Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Food Intolerance Questions

I finally got the full report in the mail from my doctor regarding my food sensitivity results, and I'm turning to you, my reliable internet source, to help me out with questions I have.  I know some of you have had this testing done or are meeting with nutritionists, so I'm hoping you can help!  I asked my Napro doctor some of these questions, but I'm not sure he'll know.

First of all, just to recap: I had IgE and IgG serum testing done on 96 general foods.  I had no IgE (allergy, immediate reaction) responses, but several IgG (delayed reaction) responses.  The lab, US Biotek, uses a scoring reaction class as follows (maybe this is the same for all IgG testing?):
  • 0- no Reaction
  • 1- very low reaction  
  • 2- low reaction
  • 3- moderate reaction
  • 4- high reaction
  • 5- very high reaction
  • 6- extremely high reaction
Anything a 4 IgG/IgA or higher or a 1 IgE or higher they recommend omitting from your diet.  A 3 IgG/IgA is left up to your practitioner whether or not it should be excluded (my dr said to exclude the 3s as well).  I did not have IgA testing done, so I don't know what it is, but I'm wondering if I should have also had it done as well?

Out of the 96 items tested, I have 19 that I should omit!!  Here's my intolerance list according to the highest reaction number first:
  • 6: chicken egg white and chicken egg yolk
  • 5: almond, gliadin wheat, spelt, whole wheat, milk
  • 4: casein, cheddar cheese, cottage cheese, mozzarella cheese, goat's milk, whey, yogurt, kidney bean, wheat gluten, rye
  • 3: sugar cane, barley
So what do all those intolerances mean?  Will I ever be able to eat those foods again? I've been reading Sew's blog about her need to heal her gut, and I'm wondering what that means in connection with food intolerances.  Do I have a problem with my gut/digestive system, which is causing all of these intolerances?  How do you get food intolerances anyways?  Can you eat a lot of one particular food on a regular basis and then develop an intolerance?  (I used to eat wheat almost every day because I was trying to be healthy and stay away from white bread because of my PCOS).

The lab recommended I follow a 4-day rotation diet, where you are only eating the same food every 4th day.  The point is to not develop new intolerances, but I'm wondering how important it is to follow a rotation schedule.  I'm going to have a hard enough time finding enough things to eat and keep me full, do I also have to keep track of what and when I eat, so I don't double up on back to back days?

Here are some more of my questions:
-Since wheat gluten is on the list, does that mean I'm gluten intolerant?
-Since all of the dairy items are on my list, am I lactose intolerant?
-What is the difference between the three wheats tested- gliaden, gluten, and whole?
-What do you do with the lower reaction numbers of 1 and 2?  I have corn, peanut, and crab as number 2s, and I'm wondering what that means for intolerance level.
-What effects your test results?  Could me being on 1,000 mg of Metformin effect the results?
-Do I need to take a digestive enzyme and/or a probiotic to heal my digestive system?  If so, any recommendations for good ones?

I'm glad I know all of this information because I do think there is a correlation with my overall health and fertility and all of these intolerances, but sometimes I feel like the more information I learn about my body, the more questions I end up having.  Still, I'm glad I had the test done.  It was less than $200 (insurance didn't cover exploratory testing like this) and I do feel like I'm on my way to a healthier, happier me.  I just wish the process wasn't so long sometimes.  Feel free to email me if you don't want to leave a long comment.  My email address can be found in my profile.  Thanks in advance, my internet "experts."

2 comments:

  1. I am planning on having this done as well and am wondering how food sensitivty effects fertility? Do you know??

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  2. Be Not Afraid- from what I've read/heard, food sensitivities create a lot of inflammation in your body and sort of wreak havoc on the organs in your body. They sort of put your immune system into hyper active mode and can be connected to infertility and miscarriage. I would definitely encourage you to have the test done. It was well worth the cost for me ($190 USD). Good luck. Post your results when you have the test completed and we'll compare notes!

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