# Food Intolerance / Allergy Testing



## clh25 (Jun 27, 2010)

HiI'm currently trying to sort my diet out to reduce the effects of IBS that I've been having, and seemed to have nailed it at present... although the downside is I'm eating pretty much nothing! I am surviving on a zero carb diet consisting mostly of protein shakes. This has helped improve my symptoms dramatically which I'm happy about, however I'm not that excited by the prospect of a life of liquid food!I've always found that eating meat made me struggle, and this was kind of reinforced this weekend when I tried to eat a small burger (on its own with no bread or anything else), and after that I was awake in the middle of the night with quite bad pains in my stomach.I know at the moment having stripped everything out of my diet, it's hard to say for sure what has made the difference so I'm not certain, but I do get the idea that meat is a trigger for my symptoms flaring up again.So this has led me to look into having a food allergy / intolerance test done, to try and pinpoint any foods that do have this effect so I can look to avoid if needed, whilst allowing my to introduce other foods back into my diet. Has anyone had a food intolerance test recently and found this has helped them? If you're in the UK, can you let me know where you had yours done? I'm looking on the internet and I'm quite dubious of a lot of the tests, some just seem ridiculously expensive and then some seem to be a waste of time (according to reviews of them). I understand that I could get a referral through my GP, but given that this normally comes with a nice long waiting list, I'm not against paying to have this done myself if it's worth doing.Would be interested in hearing other peoples' experiences of these tests.C x


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## vcoop (Jul 9, 2010)

I've been looking to test my digestive enzyme levels or my intolerance to lactose, glucose, etc. My doctor says there isn't anything that can do that. Let me know what you find.I have done the allergy testing and I am allergic to NOTHING! Even the doctor was shocked. So I am perfectly healthy, minus nausea, BM's that are either D or very large and very inconsistent, and the abdominal pains. Another test I had done was a HIDA scan to test the functionality of my gallbladder; it functions perfectly. Go figure.I am convinced I have an intolerance to lactose and maybe gluten. I tested negative for celiac disease. So the best I can do is eliminate those things from my diet and see if I feel better. My brother suggested becoming a veagan; I'm not quite ready to give up meat as I'm a Texas girl.Victoria


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

For what it is worth vegan diets are sometimes really hard on IBSers as most of the vegetable protein sources (like beans and legumes) are all high gas producers and many IBSers have problems with anything that causes gas (and wheat is a pretty big gas producer as well from the starch which has nothing to do with the gluten protein and can be why limiting wheat--don't need complete avoidance of all trace contamination--can sometimes help with IBS). Lean protein is usually pretty well tolerated, and some IBS-D types do best on low carb diets that include meat. However if you are fat sensitive it can be hard to find red meat lean enough and people may need to stick to skinless chicken or turkey breast and/or lean fish.The other thing to remember is that food is not the one and only trigger for symptoms.If you aren't sleeping enough, eating on the right schedule (often need smaller more frequent meals with IBS), have any other illness or any other physical stress (like it is too hot outside for you) that can cause more problems than diet for some people. Mental/emotional stress can also be a problem.So even if you found the right diet if you are pulling a couple of all nighters every week, or not getting enough, or getting too much exercise for your fitness level you could never know the diet is helping as too many other things are setting the IBS off.And some people have the same symptoms regardless of diet.


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