Allergic Asthma?

Yesterday was full of surprises.

My energy was low and it took me a while to figure it out.

I forgot to take my nightly dose of licorice. And my body really cared about that. It missed it like some people miss Bill Clinton's presidency.

By the time I was a slumped lump with the toddler in the church nursery, literally unable to keep my eyes open and trying to figure out where on the floor I could lay down without anyone seeing me, I realized I probably should stress dose.

There was a lot of breakfast and my morning vitamins in my stomach so it seemed like it took forever for 5mg to hit me, but ever so gradually, I could keep my eyes open.

Yes, that was the big battle of my day. Not sprawling across frayed church carpet and staying conscious. I still konked out later, in my bed, at home, without any public drooling, which I count as a win.

It's interesting to note that my am cortisol a few weeks ago was 15. Not too shabby. Quite good in fact. I continue to believe it's an issue of responding to stress--that I don't have the full spectrum of functionality. Which is almost impossible to measure with blood work. I would need an ITT or OMM to even come close to understanding the failures in my HPA axis.

Anyway, from there, I had some salsa. Tomatoes are an iffy food for me these days, sometimes okay, sometimes not. This time not. Or rather, I think the big chunks of pepper were the problem.

The interesting thing, it caused an asthma flare. I began hacking, my throat began to itch (an itch I've known to be asthma in the past) and I got a little flash of heart burn (although, thankfully, no eruption of Mt. Acid).

Okay, so now I want to say I don't think I've had food allergies all along. I think this is a new development. That I had GERD, which is currently controlled with the enzymes, but now allergies are coming up. I've had some sensitivity to peppers off and on since my 20s, but food triggering asthma is completely new, never experienced before.

The reason I back track is I was remembering when GERD started for me and I ate no trigger foods for weeks and weeks and it didn't improve. So the GERD is not as simple as never eating another tomato or pepper.

I think I have new food allergies, which is not great news. It would've been better the way I originally took it, that they'd been there all along. The last thing I need is an even more hyper-sensitive system!

Now what do I do about it? Avoid the offending foods and what? Am I really never going to eat chocolate again? Or tomato bisque? Or cucumber salad? Ever?

I did test some organic cocoa powder in a smoothie. It did not cause heartburn, but I did have some nausea. I want to try it one more time with a smaller dose.

My mind is just boggled by this. I don't want any allergies!