Alergies to iodine and shellfish

[wadec]

Alright I stand corrected. I just looked some stuff up on google (iodine + shellfish) about shellfish and iodine. It said the body needs iodine and that it is in a ton of things we eat daily. Alot of salts have it in them. It did say that some alergic reations get lumped together even though they are not related which is what happened with iodine and shellfish. The below link and paragragh is one article that cleared it up a bit for me. So sorry for any confusion my earlier post caused. Wade
http://www.wdxcyber.com/ngen22.htm

"I am highly allergic to iodine. During surgery recently one of the medical attendants told me if I was allergic to iodine I must be allergic to crab and lobster. I actually years ago had a reaction to crab. Are there any other things I should be wary of?"

Allergies are a serious business. Sometimes a skin rash is the main manifestation of an allergy but it can also range from gastrointestinal upset to asthmatic wheezing and even to death (1). People who are allergic to one compound may also have other allergens they are sensitive to. For some reason certain allergies get linked together even though they may be totally unrelated. This is what has happened with iodine and shellfish. There is no actual relationship between iodine allergy and the various seafood allergies. You could have a reaction to both iodine and to ingested crab, but it is much more likely that you are not truly allergic to either.

 

[thatmguy]

Have you been tested by an allergist? Do it.

It may be the shellfish, and not the Iodine....

Two years ago, I found out (almost fatally) that I was allegic to tree nuts.

Put a heck of a kibosh on my normal diet, but too much risk of cross-contamination reactions.

Cary an Epi-Pen all the time now, along with liquid Benedryl.

No risks taken now....

Good luck man.

 

[Shann]

Good luck. My wife is allergic to shellfish. This was an adult onset allergy. She ate lobster all the time as a kid. I didn't realize you could become allergic to something later in life.

Doctor said that she could "probably" eat shellfish without legs (i.e. no shrimp, crab lobster). She said not worth it. I always kind of figured it had something to do with iodine. I never thought of iodine in salt.

 

[JD Mandrell]

There is no actual relationship between iodine allergy and the various seafood allergies.

Thanks for posting this, I have had severe reactions twice to Iodine dyes during medical scanning procedures, and even the radioligist insisted that I must be allergic to shellfish also, I told him I have eaten shellfish my entire life and NEVER had a reaction to them...the guy actually told me he didn't believe me.

 

[wadec]

It wasn't me. It was one of my students. I was told a while back that iodine was made using shellfish in the process and that was why if you were alergic to one you were usually allergic to the other. But I guess after reading some stuff on the net it is more coincedence that you react to both versus the iodine and shellfish being linked. It came up in the primitive water purification thread and I didn't want to keep going off topic on the man's thread so I started this one. Wade

 

[lambertiana]

Generally speaking, most people who are allergic to shellfish are actually allergic to a protein found in them (usually tropomyosins). Iodine usually has nothing to do with the allergy. In fact, if someone were actually allergic to iodine, then they would be in trouble because it is found in so many foods. Most salt used for food is iodized, too.

 

[Mike Carter Custom Knives]

Good luck. My wife is allergic to shellfish. This was an adult onset allergy. She ate lobster all the time as a kid. I didn't realize you could become allergic to something later in life.

Doctor said that she could "probably" eat shellfish without legs (i.e. no shrimp, crab lobster). She said not worth it. I always kind of figured it had something to do with iodine. I never thought of iodine in salt.

I developed a severe allergic reaction to strawberries in my 40's after eating them all of my life. It has always been one of my favorite foods and then one night I ate some strawberry ice cream, my whole body swelled up like a balloon and I wound up in the hospital. They told me if ate strawberries again it could be fatal.