumstance and I always took my prednisone in advance.

 

With this experience I decided to dive deeper into allergic studies and even when I became a medical doctor, I helped a lot of patients with chronic conditions like this.

 

From my experience I learned the following facts about allergies

1. The best treatment for allergy is to identify the causative and avoid it.

Dependence on tablets to alleviate symptoms sucks and will make you a slave forever.

 

2. Allergy tend to become chronic because your mind is more focused on medication and hospital, not your surroundings.

 

You interpret any new symptoms such as headache, nausea, cough, itchy body, diarrhoea as some other disease but allergy.

 

 

You need to observe that new food, soap, any new lotion, shower gel, spices etc. before going to the hospital.

 

3. You want to know if you’re allergic? Listen to your body!

Our body speaks occasionally when we use or expose ourselves to the things we are sensitive to. So what to do? Learn to listen to your body’s message.

 

Let us say you have a new headache which you don’t know the cause and hospital has failed to identify.

 

What you should do is to record what time the headache comes and after doing what or using what? That way you will be able to identify the causative.

 

For example: Two months ago I developed a sudden spontaneous onset of nausea. This nausea was happening mostly in the morning after bathing and it was new. I had never experienced before. So I started asking myself “why morning time”?

 

That made me to start evaluating my morning habits. When I woke up, after exercise, I drink water with lemon, take a plane tea, take a cold bath and then apply perfume, lotion and deodorant, and then I wear my clothes.

 

With lemon water, I have been drinking for so long but it never made me nauseated. Tea has never made me nauseated also. So what again?

 

I came to the deodorant, perfume and lotion. The lotion was the same as before hence I had no doubt. Then came the perfume and deodorant.

 

These two were confusing because they were new to me. A week ago, I went to the shop and bought a different brand of perfume and deodorant to try new things. But still I didn’t know which is which.

 

So I decided to test each one separately. The first day I didn’t use the perfume, only deodorant and still had the nausea. The next day I didn’t use the deodorant, only perfume and I was better.

 

The next day I skipped the deodorant and I was better. Then 4 days later I used the deodorant again and the nausea came back, then I realized my body was reacting to the deodorant smell.

 

From that day I stopped using it and never again experienced that nausea again. Mind you, the nausea went away even without using any medication.

 

In most times you find yourself running to the pharmacy and hospitals to look for treatment of every symptom for everything because you don’t really listen to your body with a mind-set of understanding triggers to new symptoms.

 

Give your new symptom some time to observe it unless it’s a very severe one.

 

4. Allergies can present in different funny ways such as diarrhoea, sneezing, sudden onset of cough and difficulty in breathing, sudden onset of body swelling, itchy skin, burning sensation, rushes on the body etc.

 

These symptoms can be found in many other diseases but what makes you know it’s an allergy is the prolonged period of occurrence even after treatment. In short, an allergy doesn’t go away unless you remove an allergen (causative).

 

So you will suspect you’re dealing with allergy if the condition is persistent or coming back with seasons, or now and then.

 

5. Allergies are running in families, so it’s very important for the parent to observe the child to see if children are presenting with the same conditions and take prompt measures.

 

The same applies to children asking their parents about any allergies, due to the fact that some allergies like asthma, urticarial and hay fever are can be dangerous.

 

6. If you know you’re allergic to certain medications like penicillin etc., it’s very important to communicate to the nurses or your doctors or friends and document it on your file so as to avoid severe drug reactions which sometimes can be deadly.

 

7. Children have a tendency to be allergic to foods when they are young; foods like milk, nuts, beans, meat, fish, shellfish, wheat, soya etc.

 

And the common allergy for children is skin allergy.  So be watchful for any rushes or prolonged diarrhoea in children, they could be reacting to the above foods. However these allergies tend to decrease or disappear with age.

 

8. Allergic tests have a very low help if you don’t observe your surroundings.

They tend to show you a lot of allergies – even the foods which don’t affect you that much. Remember we have mild, moderate and severe allergic reactions.

 

Mild ones are non-significant and we rarely notice them, so don’t rely on allergic test, just listen to how your body reacts to specific substances.

 

9. Allergies cannot be transmitted from one person to another. They are inherited.

You cannot transmit your dust allergy to your child, but your child can inherit through genetics.

 

10. Lastly, some allergies are life-long, you can’t treat them but you can control them by avoiding what is causing them.

 

Bonus

Let us say you have a skin allergy which started yesterday. How do you find out the cause?

 

Start by asking yourself two questions:

What time does the skin itching start?

 

Then ask yourself again: After doing what? Is it after eating? Is it after bathing? Is it after sweeping? Is it after applying oil or lotion? Or, is it after drinking something?

 

From those questions you can proceed to find out the cause. That’s the method I use to detect allergies for myself and my patients.

 

Remember, allergy causes can range from dust, pollens, flowers, lotion, bath soaps, tea bags, fruits, deodorants, even clothes (do you know that you can be allergic to the panty you love?), animal pores, perfume, milk fish, meat, and many others.

 

In fact when it comes to allergy, don’t ignore anything, crosscheck everything! I was very surprised when I found out am allergic to small fish (dagaa) and cabbage.

 

Conclusion

Suspecting allergy on your body? Don’t look far, start with your environment; be it at home or at work or in the field.

 

Remember, allergy is an enemy from within.

 

Did you find this helpful to your long held problem? If yes, write me in the comments section below.

 

Asking more questions is allowed, I’m here for you.

 

Also you can book 1-on-1 consultation with me so we can talk more about your allergies or any other health challenge. Thank you!