Enterolab Tests?

[jessicalw28]

I was wondering if anyone thought the Enterolab tests for sensitivities/intolerances were worth the money. I am pretty positive I have a gluten intolerance, but not sure about other foods like corn, legumes, etc. I'm not really sure how to go about figuring out the other intolerances on my own. Seems like a test would be easier, but it's pretty expensive. What do you guys think?

[mushroom]

As far as I know (could be wrong), Enterolab tests only for soy and casein (in addition to gluten of course). I figured out the others on my own. It is easier if you keep a diary but I kept it pretty simple and when I reacted to peas!! (knew everything else was safe), did it again the next night, and peas!! again. So they said green beans would probably be okay. A week later I tried green beans!!! Nope. After a few more positive legume trials I got rid of all of them, not to be tried for at least another year for me. With citrus, I knew I had been eating a lot of it so cut it out, then tried it again - whammo! It's really not that difficult if you work in food groups to start with and then focus down to individual foods.

[Jestgar]

What shroomie said.

An elimination diet / food diary is the best way to figure these things out.

[ravenwoodglass]

While I didn't use them as part of my celiac diagnosis I did find them helpful in confirming my soy intolerance. I did them for that and to see what genes I carried since my blood and biopsy diagnosed DD was told she could never be celiac because she didn't have DQ2 or DQ8 and I wanted to find out which genes I did have. I had the testing done 5 years after I was diagnosed celiac. I wish I had known about them during all the years of negative blood testing. While they do not diagnose celiac I think the antibody testing can provide some valuable clues in the diagnostic process.

[CMCM]

Enterolab testing was useful for me because I had minimized gluten to the extent that I couldn't/wouldn't get anything definitive on a traditional blood test. What the Enterolab testing told me was this: that I had a celiac gene and a gluten sensitivity gene, that my tests showed reactivity, that I am casein sensitive, and that no sensitivity showed up for soy or corn. None of this was a firm diagnosis of celiac disease or anything else. Given that my mom has celiac disease in the most severe way possible and given that I've had a lifetime of digestive problems, what Enterolab did for me was encourage me to pay attention to the possibility that I might have it and that I was most certainly predisposed to it.

So I experimented a lot with diet and learned that I'm better off without gluten, without dairy, without legumes of any kind, without starches and without sugar. A big list, but now I know how to eat to feel good. Perhaps all the sensitivities I have are somehow related to gluten. Or not.

Although my food issues were largely digestive my whole life, my reactions have morphed into arthritis type symptoms in my hands, fingers, wrist. This occurs if I eat gluten, and goes away when I don't eat it. The connection is obvious and glaring and I can't ignore it. The digestive issues still occur, but the fact is, unless I want to heavily eat gluten for rather a long time to create intestinal damage and thus get a firm diagnosis, I'm stuck with the knowledge I have at this point. I see no reason to ignore what I've learned about how I should eat. Whether or not I **had** active celiac disease at one point is immaterial. What I know is that IF I EAT gluten, I COULD get celiac disease and all that comes with that diagnosis. And what I know without a doubt is that gluten and certain other foods make me feel horrible. AND....I most certainly do not need a usually somewhat clueless doctor to officially proclaim that I have celiac disease. Fact is, if my test were negative and I were told to go ahead and eat gluten etc., I absolutely know how I would feel and I don't want to feel that way any more. So there! Therefore, I eat how I should eat, and it has paid off all around.

I don't want to risk getting active celiac disease, I feel fabulous when I eat gluten free and also don't eat the other things listed above except very rarely, and that's that. So this is the overall value of Enterolab, in my opinion. I'm grateful to Enterolab for providing me with useful information I was unable to get otherwise and a starting point for action, and therefore it helped me figure out a good way to eat to preserve my health from that point onwards.

[Skylark]

Enterolab only tests for IgA. That is not the only kind of sensitivity - you could have allergies with IgE or IgG to foods. You might get some useful information from Enterolab or an allergist running RAST. Once you have some foods to suspect, the only sure way is an elimination diet. You don't need the testing to try the elimination; it only makes it a little easier. You would choose a meat you like/tolerate, eat rice for a starch, and a few veggies like leaf lettuce, chard, and maybe carrots (not nightshades or crucifers) for a week or two. If things settle down, you can try adding foods you suspect to be problematic like corn and legumes. You add them one at a time in a "pure" form (like frozen corn kernels) and wait a few days between new foods to be sure there are no delayed reactions.