Peanuts and Asthma?

it's probably just the weather. I don't have any allergies or asthma and sometimes I find it hard to breathe. The changes in weather can make a big difference, so I wouldn't be too quick to blame the peanuts. I've been sitting here clearing my throat as I'm writing this and I'm just getting over a 2 day bug, so it may just be a little bug you have.

Have you tried eliminating the peanuts? I have heard of adults actually FORMING allergies that they never had before...and keep in mind peanuts are just a gateway nut...I've heard of a lot of people thinking that just because they were allergic to peanuts and couldn't eat them they ate pecans, walnuts, hazelnuts, etc...and it got even worse! Just a thought

Also, yes the mold has been HORRIFIC. Do you have an air purifier? I SWEAR by mine and keep it right next to my bed. I am an allergy sufferer and I find that if I don't dust (which I really hate) or vacuum as often as I should (and no housework is not an allergy but should be LOL) that my coughing flares up something AWEFUL! You might also want to check on changing your air filter on your furnance and possibly even getting your air ducts cleaned in your house...

You may also want to consider getting retested for allergies. Most Dr.s now will do the simple blood test instead of the scratch test. I will also say, there are an unlucky few who do give up smoking and think that everything else goes to hell...and maybe it does. Maybe the smoking was just covering a lot of the symptoms before? I don't know, just a thought...I had a friend who had a similiar situation to yours and jokingly said if she didn't have to go back through the withdrawl process she's go back to smoking because she felt better when she did! LOL... you are doing the right thing for you AND your kid...my parents smoked a pack a day and I lost my mom when I was 26 and my Dad by the time I was 35 both due to smoking AND I had horrible allergies as a kid because of it... Keep up the good work, check with your Dr. and keep us posted!

As a physician who suffers asthma I can tell you that it is probably the mold count that is causing a flare in your asthma. The deal with asthma is that it is a chronic inflammatory condition and anyone who has asthma should be on a long-term medication to reduce the inflammation and should only use albuterol as needed for rescue. You probably need an inhaled steroid added which will bring you under control and get you feeling better. You should also hae a peak flow meter at home so you can test yourself because sometimes you will be tight and not even know it. Also, everyone should use a spacer when they use albuterol because otherwise the particles are too big and coat your tongue instead of getting down into your airways. I would call you primary care physician (every adult shoud have one of these, especially one that has asthma) and get seen so you can get this under control. Chronic undertreated asthma can lead to permanent lung damage so you really want to get on top of this. By the way - congrats on quitting smoking. It is definitely one of the very best things you can do for your overall health and it is extremely hard so good job!

First off ~ CONGRATS on kicking the habit!!!!! This spoken from someone who understands completely ~ My story is exactly the same as yours even to the timing... 2 mos ago I quit also. I also have asthma (not bad...but there). mine also got worse when I quit ~ i even talked to my husband about it, wondering why it would be so much worse... basically I have NO IDEA!!! It is a little frustrating for me... you know the whole, "well, if my breathing is going to get worse not smoking, maybe i should just be a smoker" LOL... (i'm just kidding about that last part!)

I wish I had some insight for you, but am anxious to read what other people have to say ~

Again, congrats, and good luck staying quit!
B.

Winter actually makes my asthmatic family worse, allergies, mold, ect. But you should see the specialist so they can run a chest xray and make sure its not pnuemona or anything underlying.

Good Morning Carrie. I don't have any advice for you . Just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS!!! Our daughter in law has asthma, and is also a smoker. ME too
For some reason she hasn't used her inhaler for a very long long time. She seems to only have problems when the season's change and its short duration.

She nor I smoke in our homes or around the children. We both go outside. I have an attached deck on the kitchen, and go out when kids nap.
Congratulations again on Kicking that Yucky habit. I never could git er done.

Hope you find out the reason for your attacks. God Bless
K. Nana of 5

I've been through the same thing and yes, my asthma got worse. What my doctor told me is that when you smoke all the time, the cilia (little hairs?) in your lungs that move mucus out are paralyzed by the smoke, so the normal action of the lungs does not happen. This is also one of the reasons smoking is so bad for your health. So your body is becoming "normal" again and I ended up really having to deal with my asthma and have it reevaluated and start taking daily medicine to control it. The good news in my situation was that after a couple of years, my asthma (which is allergic asthma) settled down again and while I still have to take Singulair and Allegra daily for my allergies, I don't have to take Advair anymore and my inhaler use is WAY down, not even daily. Hope this helps...I know it is pure hell to quit smoking, especially when you feel worse from your asthma. Good luck! You're doing the right thing!

Actually you can develope allergies at any time, so it's possible that you are having some reaction to peanuts. That being said, you need to REALLY get retested for food allergies because peanut allergy is very, very dangerous. People die because of the anaphalexus reaction.

As for the asthma, I too have this, and I just went to the doctor last week for help because after 6 years of being symptom free, I'm suddenly using my nebulizer twice a day!! He said he's seeing lots of this lately and put me back on Singulair, and its' working. I haven't used the nebulizer all week, and am feeling much better. Apparently the mold spores and allergins are up, hopefully we will get a hard freeze to get rid of some of it.
ALSO, if you've turned your furnace on make sure to replace your filter, I had to put vent filters in as well to help cut down on the dust and crud.
As annoying as it is, you should make a trip to the doctor to get checked out, because when I first got diagnosed with asthma I almost died because I had an episode that sent me to the emergency room where I got intubated so I could breath. Uncontrolled asthma is deadly. Please be careful and I hope you get feeling better soon.

As far as I know, peanut allergies generally present themselves in other ways then breathing problems. My daughters are both allergic to peanuts (but not any other nut as far as we can tell so far) and they always break out in hives. I would think if it was the peanuts, then you would be having other problems as well. That doesn't mean that it is not other allergens that are causing the problems however. My husband is allergic to sage brush and pecan pollen which causes his asthma to flare up and he always has more symptoms when we get weather in from areas that have these plants when their pollen is floating around. If you are interested in being tested again for allergies other then the typical pet and dust things, our doctor's office has a wonderful allergy specialist that we can recommend. Chances are that if you were still smoking, you would be feeling a lot worse then you do but your mind still reverts back to that comfort. You could always try the OTC allergy medicines to see if that helps before you go to the doctor. It will at least eliminate one possibility.

I can't say if it's the peanuts or not, but I know I went for a walk last night & came home wheezing. And I haven't needed my inhaler in months. My guess is it's something in the air. I doubt it has anything to do with quitting smoking either. It sounds like you are trying to convince yourself it's OK to smoke a little, since you still have asthma when you are not smoking. That, obviously, is up to YOU. I don't know how they test for allergies now, but when I had my allergy test many years ago they did not test for food allergies. You may need a separate test for those to see if you are allergic to peanuts.

It very well could be the peanut/peanut butter, or it could be the pollen, seasonal allergies and that sort of thing. I know as I age my allergies in general just keep getting worse. I seem to develop a new symptom every few years. So, it could be that. Right now I am miserable because of my allergies. Mold and Pollen are horrible, especially with the wind blowing it around for the last couple of days. Now that it is raining it is the pressure in the sinuses.

I smoked in the past, but it was purely a social smoking thing. I did smoke a little more at various times during my early twenties, usually a particularly stressful semester at school. But it wasn't enough to take control of me, because whenever I decided that was enough, I could stop. I haven't had one in years now.

My parents both smoked when I was a toddler. Apparently, my dad thought my mom had quit when I was born, but she was still smoking in the bathroom and flushing the cig butt down the toilet. I caught her smoking one and was just at that age where I would talk about whatever I saw. She was afraid that I would say something around my dad and she quit cold turkey. My dad still smokes. But has cut down alot since I had my daughter (the first few months we stayed with them). He doesn't smoke in the house at all now. He tries at least once a year to quit. In fact, he is trying again now. I am sure that being around the S. hand smoke so much of my life is the reason, I am like this. My other sister just had to go on an inhaler recently because she is prone to bronchitis. She is in her mid-thirties.

This is something that can just be building up over time. Get in to your doctor and get referred to a specialist to combat it. Good Luck!

CONGRATULATIONS on quiting! Its a long hard road to travel. As far as the asthma, ar you taking anything to prevent your symptoms or just using the rescue inhaler? Mold has been horrible - I am extremly allergic to that and a multitude of other things. Is this your first child? I had no allerigies of any kind until I had my first. I worked in a garden center for 12 years with out a problem and as soon as I became pregnant my body just gave up and decided to become allergic to everything, pollens, molds, all kinds of food. My son was born with asthma and severe allergies to eggs and peanuts as well as outdoor allergens. I would make an appt with an allergist to help get your asthma under control and you will feel better. Also you may check into seeing a chiropracter - they can work wonders. Good luck to you and I hope you feel better soon

First of all, I want to congratulate you on quiting. I have never smoked myself, but I do know that it can be extremely hard to do so. My son has asthma, and his isn't that bad, and we haven't found what he has "contact" allergies to, but we do know of a few things that he seems to have sensitivities to. Anyway, his asthma has been acting up a bit more lately. I try to check the allergy index at least once or twice a week, it gives you the past 3-5 days allergy counts, and forecasts the next few days so that I know what to expect. You may want to check with a local allergy index for a couple of days and see if your asthma is related to something in the air. Then you would be able to more accurately pinpoint or dismiss the possibility of a peanut allergy. Also, if you haven't been checked in a while for your allergies, you could get checked again. My son's allergist has told me that you can pick up an allergy, or lose one, at anytime in your life, something that may not have bothered you before could now be an allergy. I hope this helps, and again, good for you for quiting smoking!

my kids have more wheezing this time of year. It could be the higher pollen and mold with the rain right now. If your inhaler isn't helping much you may need to go to the Dr and get a stronger one for a few weeks. Congrats on quitting smoking. Not sure about the peanut thing since you haven't had problems with eating them before. Try to eat something else for a few days and see if that helps and if it happens to get better then try peanut butter when you feel really good and see if you start wheezing again.

Keep in mind, having kids changes everything. I was never allergic to anything!!!! After my son was born, I started having seasonal allergies (every year it gets worse!!--5 years now). Then two years ago my daughter was born, and now I'm allergic to soy, pecan, walnuts and of course really bad seasonal allergies (spring & fall).

So just because you weren't allergic to something a few years ago, you might be now. Also my son has allergies and it causes him to wheeze, and this is the time of year that it starts up.

Hope you get better,
D.

Hi Carrie,
I was never a smoker, but I do have mild asthma, and every time the weather gets really damp or there is a ton of pollen in the air, I have to hit the inhaler a little more. Not that this is very scientific, of course! You might also try changing brands of PB (we love Skippy Natural) as it seems to have less stuff in it. It could be the way it is processed, too.

Good for you for quitting! Remember, it can take a while for your body to adjust, so although you got a lot fo the crud out, you may still be adjusting.

Good luck, and good for you!

Hi Carrie,
It is possible that you developed a sudden allergy to something new. My Asthma has been bad lately, I have had 2 respiratory infections in a month in a half. I used to smoke also and I quit 5 years ago right before I got pregnant with my daughter, overall I feel a lot better now, but you do feel worse at first, but it sounds like you already went through that. I think the leaf dust has caused my daughter and I to have our allergy attacks of late. As far as the peanut butter goes you really could have developed an allergy to it, I suddenly developed an allergy to cloves at about age 22, I was eating a piece of ham and all the sudden my tongue swelled up and I was talking funny. People also smoke clove cigarettes this is even worse for me it, just the S. hand smoke in the air causes my air way to constrict and I can't breathe and my chest hurts, so it could very well be an allergy. I know you don't want to go to the doctor about it, but it maybe the best thing especially if your inhaler isn't helping. I usually only use my inhaler about once or twice a year because it is controlled with allergy medicine and Singulair, but I have used it about 4 times this month alone. Hope this helps and you feel better soon. Congratulations on becoming a former smoker, it will get a lot easier as time passes and your son will be healthier for it, I got chronic bronchitis at age 16 for no reason other than my Dad smoked, near as I can figure, then I just went and followed right along in his footsteps. So good for you, and I really hope you figure out what is wrong. Good luck!
M.

maybe your smoking all those years masked an allergy problem? I would see your dr and check it out.

The only experience I have had is through my husband. He has had asthma all of his life and he is allergic to lots of foods such as fish, citrus fruits, sesame seeds, and peanuts. When he eats any of the following he will have a severe allergic reaction. As I said I don't alot about other people's reactions with their asthma but my husband's is bad. We also have a grandson that has asthma that is allergic to fish and we haven't had any other problems so far. I hope this is some help for you.