Allergy Testing

[taz sharratt 0]

just had my allergy appoitment, she tested a multiple of foods and the results shocked me. the prob is do i really take noye in what she said or is it just a quack she yested me with a sort of shoch to the thumb while holding an iron like barrel shape thing. anyway by her testing she said i had a major prob with all wheat, all cheese and milk,all green veg ie sprouts and brocoli,tomatoe, potoes starch, cod liver oil, all poultry, femeldehide and soya. there were little ones that she advise me reduce my intake of. curiously she didnt pick up on gluten and had advised me to eat it ( scary) , altho the test picked up malt and cider viniger, bakeing powder and yesat. dont know what to make of it, not happy with reintergrateing gluten also she said i had a big, huge reaction with white wne ( ok i know the test is a fake now) anyone had testing like this before? cheers for any advice on this.

[jayhawkmom 0]

I've never heard of this type of testing. It sounds pretty fishy to me. I've had both RAST (where they test the blood) testing and Skin Prick Testing, where they put the allergen on your skin, then a slight scratch to introduce the allergen into your system... and wait. And, also intradermal testing, where they inject a tiny bit of the allergen into your skin. But, never a shock with an iron rod... LOL!

Was this a reputable allergist??? Is it some new sort of testing that isn't widely used yet????

[Michi8 1]

I've never heard of an trained Allergist testing that way, and would be suspicious of those results. Plus, is she saying you are allergic or intolerant? It's an important disctinction, since they involve different immune responses. Traditional allergy tests do not show intolerances, just allergies. Also, if I recall correctly, testing for formaldehyde sensitivity/allergy isn't part of traditional allergy tests...you would need to do a 48 hour patch test for that.

In terms of traditional allergy testing, I've never had blood tests done, just the skin prick tests. My son had the injection test in addition to skin prick test to confirm how sensitive he is to penicillin...the results showed that he needed to carry an epipen.

Michelle

[Michi8 1]

I found this article on Medscape about the validity of electrodermal skin testing: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/493880

HTH!

Michelle