Arly said:  itis unlikely the dong quai caused the joint swelling.  Dong
quai is a common herb, taken by perhaps millions of women in doses much
higher than this,apparently without ill effect, or at least nothing so
dramatic.

Arly, I've loved almost all your posts before now (thank you for the time
and effort involved in sharing so much.) But I wouldn't be so sure about
that. People do react very differently to substances, and the case
histories given certainly suggested this as a possibility. So what is this
stuff? What plant family? Many plants contain substances of great
biological activity and immunoreactivity: for all I know about this it
could be a relative of peanuts, and peanut oil in infant formula has been
shown to sensitise (western medicine previously was dognmatic that oils
couldn't sensitise, of course.) I would never take medication about which I
knew zilch. Is FDA clearance of this stuff needed? what testing has been
done? Where would adverse drug reorts be sent for herbal products? do
communities that traditionally use this end up with high rates of joint
symptoms in later life, written off as aging?...

When researching Food for Thought I learned never to dismiss even amazing
stories about individual sensitivities: the kid who developed urticaria if
his mother broke an egg in another room of the house, or the one who could
not tolerate any egg except a microwaved one - which altered the protein
structure so much his body didn't recognise his particular allergens. While
some foods contain more active ingredients likely to cause problems (and
yes, chocolate is a common allergen in every community that uses it, and
yes, it does affect breastfeeding babies of mothers sensitive to it) even
the least problematic an cause someone to react. It's not the food per se
that's the problem, it's the person's sensitivity to the food. Though there
are such things as common allergens in every society due to social uses of
foods (like milk to babies) and the inherent characteristics of certain
food components: gluten's gliadin is more enterotoxic than most protein
components, for example. But not everyone will be gluten-sensitive even so.
Sensitivity is the result of genes plus nutrition plus environmental
exposures begining in utero, plus extraneous factors like coincident stress
or infections.

I'm restraining myself here too: no time to talk all night about allergies.
I managed to resist all that chocolate stuff a week or so back... but
Lactnetters need to learn about allergies and other immune malfunctioning.
It's linked with everything from ADD to autism as well as ear infections,
wheezes, joint problems and the rest.. And I'm not going to write any more
about it because the necessary resources are in print already and I have NO
time. Yes Elizabeth, it is still in print (later edition) and I can send
details to anyone who wants it: so glad it helped you! Thanks for letting
me know.

MM.