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Are you allergic to Nickel?

Are you diagnosed with Crohn's disease and allergic to nickel?

  • I am diagnosed with Crohn's disease and have a known allergy to nickel.

    Votes: 31 56.4%
  • I am diagnosed with Crohn's disease and definitely am NOT allergic to nickel.

    Votes: 7 12.7%
  • I am diagnosed with Crohn's disease and do not know if I'm allergic to nickel.

    Votes: 17 30.9%

  • Total voters
    55
Location
Kent,
Hi, this is interesting. I've just clicked yes on the poll because I assume I am - red, itchy ears that weep from some earrings but not the anti-allergy/nickel free ones, and also react to some metal belt buckles if they touch my tummy. I had my ears pierced and found this out a few years before any Crohn's symptoms though. I wonder if it's doing something to my outside, is it definitely doing something to my insides?!
 
Location
Kent,
It looks like it easily could be - I found another forum of nickel allergy sufferers, mainly from contact but many from food, and some also report other symptoms including bloating and tummy troubles. However it sounds almost impossible to eliminate nickel from food and contact, it seems to be in nearly everything! Plus it seems hard to get a list of what to avoid, as it often seems to depend on where something is grown (and fertiliser?) as to how much nickel gets in it. Anyway, thanks for your research; I will keep reading but it could well be worth trying to reduce intake and see if anything changes...

Just a thought, if you've ever researched other metals, no idea if it's linked at all but I also react badly to iron tablets and liquid? (lots of pain, d&v).
 
I had skin testing for allergens earlier this year as I was diagnoised with psoriasis which may have been linked to humira or I may have gotten it anyway as its in my family either way the humira made it worse. Anyway on the patch testing the only substance out of 35 I reacted to was nickle. Always wondered why my ears got infected when I wore earrings now I know. Oy pure platinum or gold for me from now on.
 
To this day only reacted to one pair of earrings, they said they were sterling silver but I doubt it at the price i paid, wonder if they had nickle in them.
 
Allergic to nickel...yes. infected ears, rash from watches or welts from necklaces...no cheapie jewelry for me. Not officially diagnosed with Crohns (diagnosed IBD/colitis GI thinks it's Crohns but didn't do my colonoscopy and prometheus test came out negative even though bowels showed Crohns patterns.)
 
My son's health declined significantly while wearing braces on his teeth. While wearing braces, I believe he initially developed oral Crohn's based on the striated sores in his mouth. After 14 months wearing the braces, he was finally patch tested and diagnosed with a nickel allergy. After the braces were removed, his mouth sores and chapping/redness all went away with no medication. However, he remained on a high nickel diet because our allergist did not mention that foods contain nickel. He had his first "flare" 3 months after the braces were removed. We started Crohn's treatment and a low-nickel diet simultaneously. He has been in remission for 19 months (since Crohn's diagnosis). I started reading PubMed after his diagnosis, and have found a lot of overlap with nickel allergy and Crohn's disease. I've come across this discussion several times, so I thought I would finally create an account to relay his story. Some of the foods we have eliminated from his diet include: Soy, chocolate, whole grains, legumes, raspberries, pineapple, scallops, and spinach. We do try to avoid most processed foods at this point. We use an app called Nickel Navigator that will tell you the nickel content in foods, which is based on the Rebelytics Low Nickel Diet Scoring System. Penn State Hershey also has a published low nickel food guideline. The most comprehensive information about nickel and Systemic Nickel Allergy Syndrome is from research in Italy. Would love to know if others have more thoughts on this. I know this thread is 5 years old. Thanks so much.
 
My son's health declined significantly while wearing braces on his teeth. While wearing braces, I believe he initially developed oral Crohn's based on the striated sores in his mouth. After 14 months wearing the braces, he was finally patch tested and diagnosed with a nickel allergy. After the braces were removed, his mouth sores and chapping/redness all went away with no medication. However, he remained on a high nickel diet because our allergist did not mention that foods contain nickel. He had his first "flare" 3 months after the braces were removed. We started Crohn's treatment and a low-nickel diet simultaneously. He has been in remission for 19 months (since Crohn's diagnosis). I started reading PubMed after his diagnosis, and have found a lot of overlap with nickel allergy and Crohn's disease. I've come across this discussion several times, so I thought I would finally create an account to relay his story. Some of the foods we have eliminated from his diet include: Soy, chocolate, whole grains, legumes, raspberries, pineapple, scallops, and spinach. We do try to avoid most processed foods at this point. We use an app called Nickel Navigator that will tell you the nickel content in foods, which is based on the Rebelytics Low Nickel Diet Scoring System. Penn State Hershey also has a published low nickel food guideline. The most comprehensive information about nickel and Systemic Nickel Allergy Syndrome is from research in Italy. Would love to know if others have more thoughts on this. I know this thread is 5 years old. Thanks so much.
So this lead me down an interesting rabbit hole.

I read about nickel allergy because I've had bad reactions to earrings, and nickel is a common cause.

Well I've been safely eating oatmeal for a long time and suddenly I'm sick and oatmeal is high in nickel, so at first I thought it might be a build up, but then my mind changed to, what if it's another metal? I started exploring and another one in jewelry is chromium.

And I noticed my multivitamin has way over the DRV of chromium in it. So I stopped taking it and I seem to be much better the following day.

Thanks for this post I think you just saved me a lot of pain.
 
I have been diagnosed as allergic/sensitive to nickel. I am a Crohns mum and have diverticulosis. Nickel issue with spectacles, earrings, cheap jewelery, watch bands,
and bra hooks/rings.
I thought I had a skin cancer on my nose but turned out it was from my glasses frames. I currently have a rash between my eyes even though the metal doesn't touch. Very annoying.
 
I have been diagnosed with Crohn's and nickel allergy. I get infected ears, itching and hives from jewelry. Even holding a nickel in my hand makes my palm red and itchy.
 
I have been diagnosed as allergic/sensitive to nickel. I am a Crohns mum and have diverticulosis. Nickel issue with spectacles, earrings, cheap jewelery, watch bands,
and bra hooks/rings.
I thought I had a skin cancer on my nose but turned out it was from my glasses frames. I currently have a rash between my eyes even though the metal doesn't touch. Very annoying.
Do you follow a low-nickel diet or even know about the low nickel diet? Most research is currently from Italy. We use the Rebelytics diet guidelines.
 
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