I guess the solanine builds up in the systems of folks like us. If we can’t process it, which seems to be one argument about the foods, then the more we eat, the worse we get.

If you can find an applied kinesiologist, they can help you identify which foods you are allergic to. (They are usually chiropractors first. You can’t just get the AK degree without being in the medical field already.)

Yes, several medicines are related to nightshades. My mother had a 7 page list of those. She found them all out by trial and error. Although some of those meds may have been other allergies.

For something amazing:
I have been off nightshades for over a year. (June 2010-now.)

I have been diagnosed with severe sleep apnea (waking every 40 seconds all night long).

In May I went to get a new sleep study.

I NO LONGER have sleep apnea.

I asked the doctor how often that happened. He said he’d never heard of anyone’s sleep apnea going away, especially not as severe as mine was.

So, apparently, for me, the sleep apnea was related to the nightshade consumption.

It’s hard to give up nightshades. I know. I loved those foods. And they are often in foods that you would not expect to have them, due to the processing. But if the pain is bad (which it was for me), it can make a real significant change in your life, improving your quality of life.

It’s been crazy how much of the food I’ve been eating has “hidden nightshades.” I’ve been off the obvious ones for a year and still had aches and pains. Not as badly as before, but enough that my husband was urging me to try and find a new doctor who might be able to help me.

Now I think I was just having too many nightshades, even if at far smaller levels than previously.

I had eczema off and on for about six years before I discovered I had a nightshade allergy. I went to multiple doctors and dermatologists, and had allergy tests done a few times. They told me I was not allergic to any chemicals, but as for the tests for pollens, plants, foods, animals, and molds, I was extremely allergic to literally everything. Well, it is impossible to avoid the entire world, so I went on having eczema. Then came the fateful winter that I discovered my love for eggplant. I began to eat it almost every day, and my eczema (on the back of my hands and wrists mainly) became extremely bad. Last week I saw a very bad poison oak reaction and that is exactly what my hands looked like: tons of weepy blisters that would ooze then dry up and scab over. Sometimes it was so bad that the middle areas would turn dark purple or even black! It was scary, not to mention extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing. I went home for Christmas break and my mom, after years of trying, finally talked me into going to a naturopathic medicine professional, who told me the most common cause of eczema is nightshade allergies (I had already ruled out milk). I completely cut nightshades out of my diet and within two weeks my hands were 100% back to normal! I began doing little tests to test my tolerance of different nightshades, and have found that I can eat a little bit of hot sauce or chili powder each day without any skin reactions. Since the discovery of my allergy two years ago, I have had many moments of weakness (I LOVE mexican food, and it just isn’t the same without nightshades!), and each time I get a reaction. Two weeks ago I ate a big plate of french fries with ketchup and as i type I am looking at the backs of my hands and they are covered with dry, scaly, bumpy skin: the way they look on their way to being completely recovered from the really bad outbreaks.

I did a research project on nightshades for a botany class and learned that they cause neurological problems, and this has been confirmed by the many postings on this page! But I was sure I didn’t have that type of reaction. My whole life I have had funny little muscle-compulsive problems. I don’t really know what to call them or how to explain them, but basically little twitches. About two or three years ago they started to get worse and worse, and now I literally can not sit still, EVER. There is always a little part of me twitching, like my leg will twitch then my arm then me head then my other arm then my foot. It is VERY annoying, to me and to my boyfriend. In the last year my hands have started shaking a lot too, and I drop things all the time! I have started to say the wrong word in sentences, like “commercial” instead of “costume.” And it happens so many times a day it is embarrassing and I feel stupid. I was really worried that I might be getting parkinson’s disease or some other neurological disease, but after reading all of the posts here I am pretty sure that my nightshade intolerance is increasing, and I need to avoid them 100%. No more “just one fry,” or a dash of cayenne in my eggs.

There is one more thing. About 4 months ago I developed a pain in my right arm. It hurts almost all the time, sometimes really badly. I can kind of narrow it down to a couple of tendons in my upper arm, but the pain radiates up into my shoulder blade and down into my wrist. I do physical labor in the summer time and am used to injuries and pain, but I was not working for over three months when this pain came on, and as I sit here and type there is a dull throb. I am fairly convinced now that this is yet another nightshade reaction, and as I said I am going to cut them out 100%.

I really hope my story will be helpful to others, as everybody else’s stories were so helpful to me! Good luck. Anna.

I also had an almost fatal reaction to anesthesia – something that I think all people with anaphylactic-type allergies to nightshades need to know about. I’m not 100% sure that it was indeed the nightshades that caused my lungs to fail (I was on a ventilator in ICU for 8 days), however I DO know that nightshade drugs are commonly given pre-anesthesia to calm people down. (I was not aware of my allergy at that time). The drops they use to dilate your pupils at the eye doctor are also made from nightshades.

So, to all you fellow nightshade allergy sufferers out there – I feel your pain. Hang in there. Also, be very careful and always let your doctor know about these allergies/sensitivities, because there are some medications made from these plants, as well.

It seems I can handle a small amount, and it just (“just”) leads to a strong personality shift, spontaneous crying, and general misery. Not to mention digestive issues. Larger amounts lead to waking seizures, which truly define suffering.

If anyone else has anything like this, please post here! No doctor, neurologist, psychologist or psychiatrist I’ve spoken with has ever met another. It’d be great to commiserate