I've been trying a treatment my acupuncturist (Dr. F) does to try to clear food allergies. I thought some of you might be interested in what I'm doing and how it has been going.
I have been doing a treatment called
BioSET. It was started by a woman in California. I've provided a link to her website, but I can't say I found the website particularly useful. Also, I'm not going to be able to tell you how it works, because I really don't know.
A little background on my story: I had developed quite a few food intolerances, including gluten, dairy, corn, soy, quinoa, nuts and seeds. To me, this seemed ridiculous to have to cut out so many foods. I started seeing Dr. F because of his article on
leaky gut syndrome. There was no question I had leaky gut syndrome. The challenge was to find a doctor who could treat it.
When I first saw Dr. F, we did stool testing to see if I was harboring any unwanted hitchhikers. I was diagnosed with bacterial dysbiosis and low SIgA. Dr. F said my SIgA was probably low because I was fighting off the bad bacteria for a long time. After we went through the first round of treatment for the bacterial dysbiosis, I asked him how I could start eating more foods again. He said he could try this BioSET treatment to clear my food allergies. He told me it's about 60% effective, but I was a good candidate since my digestive enzymes on tests were normal. Since all I had to lose was money, I decided to try it.
The "easy" foods were cleared first, and the more difficult ones, like dairy and gluten, were dealt with last. Dr. F does his measurements with a machine that tests the eletrical current of the food and it somehow measures if it agrees with you or not. Remember, I said I didn't know much about how this works. I think I saw him about 8-10 times for clearings. First, things like metals and phenols were cleared. Phenols are in a lot of foods, particularly aromatic foods, so they are impossible to completely avoid. It took two sessions to clear the phenols. Then we cleared the eggs, nuts, soy, and corn. Every time I was cleared for a food, I thought, I can really eat this again? The clearing involved acupuncture while I was holding on to the offending substance.
Dr. F told me I might have one core allergy that he won't be able to clear. He said usually these are either dairy or gluten. I thought it would be gluten and he thought it would be dairy. I was right, sort of. Dairy cleared in one appointment. Dr. F would clear me in one appointment and then I would have to wait until the next appointment to see if it "held" before I could eat the food again.
Right about this time, the bacterial dysbiosis seemed to come back, so I went back on the herbs to treat it. The gluten did not clear after two sessions, so we stopped the BioSET treatments and decided to just focus on healing my intestines. I figured that I was going to have to give up gluten for life.
At my last appointment, which was Wednesday, Dr. F was checking the foods again to make sure they were ok. Eggs, ok. Dairy, ok. Wheat, ok.
What? How did that happen? Dr. F explained that as my intestines are healing, the food intolerances should go away. I was shocked. I really wasn't ready for this.
It's been two months since I have been doing this treatment intensively. While I have tested (i.e.eaten) all the foods I have been cleared for, except for gluten, I'm still not eating all of them. I went back to eggs because I never gave them up in the first place. I've also added some soy and some nuts back in. However, I'm still having digestive problems, but after thinking long and hard about this and keeping a diary of my symptoms and meals, I think the root of my problems right now is the bacterial dysbiosis. I seem to have problems no matter what I eat. I think it has more to do with the amount of carbs I eat, and those feeding my "pets". My goals right now are to focus on healing the bacterial dysbiosis and healing my intestines by taking the herbs prescribed to me, cutting out sugar, lowering my carb intake, adding probiotics in food form (in addition to the supplements I'm taking) such as yogurt and sauerkraut, and limiting processed foods (kinda sounds like SCD?!).
I also have not ruled out a IgA deficiency as a potential root to my digestive problems. I'm not sure how that would change anything I'm doing right now, so I'm not pursuing that at this point.
I also think I'll never consume much gluten even if I have the option. When I feel that my intestines are healed enough to try it, I'm sure I will, but I think I'm several months away from that. As my friend says, I'll cross that bridge when it's burning
.
I know there were other people here interested in this treatment, especially for kids. Dr. F told me he just cleared his son for dairy, and he's eating pizza again. I don't think he could have dairy for years. Dr. F just kept treating him, and he was successful! So, the intestines do heal eventually. He thought that in the case of his son, that the MMR vaccine was the problem. According to Dr. F, it's thought that the measels portion of the vaccine causes the virus to go into the intestines. I suppose this is how the intestinal damage happens. Luckily, I didn't show any problems with vaccines when Dr. F tested me.
Hope this information is useful to some of you out there. Feel free to PM me!
Claire