severe stomach pain

[GoingNuts]

Welcome Kaye. I have absolutely no idea, but I hope you can find some answers because that sounds absolutely awful.  The only thing that rang a bell was the pickle/cucumber thing, because my mom was the same. I assumed that the vinegar neutralized something she couldn't tolerate. 

I hope someone here has some good advice for you.   

[spacecanada]

I am sorry to hear you are in pain. I sometimes get debilitating abdominal pain from food allergies. Have you seen an allergist?  Have you kept a food diary of everything you eat, when, and timing of symptoms.

[Liz]

Hi all,

I just wanted to chime in and say I have the exact sensitivity that Kevin and others here have described. I'm American, and after moving to Thailand for a year, I discovered that I cannot eat wood ear mushrooms without horrible stomach cramps and diarrhea for the next several hours, so I've learned to avoid them. I learned that there are also many other names for them (and their related mushroom cousins), so when you're reading a menu try to keep an eye out particularly for:

wood ear mushroom
black mushroom
Chinese mushroom
het hu nu (this one is a Thai transliteration)
cloud ear mushroom
black fungus
jelly ear mushroom
tree ear mushroom
Jew's ear mushroom (yikes)
cloud ear mushroom

Hope this is helpful!

[Roger Massey]

Hi All

Just to add another sufferer to the list. I too am intolerant to Wood Ear mushroom. It took me a while to work out why I used to feel so bad after eating certain chinese dishes. The pain used to be so bad that I had to go to bed to lie down.  Finally I narrowed down it down to the wood ear mushroom and did a scientific experiment just eating a small piece in isolation. Almost immediate stomach cramps and a feeling of nausea.

I came across this thread today because I am suffering from my own carelessness. I ate just one dim sum dumpling which unbeknownst to me contained some wood ear mushroom (later confirmed by my wife). Same immediate effect and symptoms. Thankfully subsiding a bit now. It is odd that it so specific to this mushroom because I have no problems with any other type of mushroom, and no other food sensitivities.

As well as the stir fried pork dishes, the wood ear mushroom is often found in Buddhist vegetarian dishes (as found in Chinese restaurants).

I found an article on the probable cause of the sensitivity in this case report from some Japanese researchers:

Can't post the link but google the title:

A case of anaphylaxis due to alpha-mannosidase from Auricularia

Tomoko Kobayashi  1 , Tomonobu Ito  2 , Chizu Egusa  1 , Tatsuo Maeda  1 , Namiko Abe  1 , Yukari Okubo  1 , Ryoji Tsuboi  1

Hope this helps

Best regards
Roger

[GoingNuts]

That is so interesting Roger. I'm so sorry you're suffering. Thank you for sharing.

[PurpleCat]

There is not rhyme or reason to allergies sometimes.  One of my kids is allergic to one walnut species and not another.