# food allergy blood test vs food sensitivity blood test



## rockingirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Anyone on here taken a food sensitivity blood test? I remember someone on here had gotten a neat chart showing what foods to avoid, and was doing much better. However, is this the same blood test an allergist would do? Or is it something different? If it's different, how did you get it? What labs actually do it?


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Standard allergy testing is usually a scratch or prick test done on the skin.There are various tests used with the blood with various levels of credibility, so hard to know which one you are looking at. Some sensitivities are tested for by breath test to see if you produce excess amounts of gases after consuming the carbohydrate. Often those are the ones that cause the most problems for IBSers, but they aren't an allergy so you wouldn't catch those with any kind of immune response based test.


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## rockingirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Right. But this was one with all different categories of food. I believe you have to go to a neuropath for it, and insurance doesn't cover it. Just trying to figure out if this is the same blood test an allergist does when they don't get conclusive results from the skin prick test.


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## degrassi (Jun 10, 2003)

I had a blood allergy test in November. This is the one I had done http://www.drtrethart.com/new/tr_elisa.php Its done by Meridian Valley Laboratory http://www.meridianvalleylab.com/allergy_dept.htmlIt wasn't covered under insurance and I had to pay about 300$


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Probably not.Usually medical doctors and naturopaths do not do the same tests. Often a ND cannot order medical tests from a medical lab, only an MD can. One of my issues with some of the ND ones is I swear every person is always sensitive to all the exact same foods no matter what disease they are complaining about, even non GI ones.Never had a blood test for food allergies, but my scratch test the last time we reworked my allergy shots for the pollen and mold were conclusive that no foods are part of the problem. The only reaction I had at all was to cantelope and it cross reacts with ragweed that I am highly allergic to. It was kind cool. Big welts all over the top half where the pollen and stuff was and nothing at all down on the bottom half where all the foods were.Food sensitivity is even more murky than food allergy when it comes to testing. You'll probably do just fine for a lot less money just keeping a food journal and maybe doing a few 2 week trials of no wheat or no lactose or limiting fructose for the common carbohydrate problems.While it seems logical that most if not all GI symptoms should be from food and food alone, with IBS it is much more the exception than the rule. Most IBSers symptoms don't vary that much with diet (a few do, but most people cause themselves so much stress over food that stress causes a lot of IBS symptoms) or they have general issues like a fatty meal or waiting too long to eat increases the gastrocolic reflex.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Here is a study I just heard a radio report on where a lot of the blood tests are not really enough to show you are allergic.They did food testing with kids who had blood tests saying they were allergic to lots of foods.A lot of them end up being foods they can eathttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/health/03well.html


> The culprit appears to be the widespread use of simple blood tests for antibodies that could signal a reaction to food. The tests have emerged as a quick, convenient alternative to uncomfortable skin testing and time-consuming "food challenge" tests, which measure a child's reaction to eating certain foods under a doctor's supervision.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."The only true test of whether you're allergic to a food or not is whether you can eat it and not react to it," said Dr. David Fleischer, an assistant professor of pediatrics at National Jewish Health. In one recent case there, doctors treated a young boy who had been given a feeding tube because blood tests indicated he was allergic to virtually every food. Food challenge testing allowed doctors to quickly reintroduce 20 foods into his diet, and they expect more to be added.


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## rockingirl (Jan 10, 2008)

degrassi said:


> I had a blood allergy test in November. This is the one I had done http://www.drtrethart.com/new/tr_elisa.php Its done by Meridian Valley Laboratory http://www.meridianvalleylab.com/allergy_dept.htmlIt wasn't covered under insurance and I had to pay about 300$


Has avoiding the foods it listed helped you?


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## rockingirl (Jan 10, 2008)

Thanks for all the info! Yeah I've tried the food diary, and there's just no common thing that causes symptoms. I guess I'm just wishing for a magical list of foods to avoid, lol. I did do the skin prick test and got negatives, but I also did the blood test too. The results have been coming in to the allergist and it looks like I'm going to have all negatives on that too. Wonder if anyone has gotten their insurance to cover the food intolerance blood test. I suppose I might as well try it if it's covered.


Kathleen M. said:


> Probably not.Usually medical doctors and naturopaths do not do the same tests. Often a ND cannot order medical tests from a medical lab, only an MD can. One of my issues with some of the ND ones is I swear every person is always sensitive to all the exact same foods no matter what disease they are complaining about, even non GI ones.Never had a blood test for food allergies, but my scratch test the last time we reworked my allergy shots for the pollen and mold were conclusive that no foods are part of the problem. The only reaction I had at all was to cantelope and it cross reacts with ragweed that I am highly allergic to. It was kind cool. Big welts all over the top half where the pollen and stuff was and nothing at all down on the bottom half where all the foods were.Food sensitivity is even more murky than food allergy when it comes to testing. You'll probably do just fine for a lot less money just keeping a food journal and maybe doing a few 2 week trials of no wheat or no lactose or limiting fructose for the common carbohydrate problems.While it seems logical that most if not all GI symptoms should be from food and food alone, with IBS it is much more the exception than the rule. Most IBSers symptoms don't vary that much with diet (a few do, but most people cause themselves so much stress over food that stress causes a lot of IBS symptoms) or they have general issues like a fatty meal or waiting too long to eat increases the gastrocolic reflex.


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## Cathy in CA (Feb 5, 2009)

*Although I have been tested for celiac disease and other malabsorption disorders, as we all should have done, I've never done an actual allergy test. I have, several times, tested myself by avoiding a food or catagory for a month then eating it to see what happens. Nothing ever changes during or after the test. Every few years, I keep a food journal. Only one consistency has ever shown up; since I got Rheumatoid Arthritis (systemic disease-not just arthritis) 7years ago, I cannot eat an egg in any cooking technique without getting fierce diarrhea. I must not be truly allergic, however, because I do fine if it is a minor ingredient in a recipe. Also, suddenly with RA, I became severely allergic to many medications from aspirin to prednisone (anaphylaxis twice!) so I had big changes from the RA. Other than that recent development, it does not matter what I eat or when I eat.... one day I can eat a mexican dinner and have no problem, another day, I can get horrible diarrhea from a piece of toast! I read here somewhere that diarrhea can be caused by what we ate the day before. That's interesting... I should probably do the journal thing again. I would sure like to know if I can prevent bad days.Anyway, no advice about formal food-allergy testing, sorry.Cathy *


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## degrassi (Jun 10, 2003)

rockingirl said:


> Has avoiding the foods it listed helped you?


I have been on the no dairy or eggs diet since Jan 1st, with only a few slip ups(there was trace eggs in a few things I ate). I haven't noticed much improvement. My IBS is better then it was in sept-dec but I was having a bad "attack" during those months. Right now its back to being my "normal" IBS-D. Stopping dairy and eggs hasn't cured me. I was hoping it would be that simple. Stop my "sensitive" foods and I'd feel better, so far thats not the case. I've tried elimination diets before and never noticed any results. For me it seems its not the food but the act of eating. I feel sick after eating anything, doesn't matter if its fast food or a vegetable. I"m thinking i'm going to test it by eating some cheese this week, or a glass of milk. I'll see if that causes a reaction. Also when keeping a food diary, remember that a food reaction can be imediate or a few days after eating the food. So that makes it harder to find anything, as it may be a few days after you eat the item that you see a response.


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## cherrypie09 (Jan 20, 2009)

Hi.I am keeping a food diary, Ive been on a lactose free diet for 2 weeks, so far not any improvement, I have heard that some carbs can upset IBS-D, if anyone knows what ones to try and avoid, please do tell. I dont know if i am intolerant to any specific foods, but any elimination test is better than doing nothing . I am at my wits end.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

You may have zero food sensitivities. IBS is not just triggered by food. A lot of people have symptoms from the normal variation in colon activity during the day.Pretty much every alt med test for food sensitivities will give you a result to avoid wheat.Which isn't actually all that crazy for IBSers. The resistant starch in wheat is often a problem, so you might try a two week wheat free diet. If you want to try low carb you might do phase I of the South Beach diet for two weeks to see if it helps. I would not use the fiber supplement they sometimes recommend as that can increase gas for some people and might change the results.The other main carb to avoid for a couple of weeks would be Fructose. http://john.toebes.com/diet.html has info on that. The South Beach Phase I will be low in resistant starch and fructose, but not quite as restricted in fructose as the fructose diet (which allows resistant starch).Sorbitol from raw or dried fruits and juices bother some people. Mostly apples pears peaches plums and cherries. It is also in a lot of low carb processed foods so if you try a low carb diet stick to whole foods or check the labels to make sure they didn't add sugar alcohols (any -itol) to reduce the carb count.If you think carbs are a problem the breath test after a challenge with fructose or lactose would be a better test than a blood test. I don't know that those intolerances really show up in the blood. However most any alt med person will put you on a diet limited in wheat and lactose just because those are the common things that cause gas so I think it works fairly well even if the tests cannot prove anything. I don't think they do a resistant starch test of any kind, even the breath test.


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