Depakote/ACs and food allergies?

[NARS]

I didn't post this down in food allergies because, well, most of the posts there talk about how to get meds without your allergen of choice in them, and because you guys take the kind of meds I take.  Moderator, please move it if you must.

Has anyone heard of anyone acquiring a food allergy or intolerance as a result of taking an AC, and then losing it when they went off of it? 

I have a history of IBS since childhood.  I took Depakote for about 5 years.  A few years into this, I was diagnosed by a nice homeopath with a gluten intolerance.  I had to avoid wheat, rye and barley and any by-products.  This made eating out very difficult, eating at friends' houses nigh on impossible, and meant lots of extra time at the grocery store finding out all the products I couldn't eat anymore-most sauces and dressings, all baked goods except expensive gluten free stuff, and almost all other processed foods.  I got very good at cooking gluten free, and while my IBS was still there, the awful gluten symptoms were gone.  It was expensive and inconvenient and unsociable, but I just made the best of it.

I've now been off of Depakote since about April because of the hormonal problems it gave me.  I'm now on Lamictal; the rest of my medications have stayed roughly the same.  On Wednesday I ate something which I thought was safe and which I later found out had quite a bit of wheat in it.  I expected to get the usual illness--a stomach ache within half an hour, then abdominal cramps, and then the runs, nausea and general toxicity for 3-4 days.  But I didn't get sick.  At all.

So yesterday I decided to experiment.  I ate a cookie at lunch.  No stomachache, no gutache.  I got bolder and had a piece of pizza for dinner.  Nothing.  Not even gas.

This is thrilling, to say the least.  I'm still experimenting, and will eat small amounts until I'm sure I'm safe.  But it's a minor miracle.  They told me I'd be like that for life, and now I'm wondering if it's even possible, and if so, how.

[tallulah]

thats interesting that you developed a wheat allergy while on depakote therapy...

i feel for you regarding IBS - ive struggled with this STUPID phantom illness since the early age of 13. 

ive never heard of acquiring a food allergy while taking AC's, but ive read that the way you eat can affect the way the medication will affect YOU.

hmm... i hope others can help in this department.

ash

[Lisa_K]

NARS...Im so glad you wrote this...

You know Im a big Depakote supporter, but I do have my little side effcets with it...mostly vanity ones that dont count cuz Id rather be seizure free, right? Well, when I was a kid, like all the way thru elementary, I was allergic to foods...yes FOODS...eggs, wheat, milk...also(still alergic to these) pollen, dust, mold, ragweed, and rabbits fur. I always wanted a bunny. dammit. More than anything I wanted Cookie Crisp. And Pancakes. And Mac and cheese. And Oreos and Milk. Nope. It SUCKED soooooo bad. I had to drink Isolmil and eat cornmeal everything.

[NARS]

Wow.  I think I also had childhood food sensitivities or allergies, because I was like you--had to run to the bathroom after meals, had to know where the bathroom was when I was eating out.  I did Outward Bound in my early 20s, and after a 3 day fast we had a big pancake breakfast (this after a few weeks of using mostly other grains like corn).  I was so sick I had to sleep near the porta-potty.  You can imagine how wonderful that was.  But thank god I didn't have to dig a little hole in the ground each time!  I didn't know about food allergies, but my dad had a lactose intolerance so I knew that milk make it worse.  But I had never suspected wheat until a homeopath diagnosed it.

Anyhow, that degree of sickness abated a long time ago, and came back after starting Depakote.  I'm just so delighted now.  Not to rub it in, but this morning I had a blueberry muffin with streusel topping for breakfast.  I've got to watch out now; I want to eat all the bread and onion rings in the world!  Menus suddenly drive me crazy with desire!

Anyhow, I do hope your food problems get better.  I sympathize a lot more than I used to with all kinds of chronic stuff.  I'll never make fun of other people's sensitivities again.