Kim ~ I am not really sure where to start, but I would love to share my story with other people. Since I was 15, I suffered from severe migraines. After years of added symptoms which included dizziness, fatigue, swelling, heart palpitations, insomnia, sweating…. the list goes on and on….I decided enough was enough. Medical treatment’s and tests always came back perfectly normal, sometimes too normal. On paper I was in perfect health! MRI’s and ultrasounds all came back with normal results …
One day, after eating a meal containing cheese, I was sitting at my desk clearing my throat constantly…which I had done since I was 15. I decided to look up information on the internet about people with the same problem. Funny, but after my research, it caused me to basically diagnose myself. After stopping my intake of all dairy, I found within 3 days, not kidding, that all..I repeat all of my symptoms disappeared. This was too good to be true!
I immediately decided to make an appointment with an allergist, just to see if I was right. After an allergy test was performed, I was notified I had an allergy to milk. Ta da! The weight was completely lifted off of me and now I currently have absolutely none of the symptoms I had carried with me for the past 17 years. I am now living a healthy and extra happy life without any medical problems whatsoever. It is truly amazing!
After conversations with my husband and family, I just feel the need to share my story with people in hopes that I may be able to help one person, two people, who knows…. So many people out there are suffering daily and doing everything they can to feel better, yet little know about the effects of milk,dairy…and what general food allergies can do to your body. I am blessed to have found my answer, but had I known or had my doctor’s ever suggested a milk allergy, I could have been free from all of the medical burdens years ago. At least know I have the knowledge of what allergies can do to our bodies and I hope to pass this along so other people are aware as well. Thank you so much for allowing me to share my story.
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May you please help me to find websites like yours, but for people with Glactosemia. I would appreciate it very much. Learning from others is very helpful.
Ohhhh my Gosh, thanks so much for sharing your story this has really enlightened me. I thought I was going crazy, I have similar reactions to yours and I just thought it was lactose intolerance …… thank you
I would just like to say for anyone that finds your post Alisa, that I learned back in 2017, as a stupid 17 year old, that I have a very mild milk allergy. I didn’t take it seriously since my father and mother were still alive, so obviously I’d be fine. Not only that but dairy had already become a part of my life.
Anyway, a few months ago I decided to stop eating it completely just to see how I’d feel. After only a few days every problem I was having melted away: depression, anxiety, racing/raging/screaming/suicidal thoughts, non-stop acne, trouble sleeping, gas, vomiting, unbearable periods, and random stools. (I was already a tooth pick before but I lost a few pounds) For once in my life I can site quietly inside and out.
I’m a super healthy 58 year old, except for the past 10 days. After 3 decades of only drinking (or putting on cereal) non-dairy milks – first soya, then almond, hemp, coconut etc – I decided to not bother with the trendy alternatives and just go back to good old organic whole milk. First I thought the headaches were withdrawal symptoms from the cocktail of ingredients for the alternatives, then the dizziness started. This morning, after walking out to get the paper and almost staggering from feeling faint, I wondered what the symptoms were for lactose intolerance. Can’t wait for the coming dairy-free days when I’m convinced my symptoms will disappear as suddenly as the day they started when I reached for that carton of milk. Thank you for your website and to everyone for sharing their stories!
I can relate. I’m 53 and lived in denial about my milk allergy until recently. I would claim that I have lactose intolerance even though I constantly had a rash and severe diarrhea immediately after consuming dairy products. But about a year ago, my symptoms suddenly worsened, causing anaphylaxis, which was absolutely terrifying.
My mother told me that I had a milk allergy, which almost killed me, when I was an infant. She said I had anaphylaxis, including throat swelling, and had to be in the ICU for weeks. The symptoms lightened up at some point in my childhood, but I never outgrew my milk allergy.
As a child, milk products always made me feel nauseous and caused severe GI symptoms so I avoided them, but no one seemed concerned about it. Back in the 60s and 70s, I don’t think doctors knew much about milk allergies. I wasn’t monitored the way that kids are now. I think they just assumed that I had outgrown it.
When I was in my 20s, I started getting a bad rash, which I had all the time, fatigue, shortness of breath, and severe joint pain. Every doctor I saw missed my milk allergy. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel, asthma, panic attacks, and more. I think all of these conditions were due to my milk allergy.
After going off of casein products six months ago, many of my symptoms stopped; however, I started getting casein withdrawal symptoms, including depression and insomnia. I’m still dealing with that.
I’m so sorry for all that you’ve been through BB! My story is actually quite similar. This isn’t medical advice or a specific recommendation, just for informational purposes – I regularly take high-dose rhodiola (and herb recommended by my doctor at a dosage of 500 to 2000mg) for anxiety and it works very well. It has helped many other people that I know, too, and is supposed to also be good for depression. I hope that everything resolves for you soon!
Your story sounds so like mine. At around 14 years old I began suffering with migraines, this was put down to hormones. I have struggled with these ever since ( I am 61 now) and IBS for the last 20 years also. I began getting heart palpatations two years ago but all tests came back fine.
I talked to my GP about the possibility of food intolerance, but was basically told that it was unlikely and would be too difficult to do an exclusion diet !
Then I discovered last year that my grandson was dairy and gluten intolerant and a light went on.
I cut gluten from my diet more than a year ago and dairy six months ago, feeling much better but still getting some migraines I went to see a nutritionalist and had a multi food sensitivity test.
The results showed eggs as my worst intolerance (which I had been eating daily) followed by all cows dairy and gluten (even though I hadn’t knowingly eaten it for a year). I am now egg free and feeling much better! My diet is much easier than I had imagined, I eat healthily and as organic as possible.
If only I had known this all those years ago.
Thank you for sharing your story Karen!
Thank you for sharing. I have been having symptoms for about 10 years. Hives all over my body. I had thought I developed an allergy to my pets. Then I thought it was maybe my sodium intake from edema and my skin stretching & becoming itchy. No one could tell me what was going on. I also would get swelling in the roof of my mouth and itchy ears, coughing sneezing and wheezing. I just figured seasonal allergies. I never put the two together. Then I did a fast. I didn’t eat for 10 hours and ate an vanilla ice cream on a stick dipped in chocolate. All the symptoms listed above just hit me like a ton of bricks. It it dawned on me… it’s dairy. I never thought it was dairy. I assumed being lactose intolerant was just stomach problems. Never correlated it with casein. So I gave up dairy… and anything that may have casien in it. I was so frustrated living with this for years. I was miserable! When I realized it was the dairy I was pretty upset. I love dairy. It’s a huge part of my diet. The thought of no cheese. No pizza. No ice cream… breaks my heart. But after going an entire day with no symptoms I’m ready to give it up. And reading your post gave me comfort. Made me not feel alone. Im also giving up gluten for a few days and I’m goin to introduce that at some point to.
You’re definitely not alone Kelly! And I promise you, it gets much, much easier with time. Cravings do subside and a whole wonderful world of foods you hadn’t thought of fill in the gaps 🙂
For years I was itching severely, all the time. I also has headaches, hives, body aches, stomach pain, insomnia, wheezing, sore throat and fatigue. The intestinal distress was so bad that I thought I had some sort of obstruction (i.e. intestinal cancer). I spoke to a million of doctors and they treated me like I was dimwitted. One day, I skipped milk in my tea and realized I wasn’t itching. I cut out all the dairy, which is one of the hardest things ever, and all the symptoms are gone. At 61, I feel like I have a new lease on life.
That’s amazing Barbara! Thank you so much for sharing your story and I’m so happy for you!