Greetings, I stumbled on this site while searching for some specific info regarding Genova Labs. I've worked with them, as a physician, since 1982 (when they were called Great Smokies Lab. The blood test for food allergies includes IgG and IgE. IgE food allergies are those that cause the kind of food allergy most people think about: rash, hives, itching, shortness of breath, shock. Walnuts, lobster, shrimp and related foods are the main causes of IgE allergies, and IgE makes up 5% of all food allergies.
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IgG food allergies have a totally different mechanism. The reaction to an offending food is delayed and can begin in several hours to several days. Without the blood test, it's incredibly hard to determine these delayed responses. The mechanism by which IgG allergies work has to do with leaky gut syndrome, which is caused by chronic intestinal infection or inflammation. Antibiotics, followed by intestinal yeast overgrowth, is a common cause of leaky gut syndrome. With leaky gut, the cells lining the GI tract lose their tight gap between one cell and another. After awhile undigested food particles can slip right into the blood stream. It can be anything: turkey, soy, carrots. Your immune system sees a bit of turkey, identifies it as foreign and makes an antibody against turkey, so you have a food-antibody complex. These complexes deposit in body tissues everywhere.
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With Genova's test, their results are listed as zero, VL (very low), 1+, 2+, and 3+.
1+ results are listed in yellow, 2+ in pink, 3+ in magenta.
If you have 1+ allergies, you can rotate those foods, eating them twice a week or less.
If you have a 2+ allergy, you need to avoid that food for 3 months. If it's a 3+ allergy,
you need to avoid it for 6 months.
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If the test has lots of VL (green) very low results, you don't have to do anything, but it does indicate
that leaky gut syndrome is developing.
I treated a 5 year old boy (I'll call him Mark) with Asperger's Syndrome. Mom could only afford one lab test, so I decided on the food antibody test.
Mark was allergic to 85 of the foods tested for. He had a lot of 1+, some VL's, and tons of 2+ and 3+ allergies. In other words,
he could only eat foods that were zero, VL, or 1+. The test was worth it. Mark had changed dramatically at 18 months old, for the worse. After 6 weeks on the new diet, he was a totally different person. Prior to the dietary change, Mark had been in the principal's office several times a week for “bad” behavior. After several months on this program, the principal began approaching Mark, patting him on the back and telling him he was one of their best students.
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I did tell mom at our first visit that, when she could afford it, we had to test for candida. I use an anti-candida antibody blood test to evaluate candida. Finally, Mark was tested for candida...and then treated. The treatment is another story. Treating the food allergies and candida cured Mark. I received a Christmas card that year from mom, saying that Mark had continued to improve and made the honor role.
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So, with ADD/ADHD, which I personally treat rarely, the underlying chain of events I look for are: 1) infections, often middle ear, requiring 2) multiple rounds of antibiotics, which leads to 3) intestinal yeast/candida overgrowth, which over time leads to 4) leaky gut syndrome, which then leads to 5) delayed IgG food allergies.
Best,
David Gersten MD
