Grains and Allergies?

Need to blog to distract myself from this nausea! Ack!!! Ack!!!

Okay, so this is something I've been meaning to mention for a while.

I never experienced allergy problems growing up or as a twenty-something. Ever. I could wade into billowing clouds of pollen and never feel any ill effect. Wonderful!

But that all changed last Spring (2010). I got what I thought was a cold but which had no typical cold progression.... just the stuffy/congested nose bit. It took me a while, but I finally figured out what it was - allergies at last. It wasn't too serious, and I recognized it when it came back for a week the following Autumn.

And then, on New Year's Day of this year (2011), I was hit by something approximating a steam engine - ALLERGIES. Whoa, Nellie! I finally understood what people were complaining about - they're not kidding when they say that allergies stink! I had them for about a month, and going outside for any length of time was enough to knock me flat. It was ugly.

So I started researching allergy remedies. One of the first and most common things that came up was local honey - so I bought some of that and tried it. Delicious, but didn't help at all. I also saw recommendations for using a neti-pot, which I never got the guts to buy and/or try.

One thing I did see on Facebook was a friend who said that her brother had cured his allergies by going on the Paleo Diet. I've written about the Paleo Diet on this blog before, but to review, the Paleo Diet is a very simple diet that includes fruit, vegetables, meat, and nuts, and gets rid of grains, sugar, dairy, and legumes. I'm not doing the Paleo Diet right now, but the Very Low Carb diet that I'm doing as NVP-management is quite similar - it doesn't eliminate all dairy (it keeps cheese and cream), but it eliminates sugar, legumes, and grains. Looking between the two for commonalities, the factor that stands out is grains.

I have now been on the VLC diet for several months, including the Spring pollen season here in Phoenix (there is nothing more gorgeous than a blooming Palo Verde tree!), and thus far..... no signs of any allergies. Not a bit. I sailed through all of the blossoming trees and blooming flowers with no problems.

Is there any link between grains and allergies?

I have no idea. And it could be that next year's pollen season will again hit me like a brick wall (I sure hope not). But I thought I'd report in on it just to write out my experience.

Okay, enough of that. Back to mooching! I sure am ready for this nausea to leave!!!!!!