Hi I ve been having the following problem since I was 18 (I m currently 29). This is a little long, sorry.Maybe once or twice a month sometimes even more rarely I would suddenly without much of any warning feel an intense feeling of impending doom. Very pronounced, an extreme sensation like I was about to die, and thoughts of impending doom. Difficult to describe the sensation other than that it comes along with an extreme feeling of anxiety. Then within about 2-4 minutes after having this sensation I would pass out. I don t ever remember passing out. My father once saw me when this happened and he said I stand up straight and then slump down to the ground. After I wake up which I think is usually almost immediately or a few minutes after losing consciousness I feel intensely sick, like I m about to die. I have temporary amnesia. I don t know who or what I am or where I am, and I usually can t see for a few minutes. This memory loss goes away in a few minutes as well as my ability to see. The other very apparent symptom is intense and sudden sweating. I m literary drenched with sweat. Also, I feel incredibly weak, slightly nauseous and intensely sick like I am dieing. I can t even get off the floor. Eventually these feeling fade within about 30-40 minutes after which time I feel still very sick but have enough energy to stand up. Then it might take 1-2 hours to feel normal again although sometimes when I have a really bad attack it can take 24 hours before I feel normal again. I ve seen a few doctors for this and one doctor said he thinks it was syncope. The other doctors just ran quite a few tests said their results were normal and never really got back to me. It didn t seem like they really new what was going on. I ve had ecocardiograms done and mri, both came back normal. I ended up just living with it for some several years until when I was about 27 one day for no real reason I bought some raw barley that I saw in the supermarket. It was just an impulse buy as I never noticed it before and thought it would be interesting to cook it like rice. I liked it a lot, but that day I became intensely sick maybe several hours after eating it. I had extreme diarrhea, repeated vomiting, and a general feeling of being sick. At the time I thought I had a stomach virus so I thought I would just stay at home and rest, but it kept getting worse and worse so I went to the doctor. The doctor thought I might have a stomach parasite since one of the blood tests indicated elevated eosinophil count but the stool test showed no parasite. She sent me to a hematologist, who ran more blood tests which showed nothing wrong and the eosinophil count dropping down to normal. By that time I was feeling better. That doctor just recommended contacting him again if symptoms return. They didn t for a long time until after several months I decided to finish eating the rest of the barley I had. The same symptoms returned. I haven t asked any doctor about it since but was just assuming that it was some strange allergic reaction. At about that same time I began noticing that I was beginning to feeling slightly itchy whenever I at spicy foods which I ate alot. I decided to stop eating barley and spicy foods and I noticed that my fainting spells stopped. I hadn t eaten spicy foods for a year and I haven t fainted since. About a year ago I decided to try to test it out for sure so I ate spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce and a few days later I had a fainting episode with the same symptoms. I assumed it was an allergic reaction and after having read a bit more I was assuming that all the time I was going into anaphylaxis. The only two symptoms I don t seem to have is swelling of my throat and hands as well as any rash or itching. The itching comes immediately after eating spicy foods and the anaphylaxis maybe a few days or several hours later. My question is the following, is this the likely diagnosis? And is there a simple definitive test to diagnose this? What type of doctor should I see? I ve also noticed a few years ago that I seem to also be allergic to tylenol after never having been before. I had pretty standard allergic reaction symptoms. My lips swelled up, I felt itchy, and difficulty breathing. It lasted for only a few minutes and went away. Since then I have been staying clear of barley, cayenne pepper, and tylenol and it seems to work although I haven t seen a doctor about this allergic reaction guess for my past problems. The reason why I am asking now is because a few days ago I stupidly ate something with cayenne pepper in it and had another fainting spell without having had any problems for a long time. I noticed that the symptoms were the same but extremely intense this time around and a few hours later I noticed that my right eye felt itchy. When I rubbed it slightly I felt a sudden burning sensation that quickly went away. I immediately rushed to the bathroom mirror and noticed that the skin surrounding my eye was pitch black, as if I had a really bad black eye. I don t remember having hit my face as my face didn t feel sore after i fainted. The after affects after the faint lasted all day this time and out of curiosity I took my temperature and it read 95.2 degrees F (oral). Thinking this low I decided to have a hot bath. After sitting in the bath for about a few minutes the nausea suddenly intensified and I spontaneously began to vomit multiple times. For some reason the bath made me really sick. Anyway I m committed to stay clear of cayenne pepper and be more careful in the future, but the reason why I wanted to ask a doctor about this now was because I wanted to know if you think I should have an epipen on hand. I was a little afraid as to how much more intense the symptoms were after having not had them for so long. I was wondering if you think I should get checked out again or if there is really no way to definitively confirm such an allergy. Also, from what I read barley, cayenne pepper, and tylenol allergies are rare and also I don t experience every common allergy symptom. So I was wondering if you think I was wrong about this being an allergy or if this is indicative of some other type of unusual condition. I just didn t want to waste my time and money seeing another doctor about this again since I wasn t sure if there was going to be anything also they could test or do for me other than to advice staying clear of those foods for which I already know.