While terms may vary, there are three types of adverse food reactions: true food allergy, food intolerance, and food sensitivity. An example of a true food allergy, which occurs in approximately 4-5% of the population, would be a rapid and sometimes life-threatening reaction to shellfish, or peanuts. True food allergy is also known as Type 1 or IgE. This type of allergy is addressed in depth in the newly released food allergy guidelines.
A food intolerance example is lactose intolerance, where a person lacks adequate enzyme to break down the sugar in milk.
Food sensitivities in contrast develop from lost tolerance in the gut. They’re hard to poinpoint, variable, and dose dependent, yet can cause an extremely wide range of chronic symptoms – GI issues, headache, rashes, pain, fatigue, fat storage, ear/nose/throat problems, asthma, behavioral issues, to name just a few.
Food sensitivities occur by way of different immune pathways than food allergy and cannot be detected by standard food allergy testing.
Because sensitivities can be quite elusive, sufferers often go from one doctor and one treatment to another without relief.
The most accurate testing option is the Mediator Release Test, or MRT: Sensitivity 94.5%, Specificity 91.7%, and Split Sample Reproducibility >90%. MRT detects changes in cellular reaction to a reactive food or chemical, and can do this for virtually all non-IgE immunological pathways.
Dietitians trained in the research-based, quantitative MRT protocol work with the test results to create a personalized, low antigen diet for each individual. If food antigens are triggering inflammation, taking them out quickly calms symptoms down.
MRT is a simple blood test that quantifies inflammatory mediator release against 150 common foods and chemicals. This test tak
es the guesswork out of the tried-and-true but difficult to follow traditional elimination diet. MRT results display your unique sensitivities in full color (Red or High Reactive, Yellow or Moderately Reactive, and Green or Low Reactive) to guide you in creating a diet that is not only reaction-free but wellness-producing.
If you read discussion forums for IBS and other chronic conditions, people will often comment that certain foods seem to aggravate their symptoms, but they have trouble determining which ones. The comment, “If only there was a test…”, is omnipresent in these discussions.
MRT is such a test. If you struggle with one or more chronic conditions, and have the feeling that food is involved, it probably is.
Read through the links to the right to learn more. For qualified patients, MRT can be a real option for getting better. Be sure also to check out the testimonial (http://wp.me/PvPaO-7X) that is so characteristic of many MRT patients.
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