Expert: Florence M Rollwagen - 4/9/2009

Question
Dear Florence,
No one has been able to answer this Q of mine satisfactorily. I asked an allergy expert, but got no reply. then, I noticed that you specialized in immunology and here i was, asking you about chlamydospores, etc!

I'm 22 now, and I suddenly became allergic to eggs when I was 18 or so. I'm a lacto-vegetarian, but i used to eat cakes, chocolates, etc which contained eggs.To my shock, when I was 18 or so, i noticed that my stomach began to ache soon after I ate fluffy cream cakes. Then, I couldn't eat my favourite plum cake. Then, i discovered that I couldn't eat chocolate that contained egg white, and couldn't drink Ovaltine(TM). The ache started to appear with decreasing dosage(over days), and now, I can't even eat a small bit of cake.

The stomach ache is sort of intermittent, but starts about 15 minutes after I eat the thing-containing-egg-white. It lasts for 4-6 hours.
I've been studying a bit of immunology in my courses, so it appeared to me like my immune reaction was becoming stronger and stronger with decreasing dosage. But, are immune reactions involving stomach aches common?? I get no rashes, itch or the like.

It's really frustrating! After I became allergic to egg-white, I've strangely been getting a lot of cake wherever I go, and I can't touch it. Eggless cakes aren't as tasty.I ate a little macaroon last month, and there it was, after 15 minutes.

I've heard about egg allergy being common in kids, often disappearing as they grow older, but uncommon in adults. what could have made me allergic to egg-white suddenly?

Yours woefully

Windy

Answer
Hi again, Windy:  Yes the onset of egg allergy in adults is indeed rare.  In fact a case was written up just two years ago:

http://www.biomedexperts.com/Abstract.bme/17323866/New_onset_egg_allergy_in_an_a...

Gastrointestinal effects are often seen in food allergies.

Scientists believe that allergies are usually an inappropriate reaction to environmental proteins.  The immune system recognizes the foreign proteins and reacts against them as if they were infectious agents.

Often, they are the product of cross-reactions between a viral infection and a “self” protein.  For example, the disease multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks the myelin sheath around the nerves.  It is believed that a viral infection that has the same three-dimensional structure as the myelin is involved.

Side note:  If you’ve been studying biology and biochemistry you know that the three dimensional structure of a molecule is largely responsible for its biological effects.  For example, an enzyme exactly fits its substrate, but a cross reaction can occur if another molecule is the same shape and charge.  End of side note.

So now I must ask you: have you had any vaccinations just before the onset of your allergy (eg when you were about 17-18 or so?).  The MMR vaccine can induce egg allergy in some people.  How about a stomach virus, or onset of diarrhea at about that age.  Where am I going with this?  If you had an infection, the immune system may “think” that you’re still infected when  you egg white proteins are attached to stomach (intestine) cells after you eat egg whites.

How about where you live?  Have you moved (eg become exposed to new allergens in pollens, plants, etc)?

Try to examine your life at about the age you developed this allergy and see if you can determine some event, infection, food, etc that could have triggered it.

Good luck!

FM Rollwagen, PhD