Allergy Testing
Are you finding it harder to eat these days? Do you try to buy organic and fresh, only to find you still have constipation, diarrhea or irritable bowel syndrome? Frustrating isn't it?
Welcome to the complex world of food allergies. This month I am going to tackle allergies head on, laying out your choices and options.
There are two main types of allergy reaction.
IgE reactions are the ones you will almost certainly know about if you have one. These are the allergies that put you in hospital. They cause a massive reaction involving histamine release and sudden swelling which can be life-threatening if it involves the throat. Patients who have an IgE allergy often carry "Epipens" - so that they can give themselves a life-saving shot of adrenalin should the need arise. A common IgE allergy is to peanuts, which incidentally, are legumes and not nuts at all. Peanuts (in common with many other nuts and grains) are highly susceptible to a type of mold called Aspergillus. Aspergillus is highly neuro-toxic and is capable of making anyone very sick very quickly. Often the reaction is not to peanuts but to the Aspergillus. It only takes one batch of moldy peanuts for the poor patient to be denied nuts for life.
IgG allergies are often known as "hidden food allergies." Their very existence is disputed by some in medical circles, which is why they are often called intolerances rather than allergies. An IgG reaction won't kill, but it can make you very ill.
The reason these allergies are hidden is that the symptoms they cause may not emerge for hours or days after eating. Being creatures of habit, we often eat similar things every day so when the food I eat today creates a runny nose tomorrow and I eat it again tomorrow, I will never know why I keep having a runny nose. That is why so many people have a low level of tiredness, headache, sinusitis, bowel trouble, constipation or diarrhea and yet they're never able to track down the cause. Their GP, with no training in nutrition, can't track down the cause either and so gives drugs to hide the symptoms, further hiding the allergy.
Hidden food allergies occur when digested or partially digested fragments of the foods leak into the blood stream through a leaky gut and poor digestion.
There are many ways to diagnose food allergies. Some are more reliable than others.
Hospitals tend to use skin "patch" testing. This involves applying various substances to the skin in a patch and then measuring the reddening response in the skin. This type of testing is very good for IgE and contact allergies, and not bad for airborne allergies but it is absolutely useless for food. It shouldn't be too hard to see that the reaction of foods in the gut after digestion is going to be very different to the reaction of foods placed on the skin.
Blood tests give a reasonable account of themselves. The York Test costs £125.00 for a basic test and £250.00 for the full test. The reaction of the blood is noted against a range of foods. Again, problems occur when the food they test is not digested and therefore not similar to what would actually present from your gut. Some people are faced with long lists of foods to avoid and find implementing the results difficult.
Vega Testing is used by many practitioners and is offered by some health food stores. It measures the electrical resistance of the skin as various vials are placed in the machine. The experience of many patients with this test is disappointing, although a few get lucky with the right result.
Proprioceptive testing involves asking people to taste a food and then testing their muscle strength while they taste the food. This is not as crazy as it sounds. The basis of muscle strength is afferent input. When toxic information hits the nervous system, the output to the muscles is affected. I offer this test at Naturality. I find it's simplicity and low cost compelling. The test includes a personalised diet plan to help explain how you can avoid the foods that are causing you problems.
Watch what happens to Alison as she tries to eat a cereal bar:
If you can't see this video, please click here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjpF4pl3Fh8
Some Kinesiologists test muscles while the food is placed on your body, even when it is in a glass vial. This is nonsense and should not be trusted.
You can work out your own allergies but it isn't easy. You need to follow an elimination diet, which is basically to eat only rice, peeled pears, fish and water for as long as it takes to be clear of symptoms. Then introduce one food every two days until you get a reaction. If you get a reaction (worsening of symptoms) you then eliminate that food and try the next food.
It might help you to know that most food intolerances are not your fault. We are reacting to how the food is produced, contaminated and adulterated.
The most common food allergies are milk and dairy products - made toxic by pasteurisation, and bread - made toxic by intensive farming and production.
Sometimes patients have multiple allergies and their diet becomes overly restricted. In these cases it is better to treat the underlying problem that creates their allergies than to have them continually avoid every food.
If you would like a Naturality food intolerance test or advice on any health topic, please email info@naturality.org.uk or phone 01442 800400.
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