Food Allergy Testing

The word allergy is derived from the Greek words meaning “altered reaction” and an allergic individual usually suffers physical symptoms (e.g. headache, vomiting, rashes, migraine, asthma, etc.) when exposed to substances to which he/she is sensitive. The substance, which provokes this reaction, is called the allergen. It can be house dust, dog dander, foods, chemicals or even bacteria, just to name a few.

Over the past few years, there has been increasing awareness of many diseases and complaints that can be caused, or contributed to, by the presence of allergies.

Allergy is quite common. Over 20% of the population is allergic to something. However, when one considers symptoms such as hay fever, wheezy bronchitis in children, minor degrees of eczema and food intolerance, the true incidence of allergy and/or intolerance to one or more environmental agents would certainly be much higher.

What Causes Food Allergies?

Food allergies are caused in part by changes in the Western diet over the last hundreds of years, in particular an increased early exposure to cow’s milk formula, the hybridization and refining of wheat and other foods, the use of chemical additives, the increased consumption of animal produce and the increasing presence of environmental pollution.

Additionally, stress plays a significant role by stimulating the sympathetic nervous system which raises stomach acid and shuts off the parasympathetic nervous system leading to suppressesion of digestion and assimilation of foods in the small and large intestine.

With digestion suppressed, foods are not broken down completely which leads to inflammation in the intestinal lining and the absorption of larger than normal food molecules. Once in the blood stream these larger than normal food particles are not recognized and are thus attacked by the immune system to be broken down and eliminated by the lymphatic system. The first time that these large food particles are encountered by the immune system they are tagged or marked as harmful intruders. This tag is carried by the food from that time forward even after the stress is gone and optimal digestion has been restored.

Overcoming Food Allergies

In order to remove the allergic tag from the foods, one needs to eliminate the food entirely from the diet for a period of four months. Memory cells in the immune system that remember the allergic marker have a life span of four months, therefore, if the food is not consumed and not seen by the memory cells of the immune system during the life of that cell no new memory cells are enlisted and the memory of the allergy food is lost. Once this happens the individual can then eat that food again without allergic consequences as long as he or she does not eat when the digestive system is suppressed by stress or disease.

Immediate Food Reactions

As the name implies, this food reaction can occur within 15 minutes to three hours after digestion. The reaction is caused by the presence of a high IgE antibody level in the blood, which sets off an immediate allergic response. Symptoms such as hives, swelling or itching can often be noticed within minutes eating foods such as strawberries, walnuts, lobster, etc.

Delayed Food Reactions

Delayed food reactions can occur anywhere from 8-72 hours after the ingestion of the reactive food, making it difficult to link one’s symptom to the food eaten several days ago. Such hidden allergies are often the cause of many “chronic symptoms.”
The immune response to delayed food reactions are not caused by IgE antibodies. Rather they are caused by IgG, IgA, IgM and IgD antibodies. According to recent research, most delayed food reactions are associated with IgG4 antibodies, a subclass of the whole IgG antibodies. These antibodies combine with the food particles in the blood to form “immune complexes” which cause inflammatory reactions in tissues. Such inflammatory reactions can occur in any part of the body, thus producing many kinds of symptoms such as headache, eczema, joint pain, mental disorders, etc.

Diagnosis of Food Allergy

At the Hansen Clinic of Natural Medicine we use Meridian Valley Laboratory in Kent, Washington to perform our allergy testing using a combination IgE and IgG4 protocol. The test can detect both IgE and/or IgG4 allergic reactions. Thus both immediate and delayed food reactions can be detected. Meridian Valley Laboratory uses a state of the art enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique (ELISA, 96-well format for best precision) to measure serum antibodies to foods. The panel for basic basic foods consists of 95 commonly eaten foods. A second non-overlapping panel consists of another 95 less-commonly eaten foods and seasonings.
Airborne allergies are associated with IgE antibodies and are tested separately. There are several tests which can be used depending upon the region of the country of the individual to be tested. The region-specific panels include antigens of the most common tree, grass, weed and mold antigens from the given regions of the continental USA (NW, SW, W, NE, SE). All inhalant panels include cat, dog, mite (environmental), and molds. All tests are in full compliance with rigorous Washington State Department of Health, Health Systems
Quality Assurance standards.

Allergy Test Panels

Two food panels are available: the E-90 panel contains 95 foods in a wide variety of categories, including milk, cheese, egg, fish, seafood, grains, fruits and vegetables. The A-95 panel contains 95 additional fruits, nuts, vegetables and spices.
2 ml serum is required for these panels. It can be sent via regular first class mail using our prepaid mailer. Specimen collection kits are available.

Summary

Consideration of food allergy is a critical component of any comprehensive approach to good health and for prevention of illness, and an elimination diet approach remains the gold standard for diagnosis of food allergy. Prominent allergist J.C. Breneman, M.D. once wrote, “food allergy is often overlooked . any patient with confusing, prolonged complaints or poor treatment response might recover amazingly on a week of diagnostic elimination diet.

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