food allergy/ sensitivity and skin tests
 

Will a food allergy/ sensitivity that manifests itself with g.i. symptoms show a positive skin test (scratch test) result? Or would there have to be a biopsy?

Is an allergy skin test more for allergies/ sensitivities that manifest themselves as hives or rashes?

Skin tests just show immediate onset, IgE mediated allergic responses.

Any food allergy/sensitivity that is delayed onset and is not IgE will not show up. But biopsies are not the only option. (I know only of biopsies for celiac, not for any other food intolerance.) There is blood testing, something offered by kinesiologists, and probably more. (I don't know much about these alternative tests, just that folks have used them). I went with fecal testing with Enterolabs which looks for antibodies for gluten, casein, egg, soy, and yeast.

I had skin testing years ago which found nothing. My Enterolab results are positive for everything. I've eliminated these items from my diet with success.

There are many labs that now do IgG food allergy testing. This isn't quite mainstream, but it appears to be gaining momentum. Here is a link that lists a bunch of labs, and many of them have very good websites which explain the difference between IgE and IgG food allergy and symptoms. There are also a couple of articles about IgG food allergy, too.

http://jccglutenfree.googlepages.com/foodallergy

This one gives a quick explanation, but check out some of the other sites, too:
http://www.optimumhealthresource.com/dfa.html

This all does get confusing. The difference between celiac disease (biopsy evidence of intestinal damage), gluten sensitivity (positive antigliadin antibody), and other IgG food sensitivity. They can all cause GI and many other symptoms... often of the more 'chronic illness' variety.

Cara

thanks, it's interesting. So many dr's look to "allergy tests" as a determination of an allergy. Not even considering the possibility of a delayed reaction.

I turned up allergic to NOTHING ... both ways ... turns out MY Total IGG set is low with Igg and Iga being Auto immune low