I think the not getting dirty is definitely a big part. The rough theory is that as parasites tend to damp down our innate immune system we have co-evolved with them (all mammals) to boost our innate immune system. Remove the parasites and your immune system is naturally revving too high! It’s a simple but powerful theory.
There are people who infect themselves with parasites and have claimed good and almost instant results. Docs don’t know what to do as they know that giving somebody a parasite can be hard to control, they are a VERY conservative profession. They have been very slow to realize that many microbes and parasites can be used to protect us and make us healthy again. Pharmaceutical companies won’t get behind it until they can powder and patent the active ingredients.
GMO, chemicals, processed food etc, I don’t think they have any real influence on allergies specifically.
In the case of life threatening allergies, I think it may be worthwhile to examine a parasite type therapy, bizarre as it sounds.
To the original poster of this. Like you, I have allergies, anaphalaxic shock syndrome, and asthma. I totally understand what you’re going through. If you’re serious about fixing your problem, or at least lessening the problems you have, you may contact me (stepheninhk @ yahoo . com) Or if anyone else has questions they may need answered. I’ll be glad to help you out too. Learn a few things first. Doctors here are not dumb to the idea, but just don’t quite understand it. Most common allergies in Taiwan according to my doctor were mangoes (yes, mangoes) and seafood and wine/alcohol. Most people here think it’s just a rash thing, and goes away. Until you explain to them that you may actually die, then they usually don’t get the point. Always stress that fact. Also, according to the Taiwanese government, allergies are considered a “personal” problem, while food poisoning is considered their problem. That means, if you have allergies, you MUST tell them FIRST. If you have clearly done that, and you get sick, you can sue for compensation/injuries or even criminal charges.
Things to do: 1) Always be vigilant against servers and cooks. Many sauces have mixtures of things in them. Look out for satay (“sha cha jiang”) which may have fish, seafood and nuts it. Double and triple guess your servers. If you get served something that is totally wrong. Tell them. Or just simply walk out.
You got served a shit stick in life by God. So not much you can do about it, but do your best to avoid the problem. I do my best to stay away from places where I think there might be a problem. However, sometimes it’s just not always possible. Weddings are always a big problem for me.
The best allergy doc in Taiwan is a lady at the Taichung Veterans Hospital who is just simply amazing at her stuff. Get tested by her.
Epi pens exist, but not quite the same as you would find in your home country. I can tell you more on how to get one if you’re interested.
There are a lot of people who just don’t understand the idea of allergies until someone gets sick in front of them. My famly included.
Find a local allergist/asthma doctor at a hospital (I use Mackay) and tell them your problem. You will not get an epi pen exactly, but rather a vial of adrenaline (and you need to buy a syringe). Same thing but you do the whole thing yourself.
I want to give blood. Can a person of with server allegies give blood? BTW, I’ve had my blood tested and it came back negative for allergies a few years ago. I declined to take the scratch test. Should I trust this test
Can one get a serious recaction from smell, such fish and seafood cooking at a wedding or in a house. I feel miserable but some people say that it can cause a reaction, I"m not eating anything. If yes, please send me a llink to some official documentation. Otherwise it’s just heresay.
Thanks
My son and I are in the States now and we have had to instances of an allergic reaction to fish/seafood in him even though he hasn’t eaten either. The first was a deep fried burrito that he was served at a friend’s house. The oil used to fry it was first used to fry fish sticks. The second was after I fed him some sweet and spicy chicken I’d made from a kit. The kit listed NO seafood ingredients, but I called the manufacture and found that the same facility is sometimes used to make products that do contain seafood.
Both times, my son’s reaction was relatively small. I gave him oral steroids the first time, the second time I did nothing and waited to see if it would get worse, as it was very mild. It got better after about 6-12 hours. The point is that you can never, never, never be too careful! If your reaction is severe enough, you need to keep your med’s close and have a PLAN for how you’re going to handle yourself. Good luck.
I want to give blood. Can a person of with server allegies give blood? BTW, I’ve had my blood tested and it came back negative for allergies a few years ago. I declined to take the scratch test. Should I trust this test
A: You can. However, if you’re using meds, you can’t.
Can one get a serious recaction from smell, such fish and seafood cooking at a wedding or in a house. I feel miserable but some people say that it can cause a reaction, I"m not eating anything. If yes, please send me a llink to some official documentation. Otherwise it’s just heresay.
Thanks
You can definitely get a serious reaction from smells. Some people can get extremely sick from heavy perfumes or seafood or nut smells. My personal experience via vomiting from fish soup being cooked, plus the swelling/infecting my eyes is direct proof. Taiwan does have laws against stinky foods. If you think that the stinky tofu guy on your street is bothering you, you can complain about that too. But note the difference between offensive smells such as stinky tofu, dirty socks which turn people off or cause some heaving/vomiting vs allergic reaction to certain scents such as perfumes or nuts which cause people to go into asthma attacks almost instantly and/or closing of air pipes.
Awareness campaigns are unheard of where I come from, but still we pay attention to what we put in our damn food! Here is just too “ma-fan” to think about this kind of things. Allergies are not mainstream and, like any other minority in Taiwan, allergic people are ignored, treated with contempt and given the “wtf are you on about” look. :fume:
How is that even possible? I do not mean to offend your family, but may it be that they do not care too much and are too stuck with the idea that allergies are some sort of personal fixation, like not wanting to eat fish because you don’t like the taste?
I want to regress.
I have eaten just about everything in Taiwan with no gastro problems.
However, there is a powder that seems to affect me, and maybe you.
I bought a dish of fried oysters near my home. After eating, I thought I was having a heart attach. I thought it was an analomy so I bought another dish the next week. Same result. Then, the next week, I went to a respectable pub with a beer and some pizza. Same result. Nearly went to the hospital but went home. DAMN. bad stuff.
Then, I was in Hsinchu and had to spend the night. I got a room and went for dinner stuff. I bought a bottle of Brandy and 2 orders of Conch.
Within hours, I was broken out and bleeding at the pores.
Be careful.
That happens to me with a specific brand of biscuits. I usually wake up at night with what seems like an attack of sonic diarrhea, but then my blood pressure falls below my feet, I feel a tremendous pressure in my stomach and chest and I feel like I am dying for some tens of seconds (and it turns out I don’t need to go to the toilet at all). It all resolves in less than a couple of minutes and I am left sweating profusely and exhausted. It happened two times in two years, always after eating the same biscuits with a little tea in the evening.
on a vaguely related note to this thread I have found the best way to guarantee vegetarian food (i.e. not veggie noodles with added chicken…) when dining with veggie friends is to eat in places that cater to Buddhists or to tell staff in other restaurants that you follow that diet.
In my experience staff in restaurants here understand the concept of vegetarianisam for religious reasons far more readily than as a lifestyle choice, very probably because it is way more common.
I can’t comment on the allergies side of things, except to say that it must be annoying and scary at the same time. Had a mate in the UK who nearly died from eating a curry he was constantly assured did not have nuts in… apart from the almonds…oh they’re nuts are they? Sorry, Sir, as he was rushed to hospital.
I don’t feel like starting a new topic for this but be super freaking careful with the mushrooms here. If you end up with an awful rash that looks like scratches and feel like your literally dying it’s the freaking mushrooms.
Street/stall vendors are not the people you wanna entrust your life to. Their sole focus is making a living in a highly competitive biz. They dont give a hoot about your allergy they just want you to buy something and then go away.
Tea eggs are great , the hi life ones are the best.
So it is either kind and ignorant or nasty. MacDonalds , Burger King etc maybe safer for you or the 7/11 food. There are many in Taiwan with seafood allergies they know about it.
What mushroom? Are you eating random mushroom you plucked off the ground? If feeling like you’re dying, you got lucky. They got mushrooms out there that are quite tasty but it will be your last meal.
You must think everyone around you is stupid. I can’t imagine in any world that someone says they’re having an allergic reaction to mushrooms and my first thought being that they must be going durrr parkside mushroom tasty
I’m never going to ask about food poisoning here because I might have my intelligence insulted because someone might think I literally scooped up shit out of the toilet for sustenance!
I am also interested in which way mushrooms are problematic, how they are kept in Taiwan etc.
Accepted, @Taiwan_Luthiers made a typical knee-jerk response post, but his general query is interesting. What makes mushrooms in Taiwan a particular issue?
Your ‘shit’ analogy only works as a comparison if people were to be eating shit from a toilet as opposed to buying shit in a restaurant.
It happened two times in two years, always after eating the same biscuits with a little tea in the evening.