Been For Allergy Tests

[jhol]

so spent the day at the hospital, they did some allergy tests there and then and every one was negative.

 

im getting so fed up with all these negatives, im starting to think im making it all up!!!

 

ive got to go back and have some more done, some blood tests and then the results.but im not holding out much hope. i dont understand that i can have symptoms- they,re all written down in a book and i even retested some of them last week just to be sure. the results were the same.

 

i asked the doctor what happens if they all come back negative and she just shrugged her shoulders and said " your not allergic to them"

 

so am i going in the wrong direction with this? could there be another reason im having problems with food rather than having an allergic reaction to them?

thanks..

[shadowicewolf]

so spent the day at the hospital, they did some allergy tests there and then and every one was negative.

 

im getting so fed up with all these negatives, im starting to think im making it all up!!!

 

ive got to go back and have some more done, some blood tests and then the results.but im not holding out much hope. i dont understand that i can have symptoms- they,re all written down in a book and i even retested some of them last week just to be sure. the results were the same.

 

i asked the doctor what happens if they all come back negative and she just shrugged her shoulders and said " your not allergic to them"

 

so am i going in the wrong direction with this? could there be another reason im having problems with food rather than having an allergic reaction to them?

thanks..

You could just be intolerant to them.

[jhol]

You could just be intolerant to them.

hi,

could you just explain the difference between allergy and intolerant, if you can. does that mean intolerant cant be tested at all. is there a chance they could find something in the blood tests rather than the pinprick tests?

soz if i sound really dumb, having a bit of a stress out at the moment..  

[bartfull]

Yeah, the allergy tests will only test for allergies (the kind that give you anaphalaxis). They aren't even all that accurate. There are not currently any tests available for intolerances. The only way to find out what you're intolerant to is an elimination diet. Takes a long time to figure it all out, but if you already have an idea of the foods that bother you, cut them out completely for several weeks. Once you're feeling better, add back one at a time and see if you react.

 

Some foods can be grouped together. Nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant) - if you're intolerant to one, odds are you are intolerant to them all. BUT - it MIGHT be that you can eat some but not all. I can't eat things high in salicylates for example. Some nightshades are high in sals, so I might be able to eat some but not all.

 

What I did was drop down to 11 foods I knew I could eat, then started adding things. And for a while, I was able to add some things without a problem. Then I got glutened and it set me back to square one. I am holding out hope that eventually I will get over some of these additional intolerances. I hope the same for you.  The longer you are gluten-free, the more likely it is that these other foods will stop bothering you. (They never said this would be easy)

[Juliebove]

There are many reasons why certain foods could cause you problems.  If the foods are raw fruits or vegetables or nuts, and your throat or tongue gets itchy, it could be OAS (oral allergy syndome).  With this your body mistakes the food for a pollen.  If you do have this, you may be able to eat the foods when it is not allergy season or you may be able to cook them. 

 

GERD can cause you to not be able to eat some foods.  You might get the typical heartburn, you may find yourself clearing your throat a lot, you may have stomach pain.

 

Arthrits can cause you to have trouble with wheat and nightshades.  You could have joint pain when you eat these.

 

You could have food intolorances aka IgG alleriges.  Although there are tests for these, the tests are controversial.  My first two were done via a blood test by two different Naturopaths.  The tests are not covered by insurance and are very expensive.  My last one was a hair test.  I found it on the Internet.  Although people have poked fun at me for having the test done for my daughter and me, I do believe in it.  That test uncovered oats and rye for me when previous tests had not.  Also mint and some herbs.  So for me it was really worth the money.  Also uncovered flax for my daughter.

 

The thing about food intolorances is that they often give you a delayed reaction and a variety of symptoms.  For my daughter and me, those symptoms might be:  Itchy skin, hives, rashes.  Upset stomach.  Could be pains, the big D or chronic big D.  Could be an itchy, watery, stuffy nose.  We used to go through Kleenex like mad!  Not any more.  And some things cause us to get a weird, weepy/seepy nosebleed.  It's like a runny nose with blood mixed in.

 

If you can't find someone to test you, you could try keeping a food journal but...  This really only works if you have only one or maybe two foods that are a problem.  If you have mulitple foods, it can be super hard to ferret them out.

[GFinDC]

Hi Jhol,

 

Allergies are a result of an IgE antibody reaction.  The tests for them are only related to those IgE reactions.  there are also other types of antibodies that can cause reactions, such as IgG and IgA etc.  The immune system is pretty complex and works really well.  Or we'd all be dead.  There is also a separation by what they call the adaptive immune system and the innate immune system.  People with NCGI may have an innate immune reaction vs an adaptive immune reaction (IgA, IgG, IgE).

 

If you are NCGI there are no tests for that.  They (doctors) didn't believe it existed until last year.  Now some of them do at least.  But there is not much really known about it yet.

 

Non-celiac wheat sensitivity article
https://www.celiac.com/articles/23033/1/Non-Celiac-Wheat-Sensitivity-It-Exists/Page1.html

Innate immune response in AI diseases
https://www.celiac.com/articles/23149/1/Gliadin-Triggers-Innate-Immune-Reaction-in-Celiac-and-Non-celiac-Individuals/Page1.html

 

[SonjaRebecca]

Hey, Food sensitivities CAN be tested for. I was tested last summer when I was seeing a holistic doctor for my stomach issues because I was sick of the regular doctors not doing anything! (I have a long history with doctors not listening to me). Anywho, the name of the test was Alletess...they have a website, Open Original Shared Link That's how I found out about a longggggg list of food sensitivities I have. (To go along with me having celiac disease and being a vegan) Now I've had to get some allergy tests done because I'm still having issues with my stomach...Come to find out, I'm allergic to a lot of things too... But yeah, so there is still hope - DON'T give up! You know your own body better than the doctors...Keep pushing them! I pushed for 6 years before they finally found celiac disease! (Got lots of other diagnosis that were not right - they didn't want to listen to me...kept telling me I was stressed)...I'll stop rambling, Good luck! I hope you can figure it out!