Soy Allergies?

Updated on March 08, 2014
L.A. asks from Sartell, MN
3 answers

I am reading all sorts if info that leads me to believe I may have a soy allergy. I started checking foods I eat and they all have soy lecithin in them. One red flag is Naproxen. When I take Aleve or Ibuprofen I react like I have the flu. My dr then said it must be the Naproxen in those meds. I just looked up Naproxen and it said the soy ingredient is in it as well as my every day reflux meds and asthma med and inhaler. I have been eating so many things containing this ingredient for so long. I have been getting allergy injections for 3 years and haven't seen much of an improvement and still have tons of sinus infections. I do nasal washes and most of the time they are clear. I was on a med for a sinus infection last time for two weeks and no green stuff at all. That makes me wonder if it's a food allergy. I have been tested for outdoor allergies and have several but I feel there is something else adding to my uncomfortableness. I wheeze a lot. Even on my asthma meds and with an inhaler and back up inhaler. I have a hard time catching my breath quite often and get an itchy throat all the time. I always have a runny or super stuffed up nose. On days I get an allergy injection I take a Zyrtec (which I just realized contains it also) and I get those symptoms and always thought it was because of the shot. Does anyone else with soy allergies experience any of this? I am going to set up an appt with a food allergist to get checked.

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So What Happened?

So my allergist only does seasonal allergies and I was told to see a food allergist and a specialist for asthma.
I will see the asthma specialist next week and he will talk to me about food allergies. My nurse did say at this point I shouldn't be using antihistamines except on injection days.

More Answers

D.B.

answers from Boston on

A food "allergy" or sensitivity is an auto-immune response, where your body assumes that a harmless ingredient or environmental object/particle is harmful. So it mounts a huge defense to get rid of it. But what's really happening is your body lacks what it needs to effectively manage or process that trigger. You seem to have that with a variety of triggers - maybe it's soy (processed, possibly GMO, washed with things like hexane and alcohol most likely), but you also have outdoor allergies. You've got massive nasal congestion even when it sounds like you are not infected with anything such as a major cold. You've got inflammation in the respiratory tract as well, with asthma and itchy throat, and you frequently get sinus infections from all the junk being trapped up in there (through congestion/inflammation).

It seems to me that you've endured an awful lot - years of shots, years of using an inhaler and meds, lots of runny noses, nasal washes. So what you're doing isn't working.

Soy is nature's protein, and people have eaten it for 5000 years without problems. Only in the last 30 years or so have we had this huge uptick in reactions to it, as well as to eggs, dairy, tree nuts, legumes, eggs and a zillion other foods. Only now do we have this huge increase in asthma.

So, while it's possible you are reacting to one element, it's also likely that you are reacting to so many of these chemicals you have (understandably) been introducing to your body to control your symptoms.

I had a lot of allergies too (cats, pollen, ragweed, dust, mold) and I have a lot of friends who've had much worse, including foods. One friend of mine has a son who had 60 food triggers - the child basically could not eat. Another friend walked around with a box of tissues under her arm - allergic to 68 of the 72 items on the allergy scratch test. She also got shots and took prescription and over-the-counter meds at the same time. Her son spent the first year of his life on a nebulizer 3 weeks out of 4. I had a lot of sinus infections and bronchitis too. We're all healthy now.

The problem is our diets - our foods are processed, and our natural foods are nutrient deficient. Panels of doctors and nutritionists and food scientists have determined that there's no way to even get our basic vitamins and minerals without consuming some 5000 calories a day - which of course is not possible.

The key is to supplement intelligently with a balanced, bioactive, usable formula designed to get all the nutrients in your body (and that means into the cells themselves) at the same time, where they work together. Swallowing handfuls of pills (whether vitamins or medications or whatever) just gives the body more work to do, and only 15-30% are absorbed anyway (along with all the fillers and junk used to make the pills hold their form).

As you've observed, it's almost impossible to completely screen out offending ingredients. You just can't spend your life reading labels. The point is, you should not be reacting to soy, whether it's tofu or soy lecithin or anything else. You should be able to eat anything you want.

So what you need is something to help strengthen your immune system and give your cells the fuel they need to perform properly, rather than going haywire. All of the advances in epigenetics are proving this - in dozens of scientific papers, clinical trials, and lots of exposure in news magazines or programs like Dr. Oz. I think you'd be astounded at what you can accomplish in 2-3 months of good cellular nutrition. I've attended a lot of seminars and webinars, like my colleagues, and we've listened to the scientists and the doctors and the educators who are changing the way we look at illness and health care in this country. You should consider this - it will change your life. Let me know what you think.

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M.P.

answers from Portland on

Aleve is a brand name for a pain reliever which is also naproxen. Ibuprofen is the generic name of a different pain reliever. Neither one contains soy. Also Zyrtec does not contain soy. Soy is a common allergy. It has to be listed as an ingredient on labels.

I have many food allergies one of which is soy. A soy allergy could cause respiratory symptoms but it would more likely cause digestive issues. I understand your frustration and trying to find a cause for your discomfort. You cannot do this without the aid of an allergist. A different medication may be more helpful. For example, I was taking an oral antihistamine when the doctor switched me to a prescription nasal spray only. This is working Without the side effects of an aantihistamine.

I have food allergies and environmental allergies. The food allergies cause digestive difficulties while the environmental ones cause nasal difficulties.

Allergies are a reaction to the protein in foods. If the soy ingredient is an oil we can still have it unless one is extremely allergic in which case we are reacting to the use of soy in manufacturing.

Also lecithin is not related to soy.

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C..

answers from Columbia on

Please go talk to a qualified allergist.

Soy and Soy Lethicin are actually 2 different things.
Think wheat and gluten. You can be

Very few people are allergic to soy lethicin. What people are allergic to with a soy allergy is the protein. Soy lethicin does not have this protein. Although you *could* react to it.... it really is quite rare. My husband has a soy allergy that is so bad when he was tested they contemplated giving him a shot to combat the effects of just the tiny amt used.... they said his is one of the highest numbers for soy they have EVER seen...... and he can eat foods with soy lethicin and be fine.

Also - I am not sure which of the ingredients in Zyrtec is soy? I see the inert ingredients listed on the site and none are soy? I'm just curious.

I was told that the shots take an average of 5 years to eliminate your reactions and increase your tolerance to those allergens.
After 3 years you would have JUST started to be seeing a reduction and if your reactions are that severe it may just take you longer to build up a tolerance.

My allergist did a food allergy test with a simple blood test. It's super easy. Why don't you just go get tested?

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