Question About The "other" Allergies Shown By Enterolab

[Gentleheart]

Gluten is a permanent allergy, part of a person's genetic code. You don't eliminate the potential reaction to or build up the tolerance for gluten by staying away from it long enough.

Enterolab also tests for soy, dairy (casein usually) and eggs (whites usually). I believe these are all protein allergies. I have also been told they are all permanent in a similar way to gluten. Does anyone know if that is indeed documented as true? I'm just trying to be better informed. Where does Enterolab's testing for yeast sensitivity fit in to all this? Is it likely permanent as well?

As I understand it, other allergies like one would discover through scratch testing, RAST, Lame Advertisement or ELISA, may or may not be lifelong. And many of them can be eventually maneuvered into a 5 day rotation pattern with planned avoidance.

Do I have it straight?

Is it practical to think that a person could acquire ALL of these major allergies from birth? Anybody ever read any scientific reasons why that might happen?

I know celiac requires certain genetics to even occur, but it also has to usually be 'triggered' at some time in a person's life. Does anyone know if the same holds true of these other major protein allergies? Or are they just part of a person's code from birth, having nothing to do with lifestyle triggers?

Anyone out there have every one of these major protein allergies at the same time: Soy, Casein, Egg Whites, Gluten? It would make it much harder to establish a balanced dietary lifestyle, it would seem to me.

[celiacgirls]

The way I understand it, someone correct me if I'm wrong, is that Enterolab tests for intolerances rather than allergies. It is a different response in the body. Allergies produce an IgE response and intolerances produce an IgA response.

Enterolab believes they are life-long but I don't know if there is other research supporting that. Enterolab appears to me to be on the forefront of research but they might be proven wrong some day.

My daughter is casein and gluten intolerant per Enterolab. She got a 9 for soy (10 being positive) but I'm convinced she needs to avoid that, too. Right now, I am trying to eliminate eggs from her diet and I'm afraid she will end up needing to avoid that. To top it all off, she (not the rest of the family) is a vegetarian! I am finding it difficult to feed her a variety of foods.

With so many intolerances, I will try to re-introduce foods as time goes on to see if she still reacts. Not the gluten since that is pretty established to be permanent but I will try the others. Probably when she is older, she will try them all, too.

[jayhawkmom]

Anyone out there have every one of these major protein allergies at the same time: Soy, Casein, Egg Whites, Gluten? It would make it much harder to establish a balanced dietary lifestyle, it would seem to me.

I read your post out of curiosity... but when I got to this part, even though I have no clue to the answers to your questions, I wanted to comment.

My 17 month old son is allergic to egg whites, soy, dairy protein, (and peanuts!) and is gluten free. His gluten tests are currently at the Mayo clinic... we are waiting for the results. He's been gluten-free for 4 months, so I have no idea what they think the tests are going to show.

Feeding him is challenging, noooo doubt about that. =( I'm interested in reading the responses so I know what my little guy has to look forward to.

(editing to add.... my lil guy was RAST tested after reacting to a bunch of things... his are "allergies" - not intolerances, with the exception of the gluten issue)

[SillyBoo]

I can't anwer your question about the permanence of these allergies, but I currently cannot eat any of those proteins. And I'm not too friendly with most legumes right now, either.

I can't imagine doing this as a vegetarian! What a challenge! I was vegetarian for many years, but would really be stuck right now without chicken and turkey. For those who can tolerate legumes and nuts, though, it should be doable.

[CMCM]

I can tell you that absolutely yes, an allergy/intolerance, whatever you want to call it, can happen at any time in your life. A good friend of mine who loves strawberries and has eaten them all her life (she is now 58) finally ate one too many....last year while having a bowl of them she had a sudden anaphylactic reaction and ended up in the emergency room. The doctor said she should NEVER eat them again.

My feeling from what I've been reading lately is that intolerances, even small ones, can add up and create a lot of inflammation inside the body, thus creating opportunity for other intolerances to spring up when the body is in a more weakened state.

Way back when my son was small and we were trying to figure out what all he was allergic to (main one is peanuts!), allergists said for most foods, the best thing is a 4-day rotation and that greatly helps prevent most foods from becoming a problem. It's the daily, over and over eating that leads to unexpected and sudden problems at some point (like with my friend's strawberry reaction).

[happygirl]

Allergies produce an IgE response and intolerances produce an IgA response.

Intolerances are also considered "delayed" food allergies. So while traditional allergies are referred to as IgE, delayed food allergies/intolerances are related to IgG and IgA.

[Gentleheart]

Thanks for all the information!

From what has been said it sounds like the tests from Enterolab are for IgA INTOLERANCES, not IgE allergies. Does anyone know if IgG reactions as found on ELISA tests are allergies or intolerances? I need to get all those terms straight. And I do know about the delayed reaction issue. But I'm still waiting to see if anyone knows whether these intolerances are then permanent. Allergies caused by "eating too many strawberries" or from a leaky gut can sometimes be negotiable and even possibly eliminated after a lengthy avoidance. Many allergy books are based on this very thing, rotation diets.

What I'm looking for is an explanation of these mysterious protein intolerances(casein, gluten, soy, egg whites) that may be an actual part of a person's genetic code. If that is true, then it is necessary to quit longing for when you can eat them again, and concentrate rather on comfortably living with an unchangeable situation, like we do with gluten. These intolerances may rival gluten for internal damage and discomfort. That's why I think it's important that we understand them and what they mean. If we think they are temporary like some allergies are and attempt to rotate them in the future, we might compromise our bodies by constantly requiring them to adapt and cope with this occasional 'poisoning'. Maybe there's a clue here as to why some of us still aren't well after gluten elimination.

[tummytroubles]

You bring up a really good topic. I've never thought about some of these intolerances to other foods as being similar to gluten intolerance based on proteins. Unfortunately I haven't seen anything about it in all my reading on the Internet. I've heard a lot about "leaky gut" and that if you heal that, you may be able to reintroduce some of the foods back into the diet. (But not gluten if a person has celiac).

Hopefully someone out there has more information about it.

[hathor]

From what has been said it sounds like the tests from Enterolab are for IgA INTOLERANCES, not IgE allergies. Does anyone know if IgG reactions as found on ELISA tests are allergies or intolerances? I need to get all those terms straight.

Good luck! The terms get thrown around and, from what I can tell, there is no consistency. In other words, some people say only IgE-mediated responses are "allergies," while others expand the term to include the delayed-onset, IgG things. I've even seen IgA stuff being termed that way.

I think that you have different causes for intolerances. So some might be permanent and others not. For instance, I think certain ethnic groups lack the enzyme to properly deal with lactose. That is pretty permanent. But then I've heard of celiacs developing lactose intolerance as a result of their leaky guts; they get healed and find they can deal with lactose again.

I don't know if we have enough knowledge at this point to know what all is genetic, what epigenetic, what environmental, etc. But it isn't as if I have exhaustively researched the subject; I'm just saying I don't know

To pick up on what a couple others have said, it is possible to be both vegetarian (even vegan) and gluten-free. I've been doing it myself. There are a couple Yahoo groups on the very subject. I don't find it that difficult. OK, I switched to gluten-free baked goods and grains, check labels, etc. like everyone else. But I don't think following a vegan diet made it any more difficult to go gluten-free than it would be for anyone else. (And legumes and nuts aren't necessary, either. It isn't hard to get enough protein in a plant-based diet -- the idea that it is has been discredited. A history of the subject -- Open Original Shared Link ) I eat a wide variety of foods. If anyone wants to know more, ask. Just in my short time on this forum there have been several threads involving vegetarian and vegan eaters; you can search for those as well.

[CMCM]

When we were testing our son 15 years ago, we had extensive blood testing done thru his alllergist....also the skin prick tests. For the blood tests, he was tested for all sorts of foods, and tested both for immediate reaction and for delayed reaction. The results were somewhat different, with much more showing up on the delayed test and the numbers were higher there. I believe the delayed one was 72 hours or so. At that time, the insurance co's wouldn't pay for the tests because they claimed their validity was not proven. I don't know if that has changed.

Another thing with these tests was that they admitted (at that time) that you could show elevated reactions but not really have any symptoms. So what the heck does it all mean? We couuld never figure it out, which foods to avoid, which were OK. They did advise a 4-day rotation on all suspect foods.

[Gentleheart]

If no one on this highly informed board knows the real truth about these things, then it's obviously an important area for research. Sure wish there was a knowledgeable scientist to ask. I'd really like to have all these inconsistencies and conflicting data sorted out and clarified. I believe it would help some of us manage our complicated diets much more effectively. Somebody needs to standardize all these definitions and compile the documented evidence, according to the most cutting edge authorities. We all could use a benchmark from which to start. Maybe Dr. Fine will be the one. Maybe somebody else. We'll see.

[happygirl]

But then I've heard of celiacs developing lactose intolerance as a result of their leaky guts; they get healed and find they can deal with lactose again.

Generally, the reason that recent Celiacs have problems with lactose is not necessarily because of leaky gut itself. If someone has temporary lactose intolerance and is a newly diagnosed Celiac, it is often because of the damage to the villi, caused by the Celiac reaction. It is on the tips of the villi where lactase is found (which helps break down the lactose). So, for those who have villous damage, and then go gluten free, their villi heal, and then they can tolerate lactose again---that is often the mechanism behind it. Tarnalberry has described this in greater detail in other parts of the thread.

That being said, you can be lactose intolerant and a healed Celiac, of course. But, just wanted to throw that out there. Casein, on the other hand, is potentially closer linked to leaky gut.

[Clark Bent as Stupor-Man]

I'm not so sure that Enterolab or any IGA and IGG tests can definitively show a permanent allergy, even for gluten, let alone dairy, soy, and egg... I believe all they indicate is that your body is currently producing antibodies to the given food... I'm of the opinion that there can be a number of reasons for your body to be producing these antibodies... it could simply be that a person has a true allergy/intolerance to that specific food and will always have this intolerance in some form... or it could be a more complex case in which some underlying condition(s) like candida, leaky gut, parasites, etc. is causing the body to produce antibodies to certain foods

as for yeast... as far as I understand, everybody naturally has candida, it's just that it proliferates and causes problems with certain people... if you test positive for candida, I don't think it means that you are intolerant to yeast, persay, just that your body has an overgrowth of it... once you get it back under control, you won't have to absolutely avoid yeast, though you'll likely have to minimize its consumption to some extent as your body will probably remain more susceptible to overgrowth in the future

I'm also pretty sure that IGE allergies (immediate onset allergies) are permanent although there can be false negatives and false positives for these tests as well... but if you do have a true IGE allergy, I would avoid the food permanently, especially if you have any type of serious reactions (though that probably goes without saying)

as for all those protein "allergies", I have all of them right now.. I've tested positive for gluten, dairy, eggs, and soy (all of them except soy I've tested positive from multiple labs despite avoiding the allergens for months prior to testing on my recent comprehensive intolerance test)... but I don't believe I'm truly intolerant to all of these specific foods (in addition to about 30 other foods I've tested reactive to) but that I have an underlying systemic condition which is causing a leaky gut, letting these proteins into my bloodstream and causing my body to detect these foods as foreign substances and create antibodies to them.. I'm inclined to believe I might have a few true food intolerances, probably gluten, maybe dairy, maybe even the legume family.. but that most reactions are just temporary until my gut heals.. 2 of my strongest reactions were to brewer's yeast and baker's yeast, which further confirms the candida I had previously tested positive for.. just have to find a way to kick it and I expect a number of food allergies to start disappearing...

as for a balanced dietary lifestyle, it's certainly difficult the more foods you eliminate, but I try to rotate my meats and veggies, which is mostly what my diet consists of currently on the induction part of the candida diet...