A long-suffering housewife has told how a bizarre allergy has left her living in the stone age – as she breaks out blisters whenever she touches METAL.
Kim Taylor, 48, is so severely allergic to nickel that even the slightest contact can leave her skin covered in a red itchy rash and painful blisters.
She cannot use coins, cutlery, zips and has to coat all metal surfaces she touches regularly with a fine film of clear nail varnish – including her bra clasp and glasses.
Unlucky Kim said she has had to take special measures to adapt to modern life, such as carrying around wooden-handled cutlery to use when eating out and coating her door handles.
Nickel is a hard, strong silver-white metal used extensively for making alloys because of its high resistance to corrosion.
It is found in numerous metallic items including batteries, keys, machinery parts and Kim even has to avoid nuts, cocoa and kidney beans as nickel occurs naturally in them.
Kim said: ”The slightest trace of nickel triggers my allergy, anything from knives and forks, watch straps, bra clasps or the clasp on my purse.
”I develop a red, itchy rash on my fingers and hands, like a heat rash, which becomes very painful and blistered.
”At times it’s so bad it spreads up my arm and my fingers go green.
”To help reduce my chances of coming into contact with it I coat everything I can’t help but touch – like metal buttons, zips, my purse, my glasses – in clear nail varnish.
”I have to top it up about once a month and I a set of wooden handled cutlery with me to restaurants or friends’ houses.
”I can’t wear watches because of the metal in the strap, instead I pin a nurse’s watch to my clothes. Nickel is found in so much more than jewellery.”
Kim said her allergy first started around six years ago when she started to react with a ”tingly, sore rash” seemingly at random.
For the next six months the symptoms got steadily worse and Kim visited doctors and allergy specialists in hospital in a bid to discover the source of her mystery ailment.
It was only after a week-long allergy test, in which numerous plasters were left stuck to her back, that specialists realised Kim was extremely allergic to nickel.
As well as rashes and blisters, which experts have warned could leave her with scarring, it can give her skin an unhealthy green tinge.
The rash affects her hands and arms and no one has ever been able to tell her what triggered her condition.
Kim said she always knew if she accidentally came into contact with nickel because her hands and fingers would start to itch.
Doctors recommended steroid creams but unpleasant side effects, including skin-thinning, meant she was reluctant to use them.
Now she has now started using a natural anti-histamine supplement Viridian Quercetin B5, and her symptoms have calmed considerably.
Kim, who lives in Roade, Northants., with her partner Roy Page, 63, a maintenance worker, said: ”I have often wondered where this could have come from.
”Over the years I have got used to it but thanks to this new supplement I now hardly react at all.
”I’m still allergic to nickel but at the very most, and only on the odd occasion, I might get red pin prick marks on my fingers, whereas before they would have been red and sore.
”Luckily I have never reacted to it in food but I am quite a careful eater and never have much chocolate or oats anyway.”
Health consultant and nutritionist Alex Kirchin, director of nutrition at Viridian, said Kim’s allergy was severe he and the cause was difficult to pinpoint.
He said: ”In some people the immune system has a fairly dramatic response to nickel, that seems to be one of the trigger mechanisms.
”But it’s a bit of a mystery really. Kim does sound like a particularly bad case.
”Allergic reactions can be very chronic in some cases and can cause scarring or skin infections if they are not sorted out.”
SOME ITEMS THAT SET KIM’S ALLERGY OFF:
Reading glasses
Zips
Coins
Car keys
Batteries
Watches
Metal Buttons
Jewellery
Purses
Cutlery
Bra clasps
Scissors
Metal kitchen utensils
Saucepans
Hair clips
Metal pens
Paperclips
Garden tools
Mobile phones
Razors
Lipstick compacts
Cupboard handles
Needles
Toasters
Bath plugs
Door handles
Hi Kim , i just wanted to let you know that i suffer from nickel allergy too although not no where as severe as yours .For alot of years i have not been able to wear watches because of the strap , and any jewellry that is not real earrings,rings ,necklaces ,bracelets .Last year it progressed alitle more and now i am having the same problem with the rivets on my jeans , the doctor prescribed me some steroid cream and it helps some but not completely , after reading your story i am going to try them painting them with clear nail polish .
Hi Kim , i just wanted to let you know that i suffer from nickel allergy too although not no where as severe as yours .For alot of years i have not been able to wear watches because of the strap , and any jewellry that is not real earrings,rings ,necklaces ,bracelets .Last year it progressed alitle more and now i am having the same problem with the rivets on my jeans , the doctor prescribed me some steroid cream and it helps some but not completely , after reading your story i am going to try them painting them with clear nail polish .
hi, I am so relieved someone has brought this into the open so other people can be helped, I have had contact dermatitus for over ten years very badly, the complete palm of my hands covered in blisters first then itching weeping, ending in deep cuts with hard skin and hurt very much, !st dermatologist specialist just looked and said allergy to detergants, ten years later I was sent for a patch test only to be told it was nickel I was allergic to which I have had all my life but mildly to the usual watch straps, jean buttons etc but because I had'nt read about it having such a bad effect on the hands until reading Kim taylors story I am going to avoid as many items as possible which I think may contain kickel which is not going to be easing I am a seamtress sewing almost daily and believe it or not when I first got it so severely I was a landlady in a pub touching money all day long, any way I am going to give this a really good try and hopefully rid myself of this terrible condition,
thank you kim,
regards angie
hi, I am so relieved someone has brought this into the open so other people can be helped, I have had contact dermatitus for over ten years very badly, the complete palm of my hands covered in blisters first then itching weeping, ending in deep cuts with hard skin and hurt very much, !st dermatologist specialist just looked and said allergy to detergants, ten years later I was sent for a patch test only to be told it was nickel I was allergic to which I have had all my life but mildly to the usual watch straps, jean buttons etc but because I had'nt read about it having such a bad effect on the hands until reading Kim taylors story I am going to avoid as many items as possible which I think may contain kickel which is not going to be easing I am a seamtress sewing almost daily and believe it or not when I first got it so severely I was a landlady in a pub touching money all day long, any way I am going to give this a really good try and hopefully rid myself of this terrible condition,
thank you kim,
regards angie