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Originally Posted by honeybearkitty Is food intolerance testing as simple as taking a blood test? Are there different types? When I ask my doctor for one, I want to be sure I get the right one, and not a 'skin test' for allergies...
Would a regular family doctor be able to perform this test, or do I need to go to a specialist?
If you have had one of these, did you find out your intolerances? How accurate are these tests?
I am willing to eliminate foods to find out, but I think this would be a lot faster at determining my 'problem' foods. |
Hey there!
Actually you can go about it several ways.
You can see a
Kinesiologist and he/she will do strength testing to determine which foods cause you problems (weaken you).
You can visit a
Naturopath and based on your personal ayurvedic description, he/she will tell you what foods to avoid. They may also do blood or saliva tests to determine which foods you are allergic or Intolerant to.
You can visit an
Allergist (maybe an
Endocrinologist too) and they will also test you for a variety of foods as well as specific intolerances or forms of anemia that could be throwing your hormones off. They will either do a blood test or a skin test. However, if you can avoid the skin test, do so because some people noticed that they now have skin problems after they had an ingredient tested on their skin that they were indeed intolerant/allergic too.
You can have your blood, saliva, or fecal sample collected at your hospitals lab and have sent to
LEAP, ALCAT, NuTron, EnteroLab, or YorkTest (UK) for testing of a whole variety of culprits such as bacteria, preservatives, MSG, Fruits, Vegetables, etc. Avoidance of the foods found to irritate you are a 3 part system and involves consulting sessions along the way. At first you may be avoiding a lot of foods, depending on your profile, but their goal is to get you to eliminate the LEAST amount of foods neccessary. Of course some of these cost a lot of money, depending on the test or if they provide consultation services, BUT your insurance company will usually cover the cost of lab fees if done at the request of your doctor.
Of course you can always go about trying the
Elimination Diet. This one would cost you the least amount of money and may not take as long as you'd suspect. There are a variety of Elimination Diets out there, but they are the strictest diets to start with. However, the point is to slowly add in foods and see which causes you problems. If that food doesn't affect you, then you can keep eating it.
I personally had a free screening (online) with LEAP and they told me that I wouldn't make a good candidate for food intolerance testing. Well, I still eliminated foods (as needed) from my diet and guess what, it worked. I also got tested for Celiac Sprue Disease and my results were also negative, despite actually carrying a few gluten antibodies. I gave up Gluten anyway, and that worked too. So sometimes these tests aren't always the definative answer.
Best of luck
Food Intolerance Testing for Acne??? 
