# ELISA



## ImissCoffee (Nov 8, 2007)

I tried searching for a topic to answer my question first, but there were 15 pages of matches and I had a hard time sorting through them, so I apologize if I missed an appropriate thread.I have gathered that some people swear by the ELISA test and others think it's merely a sham, but I was wondering if anyone had it done, and what kind of results came of it. I've tried elimination diets before, but it was many years ago and I don't really know how well I stuck to it. Now I'm having trouble finding "safe" foods. My diet is mostly rice based, I've gathered a few foods that are problems for me (dairy and soy, not a good combo of things to not eat haha) but I was hoping if the blood test was legit it might help me do another elimination diet. I don't expect perfect answers, but just hoped it could point me in the right direction.So yeah, basically, did it do anyone any good? Which lab did you go through? Did your insurance cover any of it?Side question, can food intolerances cause malabsorption?Thank you.


----------



## FinallySolved (Dec 14, 2004)

I had an ELISA food allergy test done recently. They found that my blood serum reacted to milk, eggs, and wheat. I eliminated those from my diet for a couple of months--a very difficult thing to do. I've always suffered from IBS-C. It helped a bit, but didn't completely solve my constipation. One thing I did notice, though, is that I no longer have an energy crash after a meal like I did when I had a meal with milk or eggs in it. So, I am happy I did it. I talked to a GI Dr. (I also had a colonoscopy done). His opinion was that if you have diarrhea, a food allergy may be to blame. But, he said, if it helps...whatever "it" is...keep notes on it and try to incorporate it into your routine. As for the lab, my Dr. used US BioTek Labs. But, I don't think it matters as long as you get the full test done and see the full results. As for insurance, mine didn't pay, but I have a high deductible. YMMV.And, in my opinion, I would recommend getting it. Its a few hundred dollars and will either rule out or rule in some things. I also say to get a colonoscopy for the same reason. Both are founded in modern medical science with some evidence to support that they may cause symptoms of IBS (unlike "colon cleansing", which doesn't have any science to back it up).With IBS, there is often no one answer, as the diagnosis simply says you have a syndrome with symptoms. Keep ruling things in or out, keep track of what supplements help and don't help and what all the medical tests suggest. (And, yes, depending on your definition of "food intolerance," food can cause malabsorption, e.g., Celiac Disease.)


----------



## 16229 (Jan 28, 2006)

It's another option, and it may help, but it may not. Seems like no one single thing helps more than 20 or 30 percent of us. But if you have a clear cut food allergy, the ELISA test can help with that.Me, for example, I have intolerances that change over time. So today's safe food is next months food of death. For me, the allergy testing didn't do much as I got different answers every time. My aunt on the other hand cut two things out of the diet and did great with it. Twas quite a few years back now so can't remember which foods off hand, but they were pretty easy for her.Intolerance can cause some malabsorption, like FS said, but that's not usually how it works. In Celiac, the intolerance actually damages the intestinal lining over time, causing the intestine to not be able to absorb any nutrients in those areas. So it's not really the gluten intolerance directly causing malabsorption, but the effects of that gluten intolerance.Intolerance in other cases can mean you absorb it, but it causes other sypmtoms. Like you may get osmotic d, where the body flushes the intestinal tract with water to force everything out.What was your hemoglobin on the original test? Have you, or anyone in the family you know of, had anemia? Your glucose level (blood sugar) can also be an important diagnostic with some GI disorders. Did you speak to your doctor about a follow up blood test to try to pin down that it is, in fact, malabsorption and not something else?I was going to expand on the other thread, but thought I'd probably just be boring you, but you seem to be tiring google out so I'll try to explain a little better.The original blood test tests for ratios of one substance versus another. Say I was looking for A/B ratio, and that ratio is supposed to be 2 a's for every b. So if we had 20 a's and 10 b's we would get the same score as if we had 100 a's and 50 b's. So, our original blood test, tells us that there is something wrong with the ratio of A and B, but not much more.You then need an additional test to actually count the number of A's and B's you have. Is it too many A's, not enough B's, etc. That test should be covered by insurance. The thing I remember being tested for was albumin, can't recall the others off the top of my head.IBS is tough. There are more dead ends than solutions, for sure. But, as you are figuring out, you most likely don't have IBS or have it in conjunction with something else. I don't know if you've tried this before, but it did help with me and the doctors. It took me several months to get lucky with the timing, but you may want to try and get standing films during an actual attack. Yeah, that means getting into a testing facility and having the x-rays done while you are writhing in pain, vomiting, etc. It sucks, but sometimes not getting the tests until you feel better means it's too late, especially if your problem is subtle, which something like a partial bowel obstruction may be.IMC, don't give up and don't let your doctors give up. There are quite a few things that can cause your symptoms, but as you've said, you've been tested for most of them. If blood tests haven't shown malabsorption before, but are now, perhaps your problem is finally manifesting itself in a way that it can be more easily seen. That is pretty much how my CD dx went. Years with every test in the book and no answers, then bam, show a little malabsorption on a blood test and now every test in the world shows it perfectly. The GI's have told me I most likely had some ulcerations throughout the years, but they didn't cause enough inflammation to set off the alarms. So I suffered with a terrible disease with no help. Life is still hard, but it's gotten a lot better now that I'm being treated correctly.I don't want to scare you and I'm not trying to say that you have CD. But I wouldn't be surprised in the least if you found out you did. I really hope things start to look up for you.


----------



## ImissCoffee (Nov 8, 2007)

Wow that was extraordinarily helpful, thank you both so much. I was tested for Celiac's and gave the gluten free diet a whirl. I didn't think I had it, as my best friend does so I've known a lot about it for years and it didn't seem right to me, but I did the diet anyway because I sure had nothing to lose by trying it. I was actually a lot sicker, most of my safe foods are wheat based and that was a painful ordeal, I had to stop just shy of a month. I am going to be asking a lot more questions at my next doctor's appointment now though, and now I know what questions I need to ask. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that.As far as the ELISA test, I'm going to an allergist who came recommended from my regular doctor who will hopefully give me some insight on whether it's worth the money right now, more importantly I'm kind've hoping he'll be able to help me get my insurance to consider covering it. I'm expecting them not to which will put the test on the backburner for a while, I don't have a couple of hundred to spend, even if I knew it'd be helpful. My IBS seems to be tied very strongly to food but it's very hard to pinpoint what foods. I was hoping the blood test would be a good starting point for a new attempt at an elimination diet (many failed attempts through the years) and not an answer.I think I'm going to have my gastro doc explain all my blood tests and results to me, because it's probably bad that I couldn't even tell you anything about my hemoglobin.


----------



## Flowby Jonas (Aug 14, 2006)

Hi ya,I just had a hydrogen test and it was way positive, and believe me when I say I MISS COFFEE too.usually and easy fix with antibiotics but get a test done, its not too bad and pretty painless.Chris


----------



## 16229 (Jan 28, 2006)

First, I doubt hardly anyone knows what hemoglobin is. I've just done a lot of research over the years trying to find answers and a way to cope with my life. If you are hemoglobin deficient than you have anemia. That can be important if someone has the symptoms you have because iron is absorbed by only a small part of the intestine. It's possible that it is part of what was meant when you were told you had some malabsorption, but usually they'll just tell you that you're anemic.I think at this point any specific test has a pretty small chance of finding much. It is only you that can decide from here on out what additional testing should be done. You should try to find a way to balance the cost, any stress, time etc the test is likely to inflict upon you, and then what the chances are that you'll get any relief. To me, if you are going for more testing, try to find out what your malabsorption is exactly. If this is new, it very well could be your body dropping a hint, so I'd try to follow the clue. I don't know exactly what that might entail for you. Maybe there are a couple of others who can help explain some of the different ways, but it's most likely to start with a new blood test to hone into the discrepancies in the first test. After that, I think there are several routes depending on what they may suspect the problem is.I never actually finished that whole process as I had a small bowel series that gave it up before I did any additional tests. There wasn't much of a need to do them as the cause was then pretty clear.


> My IBS seems to be tied very strongly to food but it's very hard to pinpoint what foods. I was hoping the blood test would be a good starting point for a new attempt at an elimination diet (many failed attempts through the years) and not an answer.


I used to think the same thing, but now I don't think food makes much of a lick of a difference unless I'm already in a flare. When my gut is ticked off, it's ticked off. Did you really try on the elimination diet or just go through the motions? If it didn't work before, why try again? Sometimes we can restrict ourselves so much that the stress from that becomes an aggravator. Diets like the SCD, gluten free and the elimination diet are very hard to conform to. It's another thing to balance. How much help might you think you'll get and how much hell are you willing to put yourself through to get there?


----------

