Differences between intolerance tests? Added question about IgE tests.

[DevaMajka]

I know I've been around here long enough that I should know this, but are there many differences among the different intolerance tests? Is one company or type much better than the rest?

Has anyone done intolerance testing on a baby and thought it was a waste of money?

I'm considering doing the AllerGspot test because the naturopath near me offers it. Is there another one I should really be considering?

[kjbrown92]

The only one I'm personally familiar with is ALCAT, which tests for an inflammatory response to the food (not technically an IgG test). Someone else can maybe speak to this because I wasn't BFing anymore when my kids were tested, but wouldn't the mother and the child both need to be tested, because even if the child doesn't react to it, they could be reacting to the mother's reaction, correct?

I know Neuro Science does an intolerance test now. There is also patch testing (IgE or intolerance? I can't remember).

And for us, the ALCAT test was pretty accurate. Not for everyone I guess though. My SIL just got her results back; we'll see if those are accurate.

[Marnica]

Just got my AlCAT results back. I am still BF so I wonder if all the foods on there are him or me or both of us. Either way I guess while i'm BF I need to stay off those foods as well.

[DevaMajka]

Ok, so ALCAT is different than the IgG testing. We definitely can't afford to get us both done right now! The IgG is $250 (for the basic set of 96 foods).

I also don'tt know much about IgE patch testing. I wonder if ds's doc would let him get that done, if she knew about the mucous and undigested food in his stool? That one would be covered by ins, so it would be worth a shot.

It's been to long of trying to figure this out with an ED. It's clear to me now that my "baseline" foods aren't really baseline. His sleep has been too cruddy the last two weeks. So, on to the testing route!

[Jaimee]

We tested my dd between the ages of 8 and 11 months. My understanding is that patch testing is for the delayed IgG mediated reaction. It's not a gold standard test, so most allergists will not perform it. We had to travel to another city to find a doctor who was willing to do it so that my insurance would cover it. The results were totally inconclusive and conflicted with the RAST tests we did. RAST is blood serum and tests for the immediate IgE mediated reaction. Because it uses so serum it requires quite a bit of blood, which is difficult with a baby. This means you will only be able to test a few foods at one time. But, the RAST is gold standard so you will be able to easily get this performed and covered. We also did the ELISA test which can test over 100 foods with a normal amount of blood. This is not gold standard and we had to seek out a DO who would order the test so that it was covered by insurance. Supposedly they test for the IgG mediated reaction as well. These results conflicted with all the rest. Then we moved on to NAET. We could afford to go very far with it, so I can't really speak for its effectiveness. However, NAET testing had a whole other list of allergens that conflicted with all the other tests.

So, my feeling on the issue is that these tests are a waste of money and time and can be quite traumatic for a little person. Perhaps the results were conflicting b/c she was so young or b/c you can't really test the delayed reaction or b/c they simply have high levels of false negatives and positives.

In the end, I went for a constitutional homeopathic remedy. This worked like a miracle for us.

Good luck!

[DevaMajka]

Originally Posted by Jaimee

So, my feeling on the issue is that these tests are a waste of money and time and can be quite traumatic for a little person. Perhaps the results were conflicting b/c she was so young or b/c you can't really test the delayed reaction or b/c they simply have high levels of false negatives and positives.

I'm sorry your experience with the testing was so unhelpful!

That's what I'm worried about, is getting so many false negatives that it doesn't really put us in a better position than we are in now. I've read a bit that the IgG test is controversial as to whether it works or not. Hopefully it gives us a good starting point at least. If we have only one or two false negatives, I should be able to pinpoint those relatively quickly with food journaling.

Interesting about the homeopathy. We have an aquaintance who said that when her oldest was little, they couldn't figure out what he was sensitive to, and that they went to an herbalist that solved the problem over a year. Perhaps this is something we should look into. At this point, I'm not sure we can keep letting money be a deciding factor. I mean, we don't really have the money to spare, but in the long run, I'd rather spend the money that have another 4+ months of uneven nutrition and the stress of having such a restricted diet while ds is STILL reacting to something I/we are eating.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by Jaimee

So, my feeling on the issue is that these tests are a waste of money and time and can be quite traumatic for a little person. Perhaps the results were conflicting b/c she was so young or b/c you can't really test the delayed reaction or b/c they simply have high levels of false negatives and positives.

In the end, I went for a constitutional homeopathic remedy. This worked like a miracle for us.

Just a thought... if a person has IgE allergies and intolerances, it's completely possible for the two kinds of tests to read differently (what looks like conflict), because they are testing for two different things.

[chellebee]

We did the BioTek IgG test (elisa). It was $130 and IIRC. The way they work out the payment now is they bill the whole $500 or whatever the normal cost of the test is to insurance and then will take whatever money insurance reimburses. If that is nothing, you only owe $130. If that's $250, you owe $130. If it's all of it, you owe nothing--if that makes sense.

IgG antibodies represent the most prevalent class found in the blood. It is produced after reimmunization, or secondary response to antigen. It is the primary mediator of the memory immune response. Often involved in Type III delayed hypersensitivity reactions, IgG forms an immune complex with the allergen. This antibody/antigen complex activates complement (a group of small proteins found circulating in the blood stream that are involved in the release of inflammatory mediators), and enhances phagocytosis by opsonization. The inflammatory process is gradual and may take anywhere from several hours to several days, which is why this type of reaction is termed, delayed. Although immune cells called macrophages dispose of these immune complexes immediately, they only have a finite capacity to do so. Excess antigen may saturate the macrophages capacity resulting in the prolonged circulation of complexes and their deposition into the body tissues. Depending on which tissues are involved, it is thought that these complexes may be implicated in many different conditions/symptoms.

*There are several subclasses of IgG; IgG1, 2, 3, and 4. US BioTek assays for all 4 subclasses and reports this as the total IgG antibody level scored for each antigen

from http://www.usbiotek.com/Services-IgG...ent-Panels.php

I should add...DS was already off dairy and corn and those came up non reactive on this test. It's either because they weren't in his system, or because they are an IgE allergy because he clearly reacts to them. We haven't added any of the allergens back in yet to challenge the test, so I can't be of help there, but I can say that the improvement in DS has been astounding.

[DevaMajka]

What types of tests would an allergist do? Is there anything that I could get done by an allergist (so covered by insurance) that wouldn't involve a lot of pain for ds?
His symptoms aren't bad enough to warrant the skin prick test, imo.

We did an IgG test that just needed a spot of blood. The prick didn't phase him in the least- he didn't even flinch. lol.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by DevaMajka

What types of tests would an allergist do? Is there anything that I could get done by an allergist (so covered by insurance) that wouldn't involve a lot of pain for ds?
His symptoms aren't bad enough to warrant the skin prick test, imo.

We did an IgG test that just needed a spot of blood. The prick didn't phase him in the least- he didn't even flinch. lol.

Allergists do RAST (IgE) testing (where they take blood and test a wide variety of foods), they do scratch testing (it really doesn't hurt much), and sometimes they do the other one we had which I can't remember the name of (DS is practicing his trumpet 10 feet away, sorry), intra-something, where they inject the allergen under the skin in 3 graduated dosages. I think they're the ones that do patch testing too, but not as often. And they pretty much only test for IgE allergies.