Re: Food allergy tests from blood contradicts SCD

[Guest guest]

On the list of foods that were "problematic" according to this test, were eggs, avocado, chicken, and green beans in the order of decrease reactivity. How can this be when these foods generally provide the most comfort?Weird. All I can think of is maybe you have leaky gut, so whenever you eat something it goes into your blood and your body produces antibodies for it. Since you eat those certain foods more than anything else, maybe your body has more antibodies for it, and thats what showed up in the blood test. So it may not necessarily be an accurate test of tolerance. Just my thoughts though.. =) Pour Dieu, pour terre,Alyssa 15UC April 2008, diagnosed Sept 2008SCD June 2009 (restarted)No meds except for the stupid iron pill I have to take that is SO illegal

[Guest guest]

On the list of foods that were "problematic" according to this test, were eggs, avocado, chicken, and green beans in the order of decrease reactivity. How can this be when these foods generally provide the most comfort?Weird. All I can think of is maybe you have leaky gut, so whenever you eat something it goes into your blood and your body produces antibodies for it. Since you eat those certain foods more than anything else, maybe your body has more antibodies for it, and thats what showed up in the blood test. So it may not necessarily be an accurate test of tolerance. Just my thoughts though.. =) Pour Dieu, pour terre,Alyssa 15UC April 2008, diagnosed Sept 2008SCD June 2009 (restarted)No meds except for the stupid iron pill I have to take that is SO illegal

[Guest guest]

Hi Bruce,

The test actually works by taking your current blood sample and analyzing it as

is. It does not expose it to a panel of food but rather looks in your blood for

certain antibodies.

What I found with my blood test, I had the highest IgG to the foods I ate the

most. These too were foods that I could actually eat without symptoms. I had

eggs, beef, pork, bananas, papayas and tomatoes on my high list.

I think people with leaky gut will show antibodies to pretty much everything

they eat. So I would suggest not worrying about it too much. I think focusing on

reducing/dealing with stress might be a better goal for you right now. It's hard

to heal a leaky gut when stress is getting you down.

Kat

>

> Hi:

>

> I've been on and off SCD for the past 3 years. For the most part it has

worked quite well, although recently it's not been working as well (probably

because of lots of stress these days).

>

> Anyways, my question has to do with a food allergy test I recently took. My

staples on the SCD are eggs, yogurt, avocado, chicken and green beans all

legally prepared. Whenever I have some problems I go back to these foods and

things usually return to normal. With these foods there is very little bloating

and gas and my stomach usually feels settled and bowel movements are not that

urgent.

>

> However, a recent food allergy test I took listed foods that produced the

strongest IgG (antibody/immunity) response and foods that did not. On the list

of foods that were " problematic " according to this test, were eggs, avocado,

chicken, and green beans in the order of decrease reactivity. How can this be

when these foods generally provide the most comfort? Conversely on the list of

food that did not produce an IgG response were beef, certain fruits, fish, and

RICE! I know personally that when I take rice it causes problems. So what's up

with this test? Is it just a bunch of BS? Has anyone else taken such a test

and produced such results that contradict SCD foods? I think the test involves

taking a sample of blood and exposing it to a panel of food antigens and then

doing an assay to measure antibody production (it cost quite a lot

unfortunately).

>

> Thanks,

>

> Bruce

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Bruce,

The test actually works by taking your current blood sample and analyzing it as

is. It does not expose it to a panel of food but rather looks in your blood for

certain antibodies.

What I found with my blood test, I had the highest IgG to the foods I ate the

most. These too were foods that I could actually eat without symptoms. I had

eggs, beef, pork, bananas, papayas and tomatoes on my high list.

I think people with leaky gut will show antibodies to pretty much everything

they eat. So I would suggest not worrying about it too much. I think focusing on

reducing/dealing with stress might be a better goal for you right now. It's hard

to heal a leaky gut when stress is getting you down.

Kat

>

> Hi:

>

> I've been on and off SCD for the past 3 years. For the most part it has

worked quite well, although recently it's not been working as well (probably

because of lots of stress these days).

>

> Anyways, my question has to do with a food allergy test I recently took. My

staples on the SCD are eggs, yogurt, avocado, chicken and green beans all

legally prepared. Whenever I have some problems I go back to these foods and

things usually return to normal. With these foods there is very little bloating

and gas and my stomach usually feels settled and bowel movements are not that

urgent.

>

> However, a recent food allergy test I took listed foods that produced the

strongest IgG (antibody/immunity) response and foods that did not. On the list

of foods that were " problematic " according to this test, were eggs, avocado,

chicken, and green beans in the order of decrease reactivity. How can this be

when these foods generally provide the most comfort? Conversely on the list of

food that did not produce an IgG response were beef, certain fruits, fish, and

RICE! I know personally that when I take rice it causes problems. So what's up

with this test? Is it just a bunch of BS? Has anyone else taken such a test

and produced such results that contradict SCD foods? I think the test involves

taking a sample of blood and exposing it to a panel of food antigens and then

doing an assay to measure antibody production (it cost quite a lot

unfortunately).

>

> Thanks,

>

> Bruce

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Bruce,

The test actually works by taking your current blood sample and analyzing it as

is. It does not expose it to a panel of food but rather looks in your blood for

certain antibodies.

What I found with my blood test, I had the highest IgG to the foods I ate the

most. These too were foods that I could actually eat without symptoms. I had

eggs, beef, pork, bananas, papayas and tomatoes on my high list.

I think people with leaky gut will show antibodies to pretty much everything

they eat. So I would suggest not worrying about it too much. I think focusing on

reducing/dealing with stress might be a better goal for you right now. It's hard

to heal a leaky gut when stress is getting you down.

Kat

>

> Hi:

>

> I've been on and off SCD for the past 3 years. For the most part it has

worked quite well, although recently it's not been working as well (probably

because of lots of stress these days).

>

> Anyways, my question has to do with a food allergy test I recently took. My

staples on the SCD are eggs, yogurt, avocado, chicken and green beans all

legally prepared. Whenever I have some problems I go back to these foods and

things usually return to normal. With these foods there is very little bloating

and gas and my stomach usually feels settled and bowel movements are not that

urgent.

>

> However, a recent food allergy test I took listed foods that produced the

strongest IgG (antibody/immunity) response and foods that did not. On the list

of foods that were " problematic " according to this test, were eggs, avocado,

chicken, and green beans in the order of decrease reactivity. How can this be

when these foods generally provide the most comfort? Conversely on the list of

food that did not produce an IgG response were beef, certain fruits, fish, and

RICE! I know personally that when I take rice it causes problems. So what's up

with this test? Is it just a bunch of BS? Has anyone else taken such a test

and produced such results that contradict SCD foods? I think the test involves

taking a sample of blood and exposing it to a panel of food antigens and then

doing an assay to measure antibody production (it cost quite a lot

unfortunately).

>

> Thanks,

>

> Bruce

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Kat:

Thanks for the reply. So if the test does not expose it to all the foods

listed, how does it work? For example, how does it know that banana's are

reactive and produce more IgG, whereas apples are not?

B

>

> Hi Bruce,

>

> The test actually works by taking your current blood sample and analyzing it

as is. It does not expose it to a panel of food but rather looks in your blood

for certain antibodies.

>

> What I found with my blood test, I had the highest IgG to the foods I ate the

most. These too were foods that I could actually eat without symptoms. I had

eggs, beef, pork, bananas, papayas and tomatoes on my high list.

>

> I think people with leaky gut will show antibodies to pretty much everything

they eat. So I would suggest not worrying about it too much. I think focusing on

reducing/dealing with stress might be a better goal for you right now. It's hard

to heal a leaky gut when stress is getting you down.

>

> Kat

>

>

[Guest guest]

Hi Kat:

Thanks for the reply. So if the test does not expose it to all the foods

listed, how does it work? For example, how does it know that banana's are

reactive and produce more IgG, whereas apples are not?

B

>

> Hi Bruce,

>

> The test actually works by taking your current blood sample and analyzing it

as is. It does not expose it to a panel of food but rather looks in your blood

for certain antibodies.

>

> What I found with my blood test, I had the highest IgG to the foods I ate the

most. These too were foods that I could actually eat without symptoms. I had

eggs, beef, pork, bananas, papayas and tomatoes on my high list.

>

> I think people with leaky gut will show antibodies to pretty much everything

they eat. So I would suggest not worrying about it too much. I think focusing on

reducing/dealing with stress might be a better goal for you right now. It's hard

to heal a leaky gut when stress is getting you down.

>

> Kat

>

>

[Guest guest]

ELISA food allergy tests look for specific antibodies to specific foods. So if

you've eaten lots of bananas and are reactive to it, then antibodies will be

present in your blood specific to the bananas. It " finds " these antibodies by

applying food antigens to the blood sample taken. If there is an

antigen/antibody reaction, then a measurement of how much of a reaction is

taken. This gives the number result for that food.

So in a way, the test I guess does " expose " your blood to the foods listed,

however it will not (should not) find any antibodies to foods that you have not

eaten. So it really can only test your blood against foods that you have

consumed. I'm not sure how long a food will stay in your system to react on this

test.

It makes sense based on this that doctors will prescribe a " rotation diet " when

dealing with food allergies. Basically they say to only eat a problematic food

once a week or so. Well this will obviously reduce the IgG reaction to that food

since you're consuming less. And if you rotate all foods so you're eating a

great variety, you should end up with a low IgG reaction to many foods. They

don't say anything about the sum of all these IgG numbers and what that might

mean. Is it better to have a few foods with high IgG, or many with low IgG. Will

this affect the immune system differently? I haven't found any answers to that,

and well, I did stop looking

I found a decent article looking at the ELISA test in case you're interested in

reading more. It may be somewhat biased against it, I'm not sure. I just found

it explained a bit why there might be discrepancies in results:

http://www.betterhealthusa.com/public/282.cfm Look specifically at the section

" What is Really Being Measured in the ELISA/EIA? "

Kat

>

> Hi Kat:

>

> Thanks for the reply. So if the test does not expose it to all the foods

listed, how does it work? For example, how does it know that banana's are

reactive and produce more IgG, whereas apples are not?

>

> B

[Guest guest]

Just re-read your original post and it was close but not quite right: " I think

the test involves taking a sample of blood and exposing it to a panel of food

antigens and then doing an assay to measure antibody production... " . The ELISA

exposes the blood to a panel of food antigens, but does not measure antibody

production. The antibodies are either present or not in your blood. What it

measures is the antigen/antibody reaction if there is one.

Hope that helps make it a bit more understandable. I was so confused when I had

my ELISA test (a couple years ago).

Kat

>

>I think the test involves taking a sample of blood and exposing it to a panel

of food antigens and then doing an assay to measure antibody production (it cost

quite a lot unfortunately).

>

> Thanks,

>

> Bruce

>