How To Get Over Aspirin Allergy

ilovethesea

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Looking for suggestions on how to tackle my aspirin allergy.

The last time I took 2 aspirin (pill format, without dissolving) I had a severe allergy attack of sneezing/runny nose that lasted for hours.

After that I tried dissolving it in water and not consuming the settled bits, but it still gave me allergic symptoms, just not as bad.

I figured the allergies were from the inactive ingredients, particularly starch since I seem to have a problem with all starchy foods. So I decided to order the pure animal aspirin. It just says acetylsalicylic acid on the label, nothing else: http://www.amazon.ca/Priority-Care-Aspi ... B0007A5DO6

I took 1/2 tsp in water a few hours ago, and lo and behold, it has given me severe allergic symptoms yet again. I am really ticked off having just ordered 4 bags of the stuff :x

I looked up what Ray said about this:
"I know people who had lifelong "aspirin allergy" who now use it regularly. I think part of it is the metabolic problems caused by PUFA and low thyroid function." Ray Peat

If this is true, how do I get over this aside from waiting 3 more years for the PUFA detox? Does this indicate I need even more thyroid than I'm taking now? (I do 2 Cytomels throughout the day + 1 Cynoplus at night.... I only have half my thyroid gland.)

What's weird is that I used to be able to tolerate the whole aspirin pills without a problem in the first few months of the Ray Peat diet last year, when I was on a lower thyroid dose (and a lower ratio - 4:1 instead of 2:1 that I take now). How could I develop a new allergy out of nowhere when my health is supposedly improved now?

Also, I noticed today that the 1/2 tsp of aspirin noticeably made me feel colder. Apparently this is stress hormones?
"When aspirin and niacinamide lower the temperature I think it's because they lower the stress hormones." Ray Peat

Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I just raise thyroid?
 

tara

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I don't know the answer, but a couple of thoughts:

1/2 a tsp seems like a very large dose (2-3g?), especially if you already seem to have an intolerance to aspirin. You could try a much smaller dose (eg 100mg) after one meal, and see if that is tolerable. If it is, you could work up gradually, with just 100mg at a time, after gradually more meals.

For some of us, feeling cold or warm doesn't tell us accurately whether our body temperature actually is cold or warm. You could measure and check you perception of this.
 
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ilovethesea

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tara said:
I don't know the answer, but a couple of thoughts:

1/2 a tsp seems like a very large dose (2-3g?), especially if you already seem to have an intolerance to aspirin. You could try a much smaller dose (eg 100mg) after one meal, and see if that is tolerable. If it is, you could work up gradually, with just 100mg at a time, after gradually more meals.

For some of us, feeling cold or warm doesn't tell us accurately whether our body temperature actually is cold or warm. You could measure and check you perception of this.

Ok I can try taking less and measuring temps again. No idea what the dosage even is - It's a 1 lb bag but I have no idea how to convert that into what a pill would be. Bad at math here! :D
 

loess

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I use that same brand of animal aspirin. 325 mg is roughly equivalent to 1/32 teaspoon.
 
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ilovethesea

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loess said:
I use that same brand of animal aspirin. 325 mg is roughly equivalent to 1/32 teaspoon.

Thanks! Ok I guess I WAY over estimated the dose. Oops!
 

Kenobi

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Hey, if you want the aspirin to dissolve better, sprinkle baking soda on it before you put the mug of aspirin in the microwave. I always do this with 1/4 tsp, and have no issue. You should do this once a day or twice MAX. The sign that you took too much aspirin would be ears ringing. A little bit is okay, it just means you took a little more aspirin than beneficial, it may have a little toxicity.
 
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ilovethesea

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Updating this post because I think I got over this.

This past week I did a home aspirin desensitization challenge.

Any time I took aspirin previously, I would get severe allergies - runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, yuck. This even happened with just 1 aspirin - either pill format or the pure animal aspirin powder. So I always gave up after one day. Even taking Benadryl or cypro would not fix it once the allergies started, I just had to wait them out.

This time I made sure to take the aspirin at night at the same time as my cyproheptadine. I took a higher dose than usual of the cypro (usually I do 1-2mg, but I went to 4mg). (Note: I am taking the pure powder aspirin.)

The first night, I was up in the middle of the night with a bad runny nose. I took more cypro. The next morning, I was fine.

Night 2 I took the same dose and less cypro. Surprisingly, I didn't get a reaction, just a few sniffles the next morning.

I kept going slowly like this each night, increasing aspirin dose and holding cypro steady at my usual low 1-2mg dose.

It seems to have worked because now I'm not getting allergies to aspirin at all - I got as high as 4 where I think I will stay for now! So it seems not to be such a big deal after all... just needed to build up the tolerance with the help of the cypro. Hope this helps anyone else who has this problem.
 

DaveFoster

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Updating this post because I think I got over this.

This past week I did a home aspirin desensitization challenge.

Any time I took aspirin previously, I would get severe allergies - runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, yuck. This even happened with just 1 aspirin - either pill format or the pure animal aspirin powder. So I always gave up after one day. Even taking Benadryl or cypro would not fix it once the allergies started, I just had to wait them out.

This time I made sure to take the aspirin at night at the same time as my cyproheptadine. I took a higher dose than usual of the cypro (usually I do 1-2mg, but I went to 4mg). (Note: I am taking the pure powder aspirin.)

The first night, I was up in the middle of the night with a bad runny nose. I took more cypro. The next morning, I was fine.

Night 2 I took the same dose and less cypro. Surprisingly, I didn't get a reaction, just a few sniffles the next morning.

I kept going slowly like this each night, increasing aspirin dose and holding cypro steady at my usual low 1-2mg dose.

It seems to have worked because now I'm not getting allergies to aspirin at all - I got as high as 4 where I think I will stay for now! So it seems not to be such a big deal after all... just needed to build up the tolerance with the help of the cypro. Hope this helps anyone else who has this problem.
Yesterday, I reacted to aspirin after going months at a gram dosage daily without a reaction. I thought anaphylaxis, but a 2 mg cyproheptadine dosage reduced throat swelling and made breathing and swallowing easier.
 

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