My mother is in the hospital with nightshade allergies, life threatening ones. She wanted to know what kind of reactions nightshades give people. And her doctor wouldn’t take my personal experiences, so I sent her some off the net.
What are my personal experiences? Trouble walking. Joint and muscle pain. Muscle weakness. Back aches. Back spasms. Severe head aches. Sore extremities. Pain. Lots of pain. Stomach upset. Rash. Skin splitting open when exposed to allergen. (Such as when cutting a tomato.)
If I avoid nightshades, I am much better off. But it is very hard to do.
Nightshade-family vegetables:
Eggplant, peppers (bell peppers, cayenne, chili peppers, paprika), potatoes, and tomatoes.
Not actually an allergic reaction. Solanine, a slightly toxic substance found in nightshades, doesn’t harm most people. It isn’t detoxified properly by some people; this is a genetic difference. Those folks get joint pain that may be diagnosed as arthritis, and muscular pain from nightshades. They may need to stay off of these foods for a few weeks or months to clear the solanine from their system.
Tobacco is in the nightshade family too, so it causes pain in the same way.
from Body Technician
Constipation or diarrhea, depression, tiredness, weight gain, headaches, joint pain, PMS — these and other low-grade, chronic reactions may be the result of one or more common food allergies or sensitivities. Allergies can affect almost any part of the body and you can develop an allergy to virtually any food. The most common food allergies are triggered by wheat, the nightshade family (cayenne, eggplant, tobacco, peppers, paprika, tomatoes and potatoes), peanuts, coffee, oranges, sugar, chocolate, eggs, soy, corn and milk (and milk products such as cheese).
from Fred a Care
My personal journey with pain began two decades ago, when my lower back started bothering me. At times, I could barely walk, and I vividly remember two occasions when muscle spasms “threw my back out” and I was unable to get out of bed to go the bathroom. (Anyone who has ever had muscle spasms shudders at the memory.) Coincidentally, the day after my last attack, I received the results of an allergy panel from my doctor, showing I am extremely allergic to garlic, and sensitive to almonds and chicken. I had been chugging down prodigious amounts of garlic prior to the attack, thinking that garlic was the quintessential health food. I immediately eliminated those foods from my diet, and my back was fine. Amazing!
…
Nutritionally trained physicians have tested several diet therapies, with varying degrees of success. Many people find relief by eliminating foods in the nightshade family, including eggplants, bell peppers, potatoes and tomatoes. The Dr. Dong diet eliminates all additives, preservatives, fruits, red meats, herbs, alcohol and dairy products.Food allergies or sensitivities can trigger painful flare-ups in 20 – 60% of people with arthritis, according to a study published in Arthritis Today. (Dunkin, 1999).
from Inflammation News
Allergies to certain foods appear linked to rheumatoid arthritis, particularly those in the nightshade family of plants: tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, peppers and tobacco. Experiment by removing these foods, one at a time, from your diet. If your arthritis worsens and then improves after five or six days, you may indeed be allergic. See a doctor for a more complete allergy screening.
from Web Terrace
There are reports that belladonna [a nightshade] may cause decreased perspiration, vomiting, decreased flow of breast milk, headache, excitement, agitation, dizziness, lightheadedness, drowsiness, unsteadiness, abdominal distention, reduced saliva, muscle tremor, rigidity, leg cramps, blurred vision, sensitivity to sunlight, slurred or meaningless speech, increased action of reflexes, high blood pressure, increased heart rate, abnormal heart rhythm, skin rash, dry skin, hives, rapid breathing, hallucinations, psychotic behavior, respiratory arrest, convulsions and coma.
Solanine is a substance found in nightshade plants, including tomatoes, white potatoes, all peppers (except black pepper), and eggplant. In theory, if not destroyed in the intestine, solanine could be toxic. A horticulturist, Dr. Normal Childers, hypothesized that some people with osteoarthritis may not be able to destroy solanine in the gut, leading to solanine absorption resulting in osteoarthritis. Eliminating solanine from the diet has been reported to bring relief to some arthritis sufferers in preliminary research.2 3 An uncontrolled survey of people avoiding nightshade plants revealed that 28% claimed to have a “marked positive response” and another 44% a “positive response.” Researchers have never put this diet to a strict clinical test; however, the treatment continues to be used by some doctors in people who have osteoarthritis. As with the Warmbrand diet, proponents claim exclusion of solanine requires up to six months before potential effects can be seen. Totally eliminating tomatoes and peppers requires complex dietary changes for most people. In addition, even proponents of the diet acknowledge that many arthritis sufferers are not helped by using this approach. Therefore, long-term trial avoidance of solanine-containing foods may only be appropriate for people with severe cases of osteoarthritis who have not responded to other natural treatments.
Most of the studies linking allergies to joint disease have focused on rheumatoid arthritis, although mention of what was called rheumatism (some of which may have been osteoarthritis) in older reports suggests a possible link between food reactions and exacerbations of osteoarthritis symptoms.4 If other therapies are unsuccessful in relieving symptoms, people with osteoarthritis might choose to discuss food allergy identification and elimination with a nutritionally oriented physician.
Other blog posts on this topic:
Night Shade Allergy Dangers
Night Shade Intolerance
Night Shade Food List
Night Shades, Solanine
Internet Comments on Night Shades
I recall why I started avoiding night shades.
Not mine, but referenced in one. Applied kinesiology can help you identify your food allergies.
Night Shades and history, a lighthearted comment.
Night Shades are High Phenol
Eating Allergies = Pain
Restaurant Foods that Aren’t Night Shades
Food Allergies, trying to figure them out and trying to live with them–outside of the hospital.
Please feel free to leave a comment describing your experiences with night shades. Sometimes it is good to know it isn’t just me.
February 17th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I went off for two days In February of 2007. Felt a lot better.
February 17th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
[...] I am allergic to nightshades. I went two days without eating any. That doesn’t sound like very long, does it? But yesterday at noon I went with my dad to a Mexican restaurant. After lunch, I had to pull myself up the stairs. I woke up this morning with “morning pain” in my fingers and feet. [...]
January 15th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I am allergic to nightshades in a very different way. They give me hallucinations, violent internal imagry, auditory distraction, mental instability. They are a daemonic portal!
It’s like the very worst sort of bad drug trip, whenever someone so much as uses the same knife on a tomato as on my food.
Avoiding nightshades is my life’s pursuit. I cannot function if I get “contaminated” – I’ve been in the crazy hospital for a few weeks. No one knew what it was!
Taking some probiotics, miraculously, keeps the hallucinatory effects at bay (for the most part). All the stomach upset, nausea, skin rashes etc persist but that’s nothing compared to three days of depression/bi-polar/hallucinations!
Good luck, and please contact me if you find more information on nightshades.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:27 am
i am not sure if i am allergic to night shades, and never heard of it, until i spoke to a co-worker who is allergic. i work on my feet all night, and i suffer from severe pain in my feet. i cannot stand in one place for more than twenty minutes. i am going to test the theories of others and try elimination the foods that cause the pain. i will be reading more and educating myself more, so that i can become pain free for life. thanks for all of your testimonials. they are very helpful.
January 31st, 2008 at 10:15 pm
i’d like to ask what are some of the rashes that some get after consumption or how the body reacts….i’m trying a diet without nightshades now and my back rash is diminishing. slowly i’m finding that this may just be a food alergy. any help?
February 13th, 2008 at 11:37 am
About 5 years ago (after many years of wondering what was wrong with me) I found out about the reactions caused by nightshade plants. It was Christmas Eve and, as always, I made mashed potatoes to go along with the dinner. I love them and ate a lot! The next morning I could barely get down the stairs to be with my family while they opened their gifts. My hands were swollen, my knees were incredibly painful and I felt as though I had no control over most of the muscles in my body…I couldn’t even form words easily and I was exhausted. I went back to bed for the rest of the day and my Mom offered to make xmas dinner for me. Once again we had mashed potatoes. I came downstairs to eat, and yes, I had more potatoes. The next day I was worse. Could not even get out of bed. My Mom’s husband ( a longtime arthritis sufferer)came over to see me and when he looked at me he said it reminded him of himself after he would eat nightshade. We put it all together and realized it was the potatoes that were doing it to me. Ever since then when I mention it to people they think I’m nuts! Now my 16 year old daughter seems to be sensitive to nightshade as well. I do find that I get a similar reaction if I inadvertently eat anything with MSG in it. Has anyone ever heard of that??
February 14th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Yes, I have heard of people having allergic reactions to MSG. I have had it too, but not very often. For me it only happens if I am already overloaded with nightshades.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
You are not wrong with the MSG being a problem. My recommendation is to elimate the soy also and see how you feel. I too suffered for 2 1/2 years with pain that made me feel like I was dragging a dead body around. Somedays it was worse then others and Doctor after Doctor and test after test, all was fine. Nothing showed up. Through a fluke of beginning a herbal life diet, I found out first I was adversely affected by soy. Never had a problem in my life before with it. I looked through my pantry and eliminated everything that had soy it in and read information on the web. Then I was still feeling a lot of pain in my hips. I then learned about nightshade vegetables. I eliminated that, noticed I still had some pain and found two other food families I had to eliminate. Wow I can’t belive it is all related to food.
What was great was everytime I felt something wasn’t right with my body, I would get confirmation from things I read on the web. Thanks goodness for google!
March 2nd, 2008 at 11:40 am
I have a different reaction to nightshades, and it seems to be only peppers – red, yellow, orange, cayenne, anything – that cause the reaction. I am having a very difficult time finding anyone else who shares my reaction – my throat closes up, I get wheezy and raspy, and my head feels like a balloon that is floating away from my body. I wish I knew of some way to get rid of this or at least could talk to other people who have a similar experience. These foods are so hard to avoid at restaurants, and those lucky people who don’t have food allergies just don’t take them seriously. Trying to get your servers or your cooks to read the ingredients to you is sometimes like pulling teeth.
Has anyone else experienced this type of reaction, or have any advice?
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Yes, Elizabeth. People have that reaction and I have advice.
Tell the servers that you have a life threatening allergy. That should help them remember to leave off the peppers. You might want to mention that they can’t even touch your food. So if they forget and put peppers on, please make you a new plate.
Advice: Get an epipen. The throat closing off is a huge danger. My mom has almost died several times from nightshade allergies such as you exhibit. So you need to get an epinepherine pen so that you can give yourself a shot if you are accidentally exposed.
Try to stay away from those peppers. Eating at a steak house is unlikely to bring you into contact with peppers. Or at a hot dog place. Eat pizza. Eat hamburgers. Eat at a salad place where you make your own plates.
March 2nd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
from The Natural Connection
July 5th, 2008 at 8:51 am
I have what seems like a food allergy that I am trying to isolate. I break out with hives or welts that can be anyplace on my body. Usually I break out on the top or lower half of my body. I welcome any help or comments.
I have to take benadrill for relief.
Thank you
Jim
July 21st, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Suzi from The Natural Connection, please know that to those of us who suffer “food intolerances” they are just as severe and potentially life-threatening as any food allergy. Your comment was rather insensitive. Perhaps you’ve never stayed in a quiet, dark closet for three days because a careless restaurant employee did not heed your request to make sure there were no bell peppers in a particular dish. Migraine headaches brought on by food intolerance is perhaps even more serious to the sufferer than you would ever know.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
The difference between food allergy and food intolerance is the LEVEL of the pain, MusicCityGirl. If you are in a closet for three days, or a mental hospital for two weeks as my mother was, you do not have a food intolerance, you have a life-threatening allergy.
I do not think that migraine headaches are minimal. My father had them and would get shots of morphine and still not be able to stand up.
The quote from the Natural Connection was simply making a differentiation between intolerance and allergy.
It may be an inaccurate differentiation; in fact I think it is, but it was a descriptive difference between food intolerance and food allergies.
From my own personal experience, food intolerance can BECOME food allergies, if the food you are allergic to is not avoided. You can die because of something that used to just make you sleepy.
So even food intolerances are important and can become life threatening.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:47 am
Allergies are a histamine reaction, that is why we get the watery eyes and nose or swelling. Whereas Nightshades cause a chemical reaction due to the many neurotoxins they contain such as solanine. Most people are experiencing an allergic reaction to nightshades but are reacting the toxins.
Many people have many different levels of reaction to them.
September 14th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
I have been sick for a long time, and did not know what was going on. I was crippled- but continued using tobacco, drinking beer and owning/working a pizza restaurant (hard work on my feet)and my favorite food was the eggplant. I was always super active – working out, home improvements, landscaping. Luckily, I never liked tomatoes, unless fresh native sliced thin with fresh mozzarella cheese. I never like any type of peppers (maybe green chilis) I don’t use the pepper shaker – I don’t like it. Now, I just find out from this site that potatoes are bad. I have been diagnosed with Rheumatoid arthitis and my thyroid is underactive. I have given up gluten to see if I wasn’t sensitive to that, but I think now that the potatoe is my enemy. Thank you.
October 3rd, 2008 at 1:47 pm
I know this post was a couple years ago but we are recently discovering more of my 2 year old daughter’s food allergies. Someone mentioned off-hand that a couple of the things she’s allergic to are in the night-shade family (tomatoes, potatoes) and now I realize why she has been reacting to foods I thought were “safe” – we were using spice mixes that did not contain wheat, tomatoes, eggs, etc, but they have peppers in it – chili pepper, bell pepper, paprika. I also made an eggplant lasagna before I made the nightshade connection and she was so miserable within about 15 minutes. Thanks for posting this and opening it up to comments – the more we share, the more we can start thinking for ourselves and choosing to be healthy.
Her reactions to nightshade are diarrhea, rash, irritability, moodswings, aggression, instability, and as far as I can tell, joint pain and heachaches (she doesn’t quite understand yet how to communicate those things, but she frequently tells me her knee or her hand hurts, and she when she eats foods from the nightshade family, one of her most common reactions is intentially hitting her head on hard objects and surfaces, as if she’s trying to counter the pain). For me, it comes out as skin problems, fatigue, mood swings, acute and localized joint pain that shows up in different joints when I eat it, indigestion in all its various forms, clumsiness, hard time putting thoughts together and being able to say what I’m trying to say, and most difficult – impulsive/compulsive/addictive like behavior towards the food – craving it and eating it compulsively, potatoes especially, and finding it almost impossible not to eat it if it’s around, unless it’s been a very long time and it is out of my system. This is called a “brain allergy” and you should search it, the medical community if finally starting to accept that allergic reactions can occur in the brain. Basically, the food you eat causes a chemical reation in your brain resulting in addictive and/or bi-polar behavior.
Thanks again!
October 17th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Actually my mother’s situation is an indication that long-term indulgence in allergy foods can severely disrupt your physical and mental health.
My mom has been diagnosed with medically induced bipolar… But they don’t know why she has it. She is worse when she is eating lots of her allergy foods, though. (That seems to me to indicate that her bipolar is a result of her nightshade allergies.)
Now when she eats the allergy foods (since she is on strong depressants to counteract her mania), she has incontinence. If she doesn’t eat them, she doesn’t. Yet she continues to eat them because they are all of her favorite foods.
I still don’t totally avoid nightshades (though I should), but more than an occasional bite once a week gives me pains for a week. You might think that is enough to get me away from nightshades, but often it is not.
However, I don’t want to end up like my mother in 16 years, so I am much less likely to indulge in nightshades than she is. And it is easy to tell when I have gotten too many, because my hands, feet, and/or other joints hurt.
November 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
I was harvesting my potato plants and came in contact with the fruit of the potato – this is not the potato, but rather the fruit that comes after the plant flowers. I understand that this fruit is VERY toxic. Now I have a severe rash all over my face. There is very little info on skin rashes caused by the potato plant/fruit. I love potato’s, don’t have an allergy. but suspect that this rash comes from the plant/fruit. Does anybody know anything about this?
December 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
[...] name hurts. A collection of internet comments on nightshades that were relevant to me or my family. Night Shade Allergies, my post with the most comments, I [...]
January 8th, 2010 at 11:05 am
[...] I found some really interesting stuff on Nightshade allergies, so if you are interested, check out this. [...]
February 17th, 2010 at 7:52 am
I have overindulged on oreo cookies, never had a reaction before… but had hives last nite. Had to drive to store to get benedryl at 1:00 am. So, learning from this (i hope), what are foods I can eat to neutralize by body’s chemistry right now?..besides rice:)Thanks so much for your sharing.
February 20th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
NIghtshades are cumulative in the body, thus making them more apparent in the blood system over time. There are some natural antidotes found in your gardening books under the heading of “plants that will not grow next to others.”
I did some research this way and found that black walnut trees will not grow near nightshades, nor will mushrooms. By adding both of these two to your diet, you will eliminate alot of the nightshade poisoning. I worked with my mother and went off all nightshades for a year and a half only to find depletion in vitamins in the body being a problem. So decided that eliminating them was not the idea but to take in the antidotes of the black walnut and mushroom, thus got healthier and eliminated some of the effects of your nightshades. If someone wants to call and talk to me personally, I can tell them what I’ve done. (785) 410-9862 in Manhattan, Kansas. Thank you.
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:12 am
My daughter and I get acne and stomach cramps from all nightshades, especially the spicy ones. Every problem we have ever had was eliminated by eliminating certain foods. Wheat and dairy are the biggest offenders but legumes and nightshades are a big problem too.
March 20th, 2010 at 6:20 am
I am trying a nightshade free diet for my skin.Have been at it approx 2 weeks & the rough,sandpapery skin on my palms is almost back to normal.I think that I’ve had it for a couple years,since I became a salsa & hot sauce nut.I had been putting lots of salsa on eggs,potatoes,in lentil soup,etc.,1/3 cup or so daily,frequent baked & mashed potatoes,also. Now I need to get rid of all the tomatoes in the pantry!
July 13th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
I am one of those who react to nightshades with erratic heartbeat, tachycardia runs, pounding pulse in head to the point of extreme pain, pain in shoulders, arms, wrists and hands. Generally lasts for about 3-4 hours. Bad stuff.
August 6th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Nightshade foods caused my son’s benign myoclonic seizures. He also has Down Syndrome. Despite my insistence, his neurologist told me diet had absolutely nothing to do with it. I knew it was food related but it took me 8 months to narrow it down to nightshades! And within one week of being nightshade free, he was seizure free – and his cognitive & motor development took off at at phenomenal rate! All his delays are blamed on Down Syndrome . . . seeing how he’s progressing being nightshade free, all of us here wonder if there’s more to the nightshade effect than we think.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:13 pm
have some phenom as described, mostly arthritis but including stomach and other. have never excluded peppers, eggplant(not liking taste sometimes); like blt sand.
do not know if it would be productive to launch on n.shade-free diet and am interested in any new twists.
again, i have had intestinal probs, menstrual cramps, mood changes,sensitivity to caffeine. have always liked milk and wonder if that is causing any ill effects.
thanks.
August 24th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Yes arthritis and stomach symptoms might be a nightshades issue.
I have milk allergies. Those just make me tired.