Splenda/Sucrolose Allergy
It's back...that dreaded burning of my cheeks and the tell tale spots to warn me I've eaten something I shouldn't! Well I say eaten... it doesn't have to be eaten, last year I started using a new face cleanser within a couple of days my face and eyes swelled, the burning itchy cheeks and the itchy spots were back!
What had I eaten?... nothing new I was sure of that, it couldn't be the cleanser but that's the only new product I'd used, so I decided to google the ingredients... Aqua, well we all know what that is, and the second ingredient on the list E955 or sucrolose!
In the bin it went, although not before I'd sent a letter of complaint to Asda customer services explaining my allergy to sucrolose and how their 'Dermatologically tested' cleansing lotion had affected my skin!
A few months later, I noticed it had been taken off sale, whether it was because of my complaint I don't know, they never got back to me it just disappeared!
Anyway...
It all started a few years ago, I'd gone on a No Carbs diet, but was starting to miss sweet foods, I decided to buy this much raved about sugar substitute... Splenda! So I baked cakes and egg custards with it.
Within a day I'd developed an itchy patch on the side of my eye and I started to feel unwell. The next day a red patch had appeared under the same eye, my whole eye socket was very tender to touch and the swelling was spreading up the side of my face, the next day the other side was affected too! Then the next morning my whole face had ballooned, my eyes were almost shut and I actually thought I was going to die! I knew it was an allergy so I started taking Piriton allergy tablets, but I still didn't know what I'd had an allergic reaction to!
My second attack was six weeks later. This attack was worst than the first, again it affected my eyes the worst, they had swelled shut, and my whole face had ballooned, I looked like some hideous monster, I felt like I'd been beaten up my whole body hurt and my legs were so heavy I could hardly move, and I had trouble breathing. The rash (redness) this time spread to my neck and all over my chest, I took the piriton again, but it got worse before it got better and I had to take it for over a month!
It took about two years to learn what it was, Doctors didn't have any idea and neither did Google, I spent hours researching rashes, swellings and the rest, all I knew was I was allergic to something... but what!
Then I came across an image with a very familiar redness spread across some ones neck which said... sucrolose allergy...
I knew then that I'd cracked it!!!
I've been left with permanent eye damage, before I started using Splenda I never had any problems with my eyes, and my eyes and my face were the things that were affected the most!
Since my first encounter with Splenda, I have become sensitive to light and can't go outside without sunglasses on, and they run constantly, I suffer from the most horrendous eye pain and migraines neither of which I had before, it never occurred to me I was actually poisoning myself with this stuff.
Now I have to read every label on everything I buy, I was certainly caught out with the cleansing lotion, but now I know it's in some cosmetics too I have to know my stuff!
My recent outbreak was because I HADN'T read the label on a bottle of Old Jamaica Ginger Beer light!
I'd had a couple of glasses, I'm not a fan of fizzy drinks to be honest, but this took me right back to my childhood... now having checked the ingredients of most diet drinks sucrolose is in most of them so I won't be having any more.
A couple of people I know, recently asked on Facebook if anyone knew what the rash was on their child, and they'd put a photo up of the rash. I took one look and asked "what had they had different to eat or drink?" One woman told me "just a fruit juice" (specially marketed for young kids), I Googled it and guess what...one of the ingredients of this so called fruit juice... sucrolose!
Image of sucrolose allergy from the internet, the only one I could find. |
Well, it had, but she's not convinced he's allergic to it so she's since asked her Doctor for a referral to an allergy clinic, trouble is... Doctorsand GP's aren't aware of this allergy so I'm sure he won't be tested for it, but we'll see.
I'm having difficulty believing they actually put sucrolose in children's food products, and I'm saddened to find it's in cosmetics of which I use everyday
What the cleansing lotion did |
Splenda caused this...Itching, burning and swelling |
This is like poison to people with sucrolose allergy . |
Face and eye swelling, and my eye brows started to disappear! |
eye swelling |
Burning and swelling |
Eye swelling, which has resulted in permanent eye problems |