October 1, 2002
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PAVLOV AT WORK
I’ve finally gotten rid of most of the poison ivy from the Cashew Incident. But now I seem to have acquired a food allergy?!
I did some research into this, and apparently it’s not uncommon to develop a food allergy after a bad reaction. Here’s one scientist describing how she developed an allergy to strawberries:
I love strawberries, so of course, May came along, and I ate two baskets at once, and of course there happened to be mold in them. I could taste it and spat some out, but I also swallowed some.
The next time I had a whole basket, I became nauseated, and soon, with only one strawberry, I was out for a couple of hours.
Why would her body target strawberries rather than the mold (the original toxin)? Her theory is pretty interesting:
Say somebody eats a peanut at age 10 and suddenly becomes allergic to peanuts; this allergy was probably caused by a toxin, either a natural peanut toxin or one from a mold that had infected the peanut. Your immune system says, “Aha, a toxin! And this protein is associated with that toxin. No more of that protein.” Because it’s a better target, that [much larger] protein is now an allergen.
Ok, an allergy to cashews I could live with. But there’s a twist: have you heard of Pavlovian conditioning? Apparently, if you develop a food allergy, your body often learns to associate it with whatever else you ate that day.
This was established in a famous experiment involving rats. First, the doctor gave rats saccharin-flavored water spiked with a lethal drug:
Robert Ader at Rochester University … gave rats the immune-suppressing drug cyclophosphamide along with saccharin-flavored water. In due course, the immune systems of the rats weakened, and some rats died of infection.
Ok, so far so good. But then, he tested to see if just the saccharin would trigger the same response:
[H]e then gave surviving rats just the saccharine flavored water. The interesting finding ws that the rat’s immune system reacted as though they were getting the cyclophosphamide alone. To his surprise, he discovered that classical conditioning had triggered a learned association between the taste of saccharin and the immune system.
Unfortunately, the same day I had those cashews, I also ate a lot of cheese (it was a busy day – I didn’t have time to get a real meal). So… now it seems I am allergic to all dairy products?!
What a bummer. I didn’t realize it right away, since the poison ivy masked my allergic reactions. But as I started to recover, it became more obvious. I put some milk in my coffee on Saturday and broke out in hives. The same thing happened after I had an stuffed omelette on Sunday, and some ice cream on Monday.
I am hoping this is all just a coincidence, and that my immune system is still just traumatized from those stupid cashew nuts. And for now, I’ll just completely abstain from all dairy products.
I have to admit though, the prospect of no dairy for life is pretty depressing. I’m a big fan: chocolate, ice cream, milk, cheese, pancakes… these are some of my favorite things! Why couldn’t have I eaten something else that day, like cauliflower or liver?!
Comments (20)
Hey, maybe you’re just pregnant.
All I can say is, guys, if your girl friend insists on eating cashews, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT allow her to pleasure you with oral sex on the same day.
~scratching head~….~wondering why any woman would want to have oral sex, when they could spend the rest of the day eating cashews…LOL…
Oh, my, poor John. I hadn’t realized you were having such an allergic reaction to cashews yourself… and now dairy. The saccharin experiments you mentioned sound really interesting.
I hope the reactions you are experiencing now are only temporary. How sad to think of a life without ice cream
Too bad we can’t do a selective soft reset on our immune system software.
Here’s hoping the best for you, John.
I’ve got some nasty food allergies too. Go to a reputable allergy doctor and get tested. A scratch test can pinpoint it. Food allergies can be very dangerous. At the same time what your own brain can do to you is equally scary. You can end up with an anxiety attacks that mimic an allergic reaction. (and what notforprophet said about intimate contact with someone who has eaten the thing you are allergic to….thats absolutely true)
yeah, i use a lot of classical Pavlovian Conditioning on my girlfriends…
Too bad this wasn’t written before my HUGE Psych test last night……..I am sure I aced it anyway but, we are studying the whole Pavlovian (classical conditioning) theory.
On the other hand……cashews and oral sex…..don’t try this at home!! I have learned something new…….*winks*
eeps! Sorry to hear about the hives, and hope they go away soon!
How horrid!
Maybe if you find something that’s really GOOD for your body but you never eat (say cauliflower or liver?), and then drink some milk with it, your body will sort of reboot with the new information that milk does a body good?
Been there…with shrimp. Ate shrimp scampi, had MSG in it, which I did not know, and I do NOT handle well. 45 minutes later, I looked like a bad advertisement for those “plump up your lips with collagen injections” offices. Yep, I could SEE my upper lip, not in the mirror, but by looking down. Soooo…3 hours and a lot of anti-allergy injections later, I went home. The Dr said that I might not ever be able to eat shellfish again without that same reaction…but thankfully, now, a year later, after NOT eating any for about 6 months, I can eat anything seafood and have NO problem. BUT…that first shrimp was VERY scary.
Good luck with it…try not having any dairy for say a month, and then try to add it very slowly…I feel for you, I am a big cheese, ice cream, chocolate fan too!
I, too, would have a hard time giving up dairy products. Thanks for the informative blog. I’m sorry you have been experiencing this.
hey john, over yonder, I commented back…
I had to give up dairy products once. As I searched for something to eat and fearful of eating anything, I settled for canned green beans. Simple meal really, boring meal too.
Hope you conquer your food reactions.
Oh John, that’s bad
very bad!! 
Your immune system will return, and oral sex after consuming cashews will be safe. The world will survive!
John, John, John,
Now how am I gonna take you on that “dessert” island with Virgil, Wm. F. H., Rache, and MrFixit– if you’re not feeling well?
Get better ASAP!!! We need you.
you seem like a pretty good guy at the top
it’s nice to read someone’s contemplative outpours and enjoy it… keep up the good … er… keep being yourself
i love the jump from straight dairy products to all of a sudden…pancakes!?#>$ Heh.
BTW, i was browsing the procedures for signing up for premium (for some reason, can’t bear to do it just yet….you need an incentive! a free t-shirt for members over 600 days who upgrade to premium would do it for me
) Anyways. I noticed that the link on there for viewing the Premium user agreement isn’t working; it would appear that the document is longer than one page, but there is no vertical scroll bar.
Ick! The prospect of life without dairy seems sad indeed. Perhaps if it’s a mentally conditioned allergy it can be dealt with over time.. either with therapy or medications.. placebo or real. I myself would think it the worst sort of torture to live without chocolate because my mind associates it with an allergy..well for a few months, so I could diet, that would be ok ;o)
I am glad to see the initial allergic reaction is getting under control. I wish you a speedy recovery and hope you get your dairy back. So that one day.. when someone asks you.. “Got Milk?” you can proudly answer.. “yes.. yes I do…” hehe sorry, I just pictured a very dramatic scene there and in my head it’s sooooo funny.. well lots of things are funny in my head.. but we won’t talk about that here….
Haha… that happened to me with alcohol once. I poisoned myself reasonably badly in a *Heroic* drinking session.. and for 18 months after that, the mere smell of alcohol made me feel ill. Of course, that was when I was much younger and stupider, and now I only drink in extreme moderation, but I no longer feel ill. With the milk thing, that’s interesting because I’ve found lately that milk has been making me feel ill.. so it’s just a slow reconditioning, eating a piece of cheese here, and there.