Anyone experience back pain from Allergic reaction?

[Lou]

I have had a soy allergy for the last two years and as you know its challenging to eat anything that doesnt have soy in it. Lately i have been having back pain in the area where my kidney are. I went to the urologist to get checked out thinking it was kidney stones or something related. Everything came back clear and i was told it is not my kidneys.

I have been having this constant soreness in my lower flanks. Just curious if anyone else has experience with this

Any input would be helpful!

Thanks

Lou

[SilverLining]

I've never heard of that as a symptom of allergies.  I'm no doctor though.

[CMdeux]

CONSTANT pain, no.

This kind of flank pain also sounds too high up to be the uterine smooth muscle, which would be typical of cramping during a major allergic reaction.

Just curious-- how were you diagnosed with your soy allergy?  What happens when you eat soy?

[Lou]

My allergies are complicated, i started having chest discomfort and arm pressure which started my medical journey. After ruling out heart conditions, i went to the GI dr thinking it was related to reflux. Upper Gi showed i have Eosoniphilic Esophagitis, which is triggered often by food allergies. Went to the allergist and did a panel test which showed im very allergic to soy, hops, cherries, and nuts. When i avoid these foods i feel a lot better.

Just cant explain the back pain, maybe its caffeine thats bothering me? Food allergies are very frustrating and soy is the worst. I eat alot of organic food which helps avoid soy.

Thanks for the replies

Lou

[CMdeux]

Lou-- caffeine might really be the culprit.  I'm trying to recall where I read it, and it was MANY years ago, but caffeine (or maybe it was coffee??) was implicated in a particular type of kidney stone at one point in time, I think.

Allergy-- even EE, which is notorious for producing PAIN as a major symptom-- would be a really unusual explanation for this one, I tihnk.

[jschwab]

Just prior to my recent new anaphylactic reaction to almonds, I had been having flank pain and a very uneasy feeling in my left abdomen for a long time. I was positive it was kidney stones, actually, and missed a big event to go to the doctor and get it checked out. It takes a lot to get me to go to the doctor - it was pretty bad pain. I also had uterine cramping and lower back pain (like back labor if you have ever heard of that or experienced it) All of a sudden, it all just disappeared and I assumed I'd passed a stone but not I think I was wrong. Thinking back, it was at exactly the moment we ran out of almond products and I stopped eating them for a week and a half, too lazy to go to the supermarket. When I finally went to the store to stock up, I had some almond milk and ended up in the ER. I have no idea if any of it's related but it certainly seemed so. My other food allergies came the same way, with some months of gastro distress followed by an anaphylactic reaction. This time the gastro stuff was higher up and I also felt it in my back which is why I thought it was kidney stones.

[Ra3chel]

Pain can refer in weird ways--you might ask your GI doc if they've ever heard of esophageal or GI pain referring to back or shoulders. It doesn't seem like that big a reach, but that's just a mostly-uneducated guess.

[Lou]

Jschwab thank you for sharing your story, im thinking my back pain is allergy related as well. Its amazing to me how wide spread allergy reactions can spread. Im still trying to eliminate my trouble foods from my diet, unfortunately eliminating soy is very difficult. Thanks for the info

[luark]

I have often had pain in my kidney area from food reactions.  My food allergies may be different from the classical IgE-mediated kind that show up on skin or blood tests (see my post on desensitization for delayed food allergies).
In 2005 when I was going through a lot of food reactions, my back hurt so much that I couldn't sit up for more than a few seconds.  I spent weeks, mostly in bed.
I've also had lower back pain from food reactions. 
My guess about the kidney area pain is that the food reactions involve immune complexes etc. that irritate the kidneys. 

[jenavy21]

Just throwing this out there......  I also have a soy allergy along with peanut and sesame.   But I also get kidney stones....  I cannot tell you how many times they have done an US and even a cat scan that showed nothing.....  then few days later repeat and stone too big to pass.......  I have had to have one stone removed and another procedure where they blast the kidney.  I don't know if there is a connection between kidney and allergy.  I know I had surgery for stones before the allergy. 

Just throwing it out there...  Could be two separate things.  And even though they didn't see anything, doesn't mean much unfortunately.  I guess if you have had multiple scans in a row and they see nothing that might be something different...  zHope that helps some. 

[luark]

I also have a soy allergy along with peanut and sesame.   But I also get kidney stones....  I cannot tell you how many times they have done an US and even a cat scan that showed nothing.....  then few days later repeat and stone too big to pass.......

That's interesting.  I've had ct scans and ultrasound for kidney stones, they found nothing. 
I've had microscopic blood in my urine every time it was checked since 2001.  I got it checked out, no reason found.
But it's possible that an allergic reaction would cause the kidneys to hurt, if there are also stones.  Maybe I have grit in my kidneys. 
I've been getting Xolair shots for my allergies.  Xolair is IgG antibodies to IgE antibodies.  The Xolair shots also give me mild back pain in my kidney area.
I suppose Xolair produces immune complexes, of IgG bound to IgE.  So it might be those immune complexes that cause kidney pain somehow. 
IgG immune complexes are a protective mechanism against allergy.  The IgG antibodies bind to food antigens and prevent them from reaching the mast cells.  Even if that protective mechanism doesn't prevent IgE-mediated allergy symptoms, you're probably still making those immune complexes to some extent. 
The Xolair shots also cause me mild pain around my small intestines, and queasiness and loss of appetite - which is another reason to think I do have significant IgE in my GI tract. 

[jenavy21]

The last time I had gone in August 2013.  Significant blood in urine to turn color to red hue.  I know the pain know it is stones.  Ultra Sound, because I couldn't stay well hydrated from renal colic causing vomitting, showed nothing significant.  So ordered CT scan.  CT scan showed two very small stones and that was it, but not causing the pain.  3 days later ended up in hospital because pain so severe.   Now keep in mind the entire time they were still giving pain meds, because they saw the blood and knew something was off but couldn't point to it.  Pain meds couldn't touch it.  Hospital orders CT.  Stone was 8 to 10 mm.  I was in surgery 2 days later for removal.  They said it had left kidney but caught between kidney and ureter and hidden for first CT.  And moved a little further for 2nd CT.  When he removed it ended up being a hershey kiss shaped jagged stone that was over 10 mm. 

[withnail floyd]

hi  i get back pain after coming into contact with cinimon ginger spices etc as my body reacts to the allergy and produces antibodies which attack my system and thus increasing the toxicity of my blood and increasing my ph levels which in turn give my kidneys a pounding  having a food allergy test done this week plus a range of tests at the doctors to get the right dietary advice but definitely food allergy so its not the ginger, cinnamon, spices etc but the bodies reaction to the food that pains me

[Macabre]

Welcome!

I'm glad you posted. However, I have to say that is not how food allergies affect your body.

[1whitehorse1]

Hi, thank goodness I found this page... I wanted to add that when I was eating gluten (I'm gluten intolerant and have been gluten free since 2004 - never got tested for celiac at the time, and can't now since my antibodies don't show up, I'd have to start eating gluten again, no thanks), I would experience IC in my bladder, and it made me feel like I had to pee all the time. If I had to sit for a long time, I would feel lower back pain and flank pain - I once went to the doctor asking them to test me for a UTI, at the start of my University degree and we had to sit in plastic chairs for 3 hours during a lecture, but I didn't have one - it was the back pain mimicking the same feeling.

I also had a host of other things that came with active gluten intolerance - hormone imbalances, major PMS, depression, anxiety, irritable bowel, colon spasms, chronic constipation, gall bladder pains, insane acid reflux, gas, bloating, weight gain, medication sensitivities/allergies, food sensitivities other than gluten (but they were caused by gluten, now I can eat them all just fine), increased respiratory allergies, itchy dry sinus, headaches, leaky gut syndrome, candida, mild knee pains, I had to use more antibiotics because I would get secondary infections easier and they wouldn't go away without antibiotics because my immune system was so shot and all my tissues were so inflamed, a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. All this by the time I was 24.

I once had chronic back pain when I had an allergic reaction to an internal feminine product (Canesten, avoid it at all costs), and that persisted for just over 3 months. I also stopped eating gluten after that incident, and it helped me recover back to normal and shortly after, I was cycling every day at age 25 and 26, 1-2 years after stopping gluten completely. I had a lot of great years health-wise after I stopped eating gluten.

But now, I have a resurgence of similar issues plaguing me at age 36.

Now, I own a hypoallergenic cat, but I am originally quite allergic to cats, and so I think that my current back pains and muscle aches are mostly due to my immune system being activated over a period of 4 years. I have chronic itchy eyes, itchy mouth palate (to the point of having opens sores on my palate), itchy and dry sinuses, more anxiety than usual, occasional mild depression, more fatigue than usual, poor sleep, irritable bowels, have trouble waking up in the morning, and I can feel my lungs wheeze when I wake up from sleep first thing in the morning. So yeah, not great. I want to get rid of the cat, but my husband is attached to her now, so that's going to be a tough change to make... So I have no peer reviewed research to support the fact that my cat is causing my back pains, since I think that this is what it is due to, but now I found this site, and it confirms my suspicions. Always leads right back to the immune system, don't it? I'm an asthmatic since childhood, and its been inactive, until I got a cat, pretty dumb idea. And these allergy symptoms to my cat are mimicking the systemic allergic reaction I had to gluten, until I stopped eating it. Crazy. Sometimes I think I am going crazy because of it. I can't explain what's happening to my doctors. So many 'normal' tests come back, that something must be amiss. X-rays are fine apparently, I don't have crohn's or colitis according to my colonoscopy. But the allergy doctor said, "Get rid of the cat". I think that when the immune system is activated negatively, it prevents health problems from completely resolving themselves due to the prolonged and constant inflammation, for example, my lower back issues get really pronounced when I am having an allergic reaction that is sustained and chronic. My body has no way to remove the inflammation. What do you think?