Egg sensitivity: Is it the white, the yolk or both?

Kilt · Post by **Kilt** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 1:11 pm

I'm not sure I have any food intolerances, and currently being in week 15 of a 40+ week budesonide taper it's hard to tell about anything underneath the budesonide "mask". But I'm beginning to be somewhat suspicious of eggs.

For those of you who have egg sensitivity or intolerance, have you been able to further pinpoint the problem to the white or yolk, or do you think the whole egg is the problem? I ask because some foods like mayonnaise claim only to use the yolk, while other foods like some gluten-free breads claim to be made only with egg whites.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 4:14 pm

Kilt you are quite correct to be suspicious of chicken eggs, many here have identified those as a problem food, including myself. For me its a guaranteed sensitivity. For the longest time I have simply avoided them. Recently I have been substituting chicken eggs for duck eggs and WOW I can now have a breakfast with eggs. Frankly duck eggs not only taste and cook like chicken eggs, but they really do taste far far better, richer and more yolk. According to the nutritionist they have a lot more vitamins and omega 3’s. Overall I am just thankful to be able to have a egg for breakfast again.

Now for a more technical question for Tex, Polly and the other long term experts. For me chicken eggs were not an issue until really I started taking the flu shot in the mid 90’s. From what I remember, the antibodies for many of the flu shots are grown in chicken eggs. So here is he question, have we just introduced a vector with the flu shots for sensitizing many to chicken eggs as we have used the eggs and the related proteins to grow the elements used in the manufacture of the flu vaccine for which the purpose is to sensitize the immune system to those proteins (flu included) ?

Post by **tex** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 5:49 pm

Hi Joe,

Good to "see" you. That's a very good question. Now that you raise it, I wonder if the flu shot (or taking the jab while our MC is active) is indeed the reason why many of us are sensitive to eggs. I don't have any problems with eggs and I eat one or two every day, but I've never had a flu shot. Hmmmm. I believe I'll set up a poll about that to see what the consensus might be.

Kilt,

EnteroLab tests only the egg albumen (the white) in chicken eggs, because that contains the primary protein in eggs to which most people react. It's theoretically possible to be sensitive to the yolk also (or instead), but that's apparently uncommon.

Tex

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:20 pm

When my MC was starting I had numerous vaccinations at once (chicken pox, flu, hepatitis etc and other travel vaccinations).
I am ok with eggs, so long as they are free range and the feed to the chickens is low gluten/low soy based.

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 8:24 pm

Kilt, in line with what Joe said some people do ok with quail eggs but not chicken eggs.

Kilt · Post by **Kilt** » Wed Oct 24, 2018 10:24 pm

Thanks for the suggestions about duck and quail eggs, though I don't know where I'd buy them. I do have wild turkeys and pheasants on my property, but I've never come across any eggs.

For those who like technical things and words, this caught my eye:

tex wrote:EnteroLab tests only the egg albumen (the white) in chicken eggs

I did not know that "albumen" is a synonym for egg white, but I did know that "albumin" is a class of proteins. It turns out that albumen contains several albumins, the primary one being ovalbumin. However, the main protein culprit in egg allergy is not ovalbumin -- it's ovomucoid. I don't know whether the ovomucoid in albumen is an albumin.

More tragically, I don't know why I'm reading and writing about such things at midnight while munching on corn chips and drinking warm water. Such is the life of an insomniac retiree with MC, I suppose.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 2:05 am

Hi Tex, thanks for setting up the poll, it will be interesting to see if there are any trends.
As suspected the flu shot does contain egg protein. This is noted by a CDC article regarding those with egg allergies to avoid the flu vaccines.

https://acaai.org/allergies/types/food- ... gg-allergy

“Because of this, they contain a small amount of egg proteins, such as ovalbumin”

This is interesting. Yes its a small amount of ovalbumin, but injecting those proteins directly into the body from what I remember of this topic is a bad idea. Others here with more knowledge in this area can probably help guide this topic.

For me at least looking at correlation of events, the egg intolerance started about the time that I took the first shots. This may very well be coincidence, but it does make me wonder.

brandy · Post by **brandy** » Thu Oct 25, 2018 5:44 am

Hi Kilt,

Sometimes you can pick up duck or quail eggs at specialty grocery stores (ethnic grocery stores) or farmers markets.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Sun Oct 28, 2018 2:30 pm

Hi Kilt, here is a link to a site run by “Local Harvest” that has many listings in Connecticut for places that sell duck eggs.

https://www.localharvest.org/search.jsp ... =Duck+eggs

Kilt at the top of the screen you can not only change what you are searching for, but also in the box with the word “Near” in it put your town then a comma followed by CT. That will narrow the search down to places near you.

Example: Bristol, CT

I put in Bristol just as an example. Of note I am just north of you in Southern NH.

For others here any town and state in the US works fine. You can also adjust the product you are looking for in the other box to the left of the location

Hopefully this helps

As a side note Kilt I also tried locally raised totally free range chicken eggs. No artificial feed, soy or antibiotics, hormones; just chickens wandering the grounds making eggs. Unfortunately those didn’t help, they were good tasting though. With that said I prefer the flavor of duck eggs, they are just richer and do have more yolk.

Martha · Post by **Martha** » Mon Oct 29, 2018 2:42 pm

Well, this is disconcerting. I was planning to get a flu shot today after work, until I read this thread last night.

I've gotten flu shots the last several years because I work two days a week at a daycare, and I haven't had a problem, but I was only concerned that the shot might set off a flare. Now I find that it might set off an egg sensitivity!

I can eat eggs, and would hate to lose that. I have some thinking and weighing of consequences to do, I fear.

Sigh. MC is the pits.

Martha

Kilt · Post by **Kilt** » Mon Oct 29, 2018 4:11 pm

Joe, thanks for that listing of local harvests. I might investigate some of those aside from eggs.

I think we should be clear about the flu vaccine risk. The article Joe linked is about egg "allergy". What most people on this site are usually concerned about is a dietary "sensitivity" or "intolerance" to eggs, which is different from an allergy. The symptoms of allergy will probably hit within an hour: watery eyes, stuffed nose/head, hives or, worst of all, anaphylactic shock.

The official CDC guidelines are that even people with egg allergies should have flu shots. However, if your allergy is severe -- more than hives -- you should have the shot in a doctor's office or hospital where antihistamine and anaphylaxis treatment is available. The only case under these guidelines where a flu shot is contraindicated seems to be when there has been a "previous severe allergic reaction to flu vaccine, regardless of the component suspected of being responsible for the reaction . . . ."

As to the statistical risk of anaphylaxis, the linked guidelines say: "A recent CDC study found the rate of anaphylaxis after all vaccines is 1.31 per one million vaccine doses given."

I haven't read anywhere that flu vaccine can cause an egg allergy or egg intolerance, but I haven't tried to research that point. Perhaps someone else has some information.

Joefnh · Post by **Joefnh** » Tue Oct 30, 2018 2:29 pm

Kilt, thank you for the great summary regarding the risks of the flu shot, which is small. My postulation was based on coincidence, as we know coincidence does not mean causation.

I think its great that we are having a dialogue about this issue as it does seem that there is a statistically significant population here that has an issue (intolerance) with chicken eggs. At least in the main literature, MC is not associated with an egg intolerance. Good notes Kilt regarding allergy vs intolerance, there is a difference.

In my earlier post I listed that article as purely a note that there are egg proteins, in small concentrations, that is a part of the standard flu vaccine, thats what caught my eye. It should be noted Kilt that the studies that have been done regarding the flu vaccine look at an allergy developing, not an intolerance, that does not appear to have been studied; thats another reason why I am bringing this up.

Kilt your correct there are no notes in the general searches that talk about developing an intolerance in relation to the standard flu vaccine. Although we need to be careful here, first the discussion here is dealing with a very limited population, which are those with MC and then we look at those in this limited population that might be affected by the flu shot containing the egg proteins.

Like you I could not find any literature that looks at this narrow of a population and within that narrow population looking at a single intolerance. Simply put this is a very small & narrow sample group that generally lacks research on multiple topics. There is however a large body of literature that looks at the general population that comes to the conclusion that the flu shot does not affect those with an allergy to eggs; but these articles do not study the development of intolerances.

Martha I would not worry about the flu shot, especially if you ask for a ‘safe’ flu shot.
As far as a flu shot that is safe and free of egg, soy, mercury (thimesol) its called Flublok and is widely available.

Overall I am not against vaccinations at all, especially as I have Myasthenia Gravis, I need to keep things like the flu suppressed.

Thanks again Kilt for the clarification and for your notes on this topic.