What foods should you avoid with allergic rhinitis?

For patients with allergic rhinitis, the first priority should be to avoid foods that are known to trigger their own allergies. Then they should try to avoid high histamine and highly irritating categories. During the immune sensitive period, they should also pay attention to foods that have cross-reactions with their own inhaled allergens.

A while ago, I saw a girl who suffers from allergic rhinitis every autumn. She was found to be allergic to Artemisia pollen. In previous years, she only remembered to wear a mask to avoid pollen. A while ago, she was greedy and ate half of a freshly picked peach. She sneezed nearly twenty times that day. My eyes were so swollen that I could hardly open them. When I came for a follow-up check-up, I learned that there are cross-allergens between Artemisia pollen and fruits such as peaches, mangoes, and kiwis. Eating it when your own immunity is in a highly sensitive state can easily directly trigger allergic reactions.

Many people say that patients with rhinitis must not eat cold food or touch seafood. In fact, this is not so absolute. I have met two completely opposite patients. One gets a stuffy and runny nose as soon as he drinks iced coffee, but nothing happens when he switches to warm coffee. The essence is that his nasal mucosa is extremely sensitive to cold stimulation. Cold food is equivalent to directly passing a "trigger switch" to the highly reactive nasal mucosa.” ； Another patient loved to eat ice since childhood and had rhinitis for three or four years. His symptoms had never been aggravated by eating ice, so there was no need to avoid it at all. The same goes for seafood. As long as you are not allergic to foreign proteins, there will be no problem if you eat fully cooked fresh seafood. On the contrary, stale seafood that has been left out for two or three days will increase the histamine content. Even healthy people may develop urticaria after eating it. Rhinitis patients will most likely make the nasal mucosa swell even more.

There are also many people who always think that eating spicy food can clear their noses when they suffer from rhinitis. In fact, this is a temporary illusion caused by the stimulation of capsaicin. When the stimulation passes, the congestion and edema of the nasal mucosa will only become more serious, and the symptoms of runny nose and stuffy nose will last longer. Friends who like to drink should also pay more attention. Alcohol itself will dilate blood vessels. Once the blood vessels in the nasal mucosa, which is already in a state of edema, are dilated, they will become blocked and cannot even sleep well. Last week, a young man complained to me that he went to drink a friend's wedding wine because he had rhinitis. That night, he was so blocked that he had to sit on the sofa for half a night before he could barely breathe.

In fact, you don’t have to be afraid to eat or touch something just because you have rhinitis. If you are really unsure, you can go for a food allergen screening first and draw a clear red line on your food taboos. The rest depends on your reaction after eating. If you don’t feel sneezing or nasal congestion after eating, then eat what you should. After all, nutrition keeps up with your immunity, which makes you less likely to get rhinitis.