The potential for adverse food reactions to be contributing to chronic symptoms is gaining recognition. Web searches for information on testing for food sensitivity are on the rise.
Adverse food reactions can include true food allergy, food intolerance, and food sensitivity. An example of a true food allergy would be a rapid and sometimes life-threatening reaction to shellfish, or peanuts. True food allergy, also known as Type 1 or IgE, is addressed in depth in food allergy guidelines released in 2011.
A food intolerance example is lactose intolerance, where a person lacks adequate enzyme to break down the sugar in milk.
Food sensitivities in contrast can develop from lost tolerance in the gut, where much of our immune system is located. Sensitivity reactions are often delayed and dose dependent, and can involve multiple foods and food chemicals, making them difficult to sort out.
A wide range of chronic symptoms can be associated with food sensitivity, including GI issues, headache, rashes, joint pain, fatigue, fat storage, ear/nose/throat problems, MS, seizures, asthma, behavioral issues, to name just a few. These all have an association with inflammation, which can be caused or exacerbated by food in susceptible individuals.
Food sensitivities occur via different immune pathways than food allergy and cannot be detected by standard food allergy testing.
This practice prefers the Mediator Release Test, or MRT, for food sensitivity evaluation, which has shown Sensitivity, Specificity, and Split-Sample Reproducibility at greater than 90 percent for non-IgE pathways.
Qualified dietitians are trained in the research-based, quantitative LEAP-MRT protocol and work with the test results to create a personalized, wellness-producing diet for each individual. If diet is playing a role in chronic symptoms, modifying the diet quickly calms symptoms down.
MRT quantifies inflammatory mediator release against 150 common foods and chemicals. Results help take the guesswork out of WHAT TO EAT while you determine if diet is provoking symptoms.
If you read discussion forums for IBS and other chronic conditions, people often comment that food seems to aggravate their symptoms, but pinpointing which foods is impossible. The comment, “If only there was a test…”, is omnipresent in these discussions.
There is a test, MRT, which provides clinically useful information to identify likely triggers, but it is the full protocol – the combination of test results plus the directed elimination diet – that is confirmatory of delayed-type sensitivities.
Through this process it becomes less about the test, and more about power over symptoms through personalized food choices.
Read through the links to the right to learn more. For qualified patients, MRT can be a real option for getting better.
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