Allergy Test

[nfady]

I am planning to do food allergy test. I know I

[ShayFL]

A true allergy IgE mediated has to be dx by "skin prick" test. You will need to go to an Allergist for this "skin prick" test. You DO NOT have to be eating the food. This type of allergy causes swelling, itching, hives, anaphylaxis, etc.

For food sensitivities there is ELISA testing. Google it. There are a lot of false POS and NEG on Elisa. And they are expensive.

If you do not have the swelling, hives, itching type of reaction to these foods, why not just eliminate the suspect foods and see if you get better? Then if you do, you can challenge them later to see which one or if all of them are a problem. It is free to do an elimination diet and it is accurate compared to lab testing.

[AliB]

There is a big difference between an allergy and an intolerance. Most people who have a problem with gluten are gluten-intolerant or gluten-sensitive.

You have not explained what form your reaction to gluten takes.

An allergy usually takes the form of a histamine reaction where the face and eyes puff up, the throat can close up and breathing may be affected. It can also be accompanied by hives or a rash.

An intolerance may produce varied and different symptoms. Some may react with a headache or migraine, others with joint pain, still others with severe stomach and digestive problems.

An intolerance will not show up on an allergy test because it is not an allergy and is not producing a histamine response. A true allergy will usually be controlled with anti-histamine tablets, an intolerance will not.

If however you are producing antibodies that are picked up through an IgA or IgG test then that may indicate an intolerance and celiac disease.

As Shay mentioned, it is probably easier to just avoid those foods for a while and see if you improve. People who are gluten intolerant very often have problems with other foods too, possibly because of Candida and 'Leaky'Gut' syndrome. Many who are gluten-intolerant seem to have a problem digesting carbohydrates.

Do you always have a dry mouth?

[nfady]

There is a big difference between an allergy and an intolerance. Most people who have a problem with gluten are gluten-intolerant or gluten-sensitive.

You have not explained what form your reaction to gluten takes.

When I eat gluten and corn, I fall asleep after 3 minutes, muscle cramps, tiredness and headache for 2 days (I never get skin reaction ) So I cut out corn and gluten. If I was to have and IgA or IgG test it will not show up but I don’t care to find out if I’m intolerant or allergic since I’m happy to leave it out from my diet. It’s the other things. I started to eat cashew nuts (100g a day.) I was ok for 3 weeks then one day I had a sleep attack with same symptoms as the gluten. The same thing happened when I had a gluten dairy free chocolate. I’m I intolerant or allergic to coco or nuts or was it something else? I don’t like food, I never did, but I’m getting sick and tired of trying to figure out what I react to and not. So that’s why I just want to get a test. What do you guys think of this product

Open Original Shared Link

thanks you always for your time.

[AliB]

If you have a look at the 'Almonds' thread in this section you will see that 'Woolygimp' gets almost identical symptoms to you.

I suspect that it may be to do with bacterial activity. Most of us carry rogue bacteria within our guts and sometimes they get out of control. They can cause problems anywhere in the body. My suspicion is, through the research I have been doing, that when we withdraw a food source from the bacteria like the gluten, they just then adapt to a different food source.

Most often the problematic foods will be carbohydrate as that is most often their food source. The SCD removes the problematic carbs from the diet so depriving them of their food source, giving us the power to get them under control. Carbs and particularly sugar is a bacterial paradise!

You didn't mention whether the corn, gluten, cashew nuts and chocolate had any sugar in or on them. Corn and gluten are very fast-acting carbs. Chocolate obviously has sugar in it and cashews, especially roasted ones are often coated with starch which is a fast-acting carb.

Carbs and sugar are like drugs. One (cream) 'puff' and we're hooked. It's a very hard habit to break.....

[kkcarlton]

Hi,

I wanted to chime in on the Elisa tests. Someone on this thread said there are a lot of false POS and NEG. I got those tests for years. Sometimes foods would show up that I already knew I reacted to and then there were also foods that I was supposedly intolerant to where I never noticed a reaction but I eliminated them anyhow. Then last year I got tested by a lab in Germany (my mom lives there). It's a reputable lab and I had gotten tested by them before. This time they had added new foods to the test like green tea, wild pork, spirulina, and others that I was interested in. I got the results within a few days but the new foods were not listed. I called the lab and they re-ran the test with the new foods. There was roughly one week in between the two tests and in that one week there were major differences in some foods. On the first one I might have reacted with a +4 to a food while on the second one I only reacted with a +1 or not at all. Or I had no reaction on the first test but a strong reaction a week later. That's when I decided to stop wasting my money on these expensive tests. Since then I have read that this is not uncommon.

There is some info here:

Open Original Shared Link

I don't believe with everything they post on quackwatch but this seems pretty accurate.

Kristina

[ShayFL]

I found the ELISA tests to NOT be helpful at all. I did it 3 different times over the years. They got enough of my money.