The question I get asked the most is when did this all
start. Mostly it’s from people I’ve known for a bit because this seems so
sudden, which it is. To them. Less so to me, but I’ve had time to dwell on it
and the ins and outs of my GI system.
To put a fine point on it, it definitely was starting in
college. By graduation, I started dreading going out to lunch with my mom
because I always felt nauseous and just disgusting afterwards. I thought it was
from overeating and part of that may be true. When I think back to particular
times, it was because I had eaten something in particular that day—one time it
was the sangria, other times the breadsticks. Some of this I can only remember
because I know we went to Olive Garden and I know I gorged myself on the breadsticks;
the sangria event I can remember because we were actually celebrating
graduation that day. I’ve thought back to some of my excruciatingly brutal
hangovers, which make way more sense now—grapes and yeast are both big
triggers. I had ‘food poisoning’ in college and I have to wonder if there was a
component of allergy there (the official diagnosis was food poisoning, but I’ve
always thought it was viral gastroenteritis cause it took me forever to get
back to fighting strength, another thing which now points towards allergy).
Also, have any of you heard me say I put my glasses on as
soon as I can in the morning because it gives me a headache to wear them? (Or seen me do it? Or seen me wearing my glasses at all?) Not
true! The cereal I almost always had for breakfast gave me a headache instead!
No headaches after breakfast anymore. I don’t know how long this has been a
problem, but at least a few years.
It has clearly been a problem for the last year or so. I was
miserably sick in the fall of 2010. I was diagnosed with an adenovirus,
sinusitis, and viral strep (which we knew to be viral after I took my ten days
of antibiotics with no relief). My mom had to come out and feed me, wash my
sheets, and chivvy me into showering. She also fed me homemade chicken soup
with rice. I fed myself cinnamon applesauce.
I downed apple and grade juice for the sugar. All of them comfort foods;
ALL of them allergens. I missed a week of school, the most I’ve ever missed,
and then spent the next week still feeling like a truck had run me over.
The interesting thing, and what prompted this, is that I had
a lecture recently on “psychoneuroimmunology.” They had to tell us what that
meant—the effects that your psychological state have on your neuroendocrine
axis and thus your immune system. It was really interesting and it’s quite
cutting edge. It goes with the studies that show CEOs with type A personalities
are more likely to have heart attacks. Either way, there was a slide in the
lecture showing how when you’re under stress, there’s a shift in your immune
cells (Th2, in case you were wondering!) which leaves you susceptible to viral
infections and boosts your ‘humoral’ immune system, which means IgE which means
allergies.
Why am I saying this? Well, college was stressful, and so is
medical school! So I clearly have a Th2 shift, promoting allergies and viral
infections. I mention the viral infections because when I was laid that fall—it
was three viral infections that did me in (have any of you noticed that you get
colds more often, but have to suffer through at work or school? Colds are
viruses). Now, I clearly have allergy problems too. Which came up while I was
under stress…interesting, is it not? At least I think so! Obviously the stress
didn’t cause them, but it’s a question I ponder a lot, if I ever had problems
when I was younger. Too bad my memory is not that good!
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