Disentangling the Seafood Allergy from the CT Scan Allerg (if There is One)
Allergies are such illogical things, that myths and old wives' tales thrive around them. Food allergies are particularly common in America, and of all of them, the humble seafood allergy affects about three out of every hundred. And that makes it ripe ground for a lot of myth-spinning. Rumors and fallacies have their day; until one day, enough people learn that they make no sense and they fade quietly. Not so though, with rumors to do with shellfish allergies. Of all the people who are hypersensitive to seafood, ones with shellfish allergy account for the most. The myth goes, that shellfish allergy comes from an intolerance to the natural iodine found in the fish. This is such a strongly-felt belief these days, that people who are referred by their doctors for CT scans or other procedures that use X-Rays for one reason or another, do their online reading, and decide that with their iodine sensitivity, the iodine staining used in CT scans will be bad for them. And they just neglect to show up for their appointments.
This myth to do with seafood allergy, draws from many sources. But the allergy shows up not because of the iodine present in seafood, but because of the animal proteins. There is indeed such a thing as iodine sensitivity, and if you have it, your doctor will give you antihistamines before he gives you the scan, if he plans to inject iodine stain into your veins. Perhaps people make this one up, with their incomplete knowledge of seafood allergy. Seafood iodinedoesn't acually hurt you. But doctors are also partially to blame for why this myth stubbornly persists.
They are to blame, because most doctors sort of believe in this myth too. Half of all radiologists and cardiologists out there believe that there is something to this, and tell their patients up front that if they have a seafood allergy, that they will refuse them a CT scan. Actually, even if you did have an allergy to the dye, it would act up for the mild dye they inject into you no more than one time out of five, if that. If people wanted to be worried about this, they could worry about asthma too, or other general food allergies. The bottom line is, that seafood allergy is caused by something other than iodine, and the seafood allergy has nothing to do in particular, with a scan.
Some people do experience terrible allergic reactions, and go into shock, after they've been injected for a CT scan. Sometimes, the dye that they use, is made from the body parts of shellfish, and that could be a possible reason for why this rumor stays on. People guess that the iodine that they take out of the shellfish, could have traces of whatever it is that makes the shellfish so dangerous to them. When this kind of thing does happen, researchers rarely have answers; but one thing they are indeed sure of that a seafood allergy does not need to have anything to do with a scan.
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