Silicone hypersensitivity

PLEASE CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE ON SILICONE HYPERSENSITIVITY. Since pacemakers are made with titanium and silicone you may find this information very useful. SILICONE IS NOT INERT
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http://sites.google.com/site/siliconehypersensitivity/home

7 Comments

Titanium is not inert either !

by IAN MC - 2012-05-25 05:05:45

Apparently 1 in 25 people are allergic to titanium and these allergies can cause muscle weakness and fatigue as well as the usual allergic skin reactions.

It is just possible that some of the postings on here where these symptoms are frequently mentioned could be titanium (or silicone) allergies.

Should we have a titanium allergy test before having an implant ? The people selling titanium allergy tests , not surprisingly, think we should.... I guess the same applies to silicone allergy testing.

Should we , during our lives, have taken food allergy tests before we ever risked eating anything ? or should we take a few risks along the way ?

Maybe people who are very prone to being allergic should take these tests .. has anyone ever been offered an allergy test before an implant, I wasn't.

Cheers

Ian

Everything can be an allergen!

by donr - 2012-05-25 08:05:45

I do not doubt this woman's problem exists. Not for a microsecond.

But we face a dilemma - where do we draw the line on allergy testing?

Our #1 Son is allergic to grass - he's now 50. He had a parallel situation to what this woman has. when he was in middle school his school was smack dab in the center of a sugar cane field - and that is a grass. He missed 3 months of school for allergic reaction reasons. Reactions that were so atypical that his Dr. refused to believe he had allergies - he believed the kid had psychological issues w/ school. Finally he agreed w/ Dr. Mom that he be allergy skin tested - Son's back turned into raw hamburger around the grass sites.

Should Son have been tested for allergies before going to that school? Why just him? Why not EVERY kid being sent there? The cost & time involved in testing every kid going there would be significant. Does society want to pay for it?

Take the analogy a step further to antibiotics. I'm allergic to Penicillin. Fortunately, only mildly so - I developed a rash from it nearly 50 yrs ago. Should I have been tested for allergy before being given the drug? Should anyone have to be tested prior to being administered an antibiotic? Who would bear the cost? The time?

Shift now to the originating post - silicone allergy. There is one dramatic difference between it as a breast implant material & our family's grass incident & my penicillin incident. Having breast implants is truly elective - my cases are not. Neither is receiving a PM/ICD elective - there is usually a compelling medical necessity for the devices.


Society is going to have to make a decision on this issue - does it want to require allergy testing before ANY procedure? What allergens? Who bears the cost? I can see it being an easy call in elective cases. But there would have to be a line drawn for everything else.

We cannot be protected from everything out there. Just ponder how our ancestors just coming down out of the trees discovered what was safe to eat & what was poison. They had no gummint agencies testing things first. Creatures are still evolving in this area. F'rinstance, grazing cattle will still ingest poisonous plants that routinely grow in their pasture - even after eons of evolution.

This is an interesting subject open for discussion/debate.

Don

PMs coated with gold

by IAN MC - 2012-05-25 10:05:00

Hi Carol ... wouldn't work for me ! I've persuaded my wife that I'm allergic to gold . She looks longingly in jewellers windows and I have to explain to her that my gold allergy would cause all sorts of problems. It saves me a fortune !

Cheers

Ian

Sounds like a professional development issue

by cohara - 2012-05-25 10:05:53

I have allergic reactions to sulfa drugs and penicillin. I discovered these allergies when I erupted in hives after taking them. There may be some people who have a severe reaction to something the first time they try it that requires emergency care, but usually allergic reactions develop over exposure. When I read the account posted by Lanadearest, the issue seemed to be more doctors not recognizing allergic reactions rather than having a sensitivity to silicone.

If society were to prevent misdiagnosing of allergies by wholesale allergy testing, what would happen to the cost of healthcare? In the U.S. the cost is already escalating out of control. How would this extra layer add to that problem?

Perhaps the answer lies more in training physicians to recognize possible allergic reactions and investigate situations where allergies might be in play. If doctors understood how allergies might present themselves in ways other than the common rash or swelling, then the allergies could be dealt with in a timely manner before they caused undue damage or unneeded suffering.

If a person is allergic to titanium or silicone, then there are alternatives. Pacemakers have been made without silicone, they use polyurethane, and I found at least one reference to coating a pacemaker in gold to protect the body from an allergy to titanium. Since there is a solution to a problem that arises only rarely, as long as medical personnel are trained to recognize the symptoms of an allergy, I would be very hesitant to add to the cost of procedures by ordering testing that nine times out of ten would be unnecessary.

I tend to agree with Don. We can't wrap the world in cotton wool. If we did, we would get nothing done. It would take three times longer to prepare for a procedure than the procedure actually requires. Would the extra time, cost and angst really make a huge difference?

Carol

hi

by Karen - 2012-05-25 10:05:54

I better go read. I have titanium rods in spine for scoliosis and a pacemaker.

Deja vu...Lanadear

by IAN MC - 2012-05-25 11:05:37

I see you've posted this separately as a message . Maybe posting things twice adds to your argument. I have responded to your other message

Ian

LanaDear

by IAN MC - 2012-05-26 06:05:39

hi ... first of all, I hope you have got access to this forum sorted out. Secondly , I am with you 100% when you say that some people suffer from allergies which could be prevented by allergy testing

but ( and I'm not "lashing out" at you ) , I cannot agree with your conspiracy theories re manufacturers and their "conspiracy of silence" . Look at the patient information leaflets for any drug and you will see that there is a warning regarding possible allegy or hypersensitivity to the product.

Some people are allergic to silicone.. fact !
Some people are allergic to strawberries ..fact !

Allergies can kill you, whether it be to silicone, or strawberries.. ( if the allergy leads to an anaphylactic reaction) ..fact !

One problem is your use of the word "INERT ". In science, the word "inert" means "non-reactive" eg iron is not inert because it reacts with oxygen to form iron oxide (rust) . Silicone does seem to be "inert" because it does not appear to chemically react with other elements.

As far as I know silicone manufacturers have never claimed that silicone is non-allergenic and pharmaceutical manufacturers would certainly NEVER claim this for any of their products.

You are obviously very passionate about this and if silicone allergy testing helps some people after your postings ..great !

Ian

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