Allergic reaction to grapefruit: Scleroderma

[REMINDER TO FIRST-TIME VISITORS: Be sure to read the oldest posts first. They describe the "-itis" problems I have faced and the main solution. The later posts deal with details.]

About five years ago, I was in my worst condition. All the inflammatory problems were in full bloom. In addition to the arthritis, bursitis, tendonitis, iritis, and colitis, I had a bouquet of skin problems (dermatitis). Over the years, the eczema and the rosacea have faded away, almost completely. As they disappeared, another problem came to the forefront: In the caliper region between the nose and mouth, on each side, a thick, red section of skin appeared. The top layer of that area was very dry and cracked like a tiny mosaic. These symptoms came and went on their own schedule, and I could not find any correlation between this condition and my other skin problems.

Provisionally, I now know that the condition was scleroderma. The cause appears to have been a plain allergic reaction (possibly independent of the leaky-gut problem) to grapefruit. I was eating a lot of grapefruit (inexpensive, tastes good, easy to prepare and store). As soon as I stopped eating grapefruit, the problem began to fade. Now, two weeks after beginning this new experiment, the thickness has diminished by half, the redness is fading steadily, and the cracking is almost gone. I have hope that the condition, now requiring little attention from me, might go away completely.

My skin, all over my face and neck, still remains extremely sensitive to abrasion. I never wear a hat, I must frequently adjust the position of my eyeglasses on my nose so that the skin underneath the support pads will not thicken, and I must be very careful not to let a blanket rub against my face when I am sleeping. Still, I would say my skin problems are more than 99% gone, in terms of how much attention they require.

Working on the possibility that my allergic reaction might arise from all citrus fruit, I am now avoiding oranges and tangerines as well as grapefruit. Perhaps in a month or so, I will test oranges and tangerines individually, using the standard test Dr. McDougall has described for his Elimination Diet.

So, now my general rule of foods that I can eat is: Any root, any vegetable, and any fruit (including gourds) except citrus fruit and those fruits, like figs and tomatoes, which contain a lot of seeds. (I eat no animal products, except honey; and no foods made from seeds.)

Burgess Laughlin

Author of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, www.reasonversusmysticism.com/

1. MY HISTORY OF INFLAMMATION

I am a layman, not a physician or a scientist. The therapy I am describing in these posts helped me. I don't know whether it will work for anyone else. I don't fully understand even why it worked for me.

Below (and continually updated) are the -itis (Greek for "inflammation") and other problems I have experienced, and their year of first appearance (as well as I can remember):
- Bronchitis (c. 1957, age 13), many episodes until about age 25.
- Pneumothoraces, cause unknown (18 episodes, c. 1962-2009).
- Dermatitis: eczema, rosacea, and/or seborrhea (c. 1962); and subcutaneous acne (c. 2000).
- Pollen allergy in spring, early summer (c. 1970), gone about two years after starting anti-itis diet.
- Heart disease (clogged arteries) symptoms (c. 1972 - 1974, ended by very low-fat, omnivorous but mostly whole plant-food, Pritikin diet).
- Iritis and conjunctivitis (c. 1974), gone about five years after starting anti-itis diet.
- Tendonitis (c. 1989), gone about a year after starting anti-itis diet and doing daily posture exercises.
- Bursitis (c. 1994), gone about a year after starting anti-itis diet and doing daily posture exercises.

- Tachycardia and arrhythmia, cause unknown, in four episodes: (1) c. Dec. 1997, age 53, stopped chemically in ER; (2) with atrial fibrillation, Dec. 2010, age 66, stopped with e-cardioversion; (3) with afib, March 2012, age 67, stopped spontaneously in July; (4) with atrial flutter, March 2013, age 68, stopped spontaneously after 9 months (3 months after starting Vitamin D3).
- Emphysema discovered (1995), but probably started 25 years earlier (smoking).

- Gout-like pains in right foot (1997), gone a year after starting anti-itis diet.
- Gum inflammation (1997), gone several years after starting anti-itis diet.
- Arthritis (c. 1998), gone about a year after starting anti-itis diet and doing daily posture exercises.
- Acid reflux (c. 1998), gone a few months after starting anti-itis diet.
- Colitis (c. 1999), gone a month after starting anti-itis diet.

[Began an evolving anti-itis diet, c. 2002]
- Hemoptysis (June 2014), probably caused by coughing (from mild spring allergy symptoms) that ruptured an artery in my left lung, the one most damaged by emphysema.

Some of the -itis problems were episodic (for example, the iritis appeared every year or two in one eye or the other). Some were continuous (for example, the dermatitis). As the years passed, the problems accumulated in number and intensity. By the year 2000, I felt like I was living in a nightmare of -itis problems. In that year, I had arthritis, bursitis, colitis, dermatitis, iritis, and tendonitis. I was shopping for a wheelchair and trying to decide whether to buy a manual or an electric model.

Two physicians (out of five I consulted) have identified most of the symptoms as fitting a leaky-gut syndrome. Apparently the speculation is that holes in the intestine (perhaps caused by antibiotics taken when I was 18, following my first lung surgery) allow substances to leak into the blood stream; the immune system reacts to those substances as if they were viruses; and, while the immune system tries to kill the supposed "viruses," it also inflames various tissues and organs (skin, eyes, tendons, muscles, joints, and colon).

Burgess Laughlin
Author of The Power and the Glory: The Key Ideas and Crusading Lives of Eight Debaters of Reason vs. Faith, www.reasonversusmysticism.com/