Discussion Board

Strangest thing with the allergy testing. Half a year ago, I tested borderline for gluten allergy with saliva test. On the skin prick test, only a slight flare-up. But if I eat a whole serving of wheat, I have GI issues. Wonder why the skin prick test didn't indicate it?

The skin prick tests, I guess, tell what foods are sensitive, and then they probably go from there to the blood tests to confirm. Am I right?

I'm curious why so many folks with celiac disease also have other food allergies.

Jellen, I've always heard that the testing has a lot of false positives and/or false negatives (can't remember which - maybe both?), but even so, I've considered doing it. I too wonder why we have SO many food sensitivities (I don't think my family's are true food allergies). The elimination diet makes so much sense to me - now if I would just DO it!

The tests have helped me decide how to set up the elimination. I would have included several foods on the McD. ED that are ones that the skin tests show me as having a problem with.

I'm just using the info I've picked up here and elsewhere to fashion a plan that hopefully suits me. The most important thing I've learned is to watch the high histamine promoting foods. As long as I don't overconsume them, my body should be able to offset it with antihistamines. It's just that I overloaded my body with histamine promoting foods until the scales tipped and out came the rash. I'd had swollen glands for months before.

Vinegar is a high histamine promotor, as are tomatoes, strawberries, bananas, oranges....and these were some of my heavy use foods. Now I know better.

Two thoughts on allergy testing, and gluten intolerance.

I think there are two types of allergies: histamine responses and immune responses. A gluten intolerance is an example of an immune response, a wheat allergy is an example of a histamine response. Scratch tests only show histamine responses.

Also, there's some belief that the damagage done to the small intestine due to a gluten intolerance can lead to 'leaky gut syndrome'. Basically, foods leak into the bloodstream, the body attacks the food as an invader, and a food allergy develops.

I'm not a scientist and please question the above statements...it's just based on the reading I've done on inflammation, allergies, and gluten intolerance.

lfwfv

lfwfv,

I wish I could understand this. It's strange that the test showed a 3/4 response to wheat, which means slight flareup, but not allergy. Yet, eating a serving of food with gluten in it, means I'm going to end up with a stomach ache and the runs. So I have an immune response to gluten. But the histamines in wheat don't affect me as much?

So help me understand this, if you can. Bananas are a histamine promotor. I eat one or two a day and have all during this time with swollen glands. My skin test shows no sensitivity to bananas. But I'm looking at the constants in my diet and they include bananas, lettuce, onions, and legumes. If things don't clear up with cutting out the stuff with big flareups on the skin test, I'm probably going to have to look at these favortes. Wonder?

Hi Jellen,

I am very intolerant to gluten (sick for weeks after ingestion), but I am not allergic to wheat on a scratch test.

I am doing the elimination diet right now and am monitoring my skin, g.i. symptoms, and fatigue as indicators of possible problem foods. Would you consider doing a very limited ED diet and testing in 'suspect' foods, even if they didn't show up on skin-prick tests?

I think most allergy tests have a lot of problems with them. There are even a lot of stories of people having all of the gluten tests done, them coming up negative, and then, 10 years later, after enough damage has been done, the tests are finally positive! In the meantime, they've been feeling horrible because someone told them to keep eating gluten, despite the fact that their body was screaming at them to stop.

I really think the ED makes the most sense...you test each food and see if eating a food causes a negative reaction in your body. If it does, it doesn't matter if it's officially an 'allergy' or an 'intolerance' or whatever...you just don't eat it! Why would we want to eat something that leaves us feeling sick?

lfwfv

I think you have to realize that there is a big difference between a scratch and exposure to your dermis, which is a protective shell so to speak, and ingesting something that goes into your intestinal track where the cells are completely different. and are made to absorb nutrients and vitamins and minerals from waht you just ate.

I think that is why when it comes to food it is a better guage to see what bugs you when you eat it, by doing an ellimination diet.

Good advice on the elimination diet. I'd like to do it, but have not wanted to eat everything cooked. My diet is about 70% raw vegan and includes no soy and no gluten. I also wanted a starting point...to know what foods were safe to begin with. I don't have any GI problems, just this leg rash and half-swollen neck glands.

I'd like to understand more about histamine overload and the connection it has with inflammation. I think my inflammation problem is related to either histamines or sulfites or night shades.

Regarding gluten tests, I paid for a costly blood test for gluten 2 years ago, and it was negative. Then this year, the saliva test said borderline. Then half a year off gluten and I reintroduced it a couple times--boy was I sick for about 30 hours each time.

One more thing about the ED. I resisted doing it for a long time because my entire diet consisted of raw veggies, and fruit, and the only cooked things were sweet potatoes/yams/quinoa. I loved my raw food and thought I'd be unsatisfied without it. I also didn't think i could give up coffee. Finally, I felt sick enough that I had no choice.

The first two days were horrible. I hated the food. Then, I got used to it. I cooked all the same veggies i ate raw. i chop up celery, carrots, parsnips, green beans and boil them all in water until they're very soft (one pot), then I cut a whole head of romaine lettuce into the pot, cover it for about 2 min. and pour the whole thing into a large bowl. I prep a bowl like this after every meal, so my next meal is ready to go and I now actually enjoy it almost as much as the raw. I think we adjust to a new routine and a new flavor and meal set-up and I think you'd be fine eating less raw.

Just my two cents...
lfwfv

Wow, you're an inspiration. Perhaps I can succeed with the ED.

New subject:

I bought and tried something that I heard about on these forums.

Brown rice tortilla shell...

My take on it: weird in taste, but amazing in feel. It was awesome to hold on to a tortilla shell again. I used to live on wraps.

Here's what I made to put the shell:

quarter cup cooked pintos sprinkled with chili powder and cumin, bit of water to heat

Sliced seeded tomato, thin-sliced lettuce, chopped green onion

avocado and lemon blended

********************

Awesomely amazing. I think I was getting bored with my usual soup and salad for lunch.

Bumping this back up as we head into the holiday weekend.

Anyone have big plans? My child will be taking his own homemade pizza to a pizza party this weekend. Gf crust, vegan, no cheese sub, and oil-free (of course!).

I've really been enjoying salads since our tomatoes and red peppers have ripened. I'll make a huge bowl or plate of salad with all kinds of veggies mixed in. I was thinking today how my lunch salad would probably serve a family of 8, eaten in a side salad portion.

How did the elimination diets go?

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend!

Jamie

Well, the small rash on my leg has decided to become a large one. For the past month, I've been eating Ezekiel bread, since I had no reaction from it over several days. Wrong! Very delayed action of about 2 weeks. Right leg is so covered with it from almost to my knee all the way to my ankle. It's a gluten rash. Put some anti-histamine lotion on it and it's much better.

Is it usual to only get the rash and no other obvious problems? I don't seem to get any of the GI troubles some of you do. But I guess, a rash on the skin must mean inflammation inside too? Well, I'm back to gluten--free, and that includes oats too. Had this rash far too long. Must discover what has gluten in it that I've been unable to determine on what I thought was gluten-free diet, before.

Glad the rash is getting better! I can't remember if you're diagnosed celiac or not Jellen, but I've read that some people with celiac disease have no external symptoms. So yes, its possible to not have GI symptoms. I'm not medically diagnosed, but am definitely sensitive to gluten.

Jamie, I'm not medically diagnosed, either. The saliva test read 15 and 16 was the point of celiac. My sister is severe celiac.

Rash seems better today. Am also trying to avoid raisins, grapes, and balsamic vinegars for a while. Grapes show me with quite the flare-up on the skin tests I had done recently.