How to Detect and Diagnose A Shellfish Allergy

How to Detect and Diagnose A Shellfish Allergy
by Allie Moxley

you feel like you may have a slight allergy, next time you are scarfing down some
delicious Alaska crab or oysters with your friends and family, look for the following
symptoms.

One sign of a subtle shellfish allergy is feeling a tingling sensation on your tongue. This
can be accompanied by your tongue, month, throat and teeth beginning to itch or
swell. You might look for other skin symptoms, like feeling super-flushed, blushing, or
experiencing varying degrees of swelling, blushing, or hives. If your eyes become red,
swollen, or start to itch, this is something to watch out for as well, along with
scratchy throat and shortness of breath or wheezing. There are also lots of internal
symptoms relating to the digestive tract. Obviously, if you experience diarrhea or you
vomit, this is a sign of an allergy! But subtler symptoms like nausea, bloating, and
gas, these might be the signs of a slight allergy.

The one thing to keep in mind here before you swear off eating all shellfish ever again
- because the good stuff from the oceans of Alaska can be pretty hard to resist - is
that some symptoms of allergies can also be symptoms that the food was not
prepared well. You should ask yourself a few questions before self-diagnosing a
shellfish allergy. How long after you ate the shellfish did the symptoms start? If it was
6 hours after you ate those clams, then it very well could have been something else
that caused your symptoms. Similarly, ask yourself if anyone else who ate the food
had a similar reaction - in this case it is likely that the culprit was the food itself as
opposed to as a category of food.

About The Author

Allie Moxley

Looking for great information on everything about ? ASMI, the Alaska
Seafood Marketing Institute, is the best resource on the web for tips on Alaska's
ocean bounty.

Check out the for more information on Alaska Seafood!

What are the symptoms of a food
allergy? When asked, most people will
respond that food allergy symptoms
generally include reactions like being
unable to breathe, breaking out into
hives, having your throat swell up,
and going into anaphylactic shock.
These are all certainly symptoms, but
if you have a subtler allergy to
something like shellfish, you might
not experience any of these. But
eating shellfish when you have a
subtler allergy to it still is not the best
idea - especially when there are so
many other delicious wild, Alaska fish
that you could be eating instead. So if

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The content on
this website is for educational purposes only. Please consult with your physician before using natural
remedies and before making any drastic changes to your diet or exercise program.