# question about food allergies



## bijou35 (Feb 6, 2004)

After 10 years of moderate suffering, I've finally decided to aggressively pursue treatment for my IBS. I actually started seeing a GI specialist for the first time (previous doctors had no interest in referring me). Anyway, I just saw my new GI, and asked about food allergies because I wanted to explore and rule out any dietary issues. My GI responded "The only food allergy is Celiac, and you've been tested for it." This really puzzled me, as my sister-in-law has an allergy to peanuts, and I had a friend who had a seriously debilitating allergy to milk protein. What's the deal here? Aren't food allergies real?


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

Food Intolerance Tests Thread with links attached etc...food allergy vs other mechanisms http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=1;t=033220 Post explaining Oral Tolerance on Food Triggers thread 6.27.03 http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=4;t=000616 Some recent physician case summaries supplied for reading here http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=5;t=000493 MNL


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## Julia37 (May 9, 2001)

I think you need to get a better doctor! This one is in denial because he doesn't want to deal with food issues.


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## Jan LEAP RD (May 19, 2002)

I'd have to agree with you Julia. . . this doc hasn't a clue.


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## pinupgirl1948 (Aug 6, 2003)

I have had the same problems with my doctors.I don't know why they don't seem to take food allergies seriously







I was finally tested after i had chronic sinus infections and was on antibiotics for 9 months out of the year.My doctor gave up on me and sent me to an allergist


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## kel1059 (Feb 28, 2003)

just another example of the BAD INFORMATION spewing from doctors.


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## Julia37 (May 9, 2001)

I think the trouble with bad doctors is, they're not trained to think. They're more like technicians - they're taught "If you see this symptom, throw this drug at it" - "If A, then B". And many of them never develop the habit of thinking beyond that.It's a shame, because thinking doctors would be so much better.


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## Ems (Apr 13, 2004)

Hi,I did a biochemistry degree and we were always doing experiments that used the principle of allergy tests. You need to have anti-bodies in your blood in order to test for an allergy. An allergy is more sever than an "intolerance". For instance, I am intolerant to wheat; my IBS is aggravated to the extreme. However, I do not puff up, itch, sneeze or suffer with an allergic reaction (like hayfever/pet allergy etc). Allergic reactions can kill you. Celiac is an allergy to wheat/gluten. To a celiac sufferer even a trace amount of gluten could cause an anaphylactic shock (very bad allergic reaction, which can be fatal). It is caused by a release of Histamine i.e. anti-histamines are allergy treatments.I firmly believe that intolerances cannot be tested for. There are tests available, but they often give you false positives. There is nothing in the blood to test for. Be wary of spending your money on them. I recommend doing a strict food diary or better still, find a dietician/ intuitionalist who can help you do a food sensitivity test. They will cut you down to basic bland foods and introduce one thing at a time. If you have an increase in IBS symptoms, you know that food is a problem.See my posting in the diet/recipe section of this site, for the diet that has helped me.Ems


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## Kodachrome (Jun 12, 2004)

Food allergies are most certainly real!I am very allergic to milk, and it's protiens! I am also somewhat intolerant to oranges and raisins. I am not intolernat of wheat/gluten as my allergy doc had thought, but I know what I feel like if I get even a small amount of dairy in me!


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## Jan LEAP RD (May 19, 2002)

> quote:I firmly believe that intolerances cannot be tested for. There are tests available, but they often give you false positives. There is nothing in the blood to test for.---


I'd hope your 'belief' is based in science, but it's not.Non-IgE food sensitivities can accurately be detected by measuring 'mediator release' in the blood. Mediators such as cytokines for example.IBS-D and migraine are often triggered by mediator release.Jan


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## Julia37 (May 9, 2001)

There's a test and treatment procedure at this site:www.nowleap.comUsually they can work with your doctor to have you tested, and after that you work with a dietician to change your diet.


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## Mike NoLomotil (Jun 6, 2000)

"I firmly believe that intolerances cannot be tested for. "That is the trouble with belief...it is often based on opinion of others not as well informed as they could be who then teach their beleifs and assumptions as if they were fact, and earnest people accept their utterances as fact as they are "opinion leaders". We need more Fact Leaders and less Opinion Leaders.In this case EMS I would suggest that in one context you are correct and in another you are merely a victim of the non-standardization of nomenclaturew and terminology in the wide field of aberrations in immune response to food antigens and non-immunologic aberrant food reactions.Not all tha is an aberrant immuned response to food is antibody dependent. Much of the entire oral tolerance process does not involve antobody formation at all (IgG, IgE, IgM, IgA, Ig ad nauseum) and much of it does.In the case of the dieases we deal with here, so called Functional bowel disease, the symptoms are the result of the release of an array of primflammatory and proalgesic mediators within the mucosa and lamina propria, even in the systemnic circulation, from many types of immunocytes and it varies widely.Mast cells in the gut degranulate, for example, in the absence of circulatin IgE antibodies to the provoking foods. Some believe this to be proof that the mast cell degranulation is mediated by stress-induced neurolotransmitters. Perhaps. But in vivo studies using jejunal isolation and local food challenge in thes patients (no atopy and no IgE antibodies) that there was localized specific IgE in the jejunal washings, and biopsy founf mast cells armed with specific IgE...weird eh...European allergists have come to call this one mechanism of Intestinal Allergy.There is also T cell and macrophage and lymphocyte activation seen on in vivo challenge which result sin the release of cytokines, prostaglandins and other Arachadonic aciud metabolites. All of which, when quantified, match up with the specific symptoms we attribute to so called IBS (d types).Anyway we have to really read and study a very wide range of material to find these things as they are not yet in our textbooks many times.One book that has much of the material, htough it needs supplementation with the discoveries made in 2003 and 2004, which I recommend (and which I know you will enjoy reading)is this one: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=glance&s=books Food Allergy and Intoleranceby Jonathan Brostoff, Stephen J. ChallacombeProduct Details Hardcover: 1120 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 11.50 x 1.75 x 8.75 Publisher: W B Saunders; 2nd edition (August 9, 2002) Wish I had more time to chat...must fly stayed too long already...MNLPSMight also find the discussion at the end of this thread interestinf or perturbing ;-) http://www.ibsgroup.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php...ic;f=4;t=000309


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