Community Forum

I am wondering what credence any of you give to the IgG Food Antibody tests and elimination diets based on the findings.  

 Reply posted for mseefeldt.

Hello again,
From personal experience I think it is really important to do this test every year. I did it last February and was doing great. If I tried re-introducing a red food I would have a reaction. I retested again recently because I was getting really sick again. I am glad I did because sometimes the reactions can change. Now that I am following the new diet in my test results I am doing much better. Alan is right about soy and peanuts. Even though I have no reaction to those I keep them out. I also try to follow as much of a paleo diet as I can.

I just found out some frightning info myself. I have more IgG and IgE then normal and absolutley NO IgA in my body! I have to see a hemotologist in the near future. Since finding this out I have read in several sources that IgA absent people are more prone to autoimmune disease like RA, Lupus and of the GI tract. It makes sense. It might not be a bad idea to get immunoglobulins checked.

Another very good source is http://www.food-allergy.org/ I just ordered Nickie's book. She has Crohn's disease and had terrible food allergies. We have e-mailed back and forth and she has been a GREAT source of help for me.

Another test I am awaiting results on is the CDSA 2. It is a very thorough stool test. I have asked a GI doc and an internal MD and they both have no idea what it is! Scary.
Here is a sample result of the CDSA. You can see what it looks at:http://www.healthscopepathology.com.au/pdf/fp_testInfo/CompleteDigestiveStoolAnalysis_CDSA_SR-2.pdf I think that by following a paleo diet and food testing the body can get better.

I have good days and bad but when I am doing all this stuff in combonation my bad days are spread apart. It is a constant journey. Do visit Alans website frequently. I am certainly glad I found him on here!
Julie
Hope this helps

 Reply posted for momofk.

I don't have a lot of technical papers on this, but a quick scan of google search suggests that my science intituition could be correct that there could be quite a few false positives in food allergy testing.

When we build ELISA's in the lab (the test's used to measure IgG and IgE), its quite common to get false positives as many of the screening antibodies can be polyclonal, meaning they bind to more than one site on a protein and can be crossreacting.  The probability of having polyclonal antibodies coming from serum is high, and is a function of protein concentraton.

I don't want to cause problems, and I really have no solutions, but blood-based allergy testing might not be that accurate......

While the blood tests can help doctors identify potentially risky foods, they aren’t always reliable. A 2007 issue of The Annals of Asthma, Allergy & Immunology reported on research at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, finding that blood allergy tests could both under- and overestimate the body’s immune response. A 2003 report in Pediatrics said a positive result on a blood allergy test correlated with a real-world food allergy in fewer than half the cases.

A year ago I did the IgG test against 154 foods. I came back to 39 of them! most were 1+ but things like cows milk, cheese, egg and toatoes were 2+ and brewers and bakers yeast scoring 3+. I have stayed away from all 39 foods for a year and have been doing much better. Anytime I tried introducing even a 1+ I resulter in a Crohn's flare up 6 hours to 3 days later. pretty powerful. I am actually getting retested this thursday because I think some of my sensitivities may have changed which can happen. I have been having flare ups recently with a big one last night. I will keep you posted.


I did go a good 3-3 1/2 months of remission after being on the diet and giving up all sources of sugar. When I did the test a year ago I also had them test for Candida overgrowth which is another contributing factor to autoimmune disease. I came back at the highest level you can. I have been off and on Nystatin for Candida for the last year. I will retest that in February or March.

Happy Holidays!

julie 

 Reply posted for momofk.

I think there is mounting evidence that allergies are linked to leaky gut. The hydrogen breath test detects bacterial imbalance which is greatly involved in leaky gut (as is ibd).

Diets low in sugars and starches make a real difference to gut bacteria and gluten and lectins in the foods you mention are often harmful to the gut lining when things go wrong. Also good fats (coconut oil, evoo, animal fats, butter) are really important. Do lots of reading and don't try to stay 'low fat'.

Don't give up the dog until you have read lots more about diet and leaky gut. I think Alan has a good reference to a paper by Dr Fasano at University of Maryland on the subject. It's complicated but a good link to a research centre as much  of the public information  often seems comes from rather vague sources.
Best of luck. It sounds as though you are already on the right track.