Let read how preservative-laden mixed nut consumption sent me to anaphylaxis.
We never bought the big jars of mineral water, unlike our neighbors. We’d get bottled water mostly when traveling. Well, I live in California, not Flint, and the water is well-sanitized, and quality-controlled.
Still, we had water filters. I would religiously fill the filter with tap water and consume only the filtered ones. The filters needed changing every few months. We always had extra filters in stock. In case the blue button turned red! If we ever ran out of filters, it’s an ‘emergency.’ I would ask my spouse to place an order quick. I would even boil water. As if not done, we will die of diarrhea!
I laugh at that now. It’s been several years since I’ve drunk directly from the tap. We have a water softener system installed now, since California water is alkaline and harsh. But even when we did not have the filter installed, I drank from the faucet.
As a poignant article on Medium taught me, we often make life-changing decisions when we receive a shock. That was certainly the case for me.
Let me share. Who knows, you might reconsider the relevance of splurging on bottled water!
It was during the time when I had a premature newborn. I needed good nutrition to nurture my depleted body and the baby! Among other things, I used to consume handfuls of mixed nuts from the grocery where we used to get our provisions. The nuts were an exotic mix, roasted, processed, and delicious. I knew soaked nuts are the best, roasted is not quite. But I hoped they would still be helpful.
After a few months of consuming nuts, I started experiencing serious allergies. My lips were swelling, my face had edema, and I had itching, hives all over my skin, and respiratory distress! They were scary. A time came when, I got allergy attacks after biting into an apple and drinking water!
My poor spouse bought a crate of bottled mineral water for me! We hoped, it will help with the crisis. Don’t we try everything, when faced with unknown, life-threatening troubles?
One night, after drinking water, I got the horrifying lip tingling, facial puffiness, hives, and windpipe tightening. So, we set up an emergency visit. Now, I must tell you, I try to avoid medical visits. It was pandemic times. My spouse took a day off, and we took the susceptible baby to visit the doctor. It was the early days of masked outings. Fear was in the air!
I asked the doctor if water could be the culprit, and he told me that such severe allergies are not caused by a simple thing. Something bigger is at play.
Nothing came out of the visit.
He said he’s just a general practitioner and can refer me to an endocrinologist. I hate such rabbit hole of uncertainty, money, schedules, and misdiagnosis.
I brought the corticosteroid vial he had prescribed for emergencies; in case I am choking due to anaphylaxis. But I did not take any. Instead, I sat down to analyze my ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact profile.
I am not doing anything different. I know, suddenly developing allergies is not rare. The symptoms appear when the threshold antibody level is built. After eliminating a lot of things, the culprit seemed to be the processed nuts.
I considered my past history. Yes, when I had consumed anything with high doses of sulfite preservatives, my body had warned. It’s not the nuts themselves, but the preservatives they are smeared with.
I threw the nuts in the trash bin. The allergies didn’t subside just like that. With hope, awareness, and trust on the scientific connections, I persisted in my regular lifestyle sans the nuts. I endured allergies, without taking any antiallergy pills.
Dear readers, it took 1–2 months, but my body was finally cleaned off the inflammatory biomarkers, accumulated due to the preservative consumption.
I was thrilled. The preservative was the offender, and I made my water the scapegoat!
After the nut fiasco, as an act of rebellion, I started drinking tap water, and it’s been 4 years now. I have been doing well. If you are battling health issues, find the culprit that might be creating the problems. I hope my story gave insight into how to crack a health crisis riddle.
Well, I am a researcher, so I had it rather easy. But you can do it too, by embracing health-literacy, awareness, and discipline.
Even though I don’t know you, I wouldn’t like you to go through unnecessary treatment and to spend your hard-earned money.
