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MRT food sensitivity testing

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Posted 7/9/2021 12:48 AM (GMT 0)
Has anyone done this and found it helpful? I know allergists complain sometimes it gives false positives, but I’m more interested in if it gives a lot of false negatives. I don’t have many foods I can eat and I want to know what are the safest things for me to test. Test is expensive though.

https://www.nowleap.com/
Posted 7/9/2021 2:15 AM (GMT 0)
Astroman did. Changed his life.
Posted 7/9/2021 4:35 AM (GMT 0)
I did that test about 3-4 summers ago.

Price-wise, I lucked out apparently. My insurance covers nutritional guidance clinicians/ dieticians. The clinic time was covered but Leap/MRT test was not and with their minimal mark up, I paid only $350 for it.

Since I had autoimmune issues and gut issues/ leaky gut, past reflux, upset stomach ect, it made a difference for me. I was eating Paleo at the time, but some paleo foods can still be irritating to your bloods immune cells in the form of cytokine/mediator release.

When I stayed away from the "cautionary foods" (per the test), my gut function slowly improved. To my surprise this improved my 20 year hashimoto autoimmune thyroid too. My thyroid med need slowly decreased, my 10 year nodule dissolved (per imaging 2x), one antibody normalized and the other is still slowly dropping (just antibody tested last week again).

As you can see, in my case, it was worth it.
Posted 7/9/2021 12:54 PM (GMT 0)
Oh thanks! Maybe I should go for it. My official mcas doc just gave me the established med party line (we don’t use that test because it can be in accurate). I keep wondering if I should have looked for one not so closely affiliated with a university.... but then it would have been super expensive and not have virtual appointments.
Posted 7/9/2021 2:47 PM (GMT 0)
Now 3-4 years later, the LEAP MRT test might have different options?

Depending on the foods you generally eat will depend on which test you choose. Mine was 170 whole foods and popular spices and additives and even some food coloring of "American" foods, meaning not Asian, Indian foods ect.

And remember Mediator/cytokine testing is different to "allergy" testing.
Posted 7/9/2021 3:07 PM (GMT 0)
Yeah I actually like that it isn’t standard igm allergy testing since I think those were tested long ago and mostly normal. To be fair to my mcas doc we only had one rushed appointment because my case is “complex.” So he hasn’t really had a chance to really work much on me. He was just suggested I take more xyzal, which is fine but the problem I’m worried about is my issues have been getting progressively worse. So whatever is driving them needs to be addressed since I don’t think taking continually increasing amounts of xyzal is sustainable.

Taking magnesium has helped my vision but I haven’t started the oral supplement just the spray. I’m hoping when I can take more through the oral supplement, it might also help my mcas too. I’m still working on getting lactose out of my meds, since singulair has it in the pills but when I switched to singulair powder is made my throat swell up even though it didn’t have lactose, so I went back to the lactose singulair pill. I had switched to compounded clindamycin with no lactose but didn’t think it made a difference, though I went back the other night snd got super sick, but I’m not sure if that was weather related or also related to the lactose in clindamycin.

I can only eat maybe 6 foods? So I’m not looking to cut down my diet anymore, I’m trying to find what else I can add because I’m still losing weight and I’m scared I’m going to become allergic to one of the few foods I have left. I know dr Afrin, the mcas guru, does extensive special allergy testing and I was wondering if this is what it was, or if there was some other similar test I should compare.

Thanks for the tip about looking to see if I can get a discount if I go through a practitioner. Kim looking for one now just in case. I think it’s $750 if I submit it myself. I’d love to only pay around $350. I know when I first talked to them I asked for her to send me a list of practitioners who use their test in my area, but I never heard back. I guess the key to searching is to look for “leap certified.”
Posted 7/9/2021 4:02 PM (GMT 0)
My "Leap certified" Dietician had a space in a Physical Therapy clinic.....about as big as a closet lol. So I had prob about six appointments (last ones were remote / phone) with her in a layed out plan, which I had co-pays for. It was like starting an elimination diet, but knowing for sure what the offending foods were vs just guessing.

The foods are on a numbered scale and also colored like a stoplight red, yellow, green for quicker reference, and a wallet card "bad food list" for convenience. I did slowly add in the "yellow" foods per her suggestion. The red foods I dont plan on adding back, worst was gluten, corn, turkey (yep!) and cinnamon. Dairy was the "red" exception, and she said many can add it back after a year or so. I have eaten limited dairy again (yogurt, cheese ect, but stick with almond "milk".

I did ask them for a participating certified LEP clinician / dietician /allergist/ gastro Dr list for an out of state friend....and they did provide that. Prob just depend on the individual you connect with.
Posted 7/9/2021 4:30 PM (GMT 0)
Oh ok yeah maybe I will reach out again or just call them and see. I’m fine with doing all virtual appointments so long as I get the $400 discount on the test 😜 . Thanks astroman you’ve been very helpful!
Posted 7/9/2021 5:40 PM (GMT 0)
I had this done. Not a big believer in it. I remember some foods cantaloupe, blackberries, strawberries being high on my list. I saw one doctor who simply laughed at the test and said "Yea your problem is cause you eat to many blackberries". He did say if you have a lot of foods though that show up it could be a sign of leaky gut.

I did cut out the foods that were high on the list. Re-added them never noticed a difference in how I felt.
Posted 7/9/2021 6:50 PM (GMT 0)

skinny_joe said...
I had this done. Not a big believer in it. I remember some foods cantaloupe, blackberries, strawberries being high on my list. I saw one doctor who simply laughed at the test and said "Yea your problem is cause you eat to many blackberries". He did say if you have a lot of foods though that show up it could be a sign of leaky gut.

I did cut out the foods that were high on the list. Re-added them never noticed a difference in how I felt.

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Not everyone will see benefits. Perfectly healthy before lyme?...........then treat lyme and move one. Kind of hard to not believe if you read my experience though. I had years of lab #'s and internal imaging before and after, so it was pretty obvious what made the positive changes.

If one does not have any odd immune issues besides lyme, then the changes will possibly be minimal. One can not feel everything going on inside...like antibody inflammation. It all adds up in the end though.

Not much different than 23and Me testing. A perfectly health human (rare) with just lyme will not have much of a puzzle to assemble. Throw in family history of odd health symptoms, and autoimmune..........and then maybe see benefits if your into being you own "health detective", with a different starting point. smile
Posted 7/9/2021 7:35 PM (GMT 0)
@astroman - Weren't most your problems food wise from Gluten/Wheat though? Most doctors will say thats the first thing that should go without even testing anything. Most folks cant do it though for more then a couple months.

Wheat showed up in mine, the Dr seemed surprised as I had not had wheat in 3 years prior to the test. They said they would fade with time if your not consuming the food. They seemed to think I was lying about wheat consumption. I had not even been near flour dust in 3 years.
Posted 7/9/2021 8:28 PM (GMT 0)
Oh thanks joe for sharing your experience with it. Definitely more to think about
Posted 7/9/2021 8:40 PM (GMT 0)
Most likely yes, but I was not 100% GF back then, more like 90% for one year and apparently that was not enough. , its hard to commit to that at first and I didnt have much evidence to persuade me. The test results and my endo Dr's patients experience gave me reason to go 100% G/F. Celiac testing was negative multiple times.

Corn is also known to cause immune thyroid issues, but prior I had no test showing corn to be inflammatory to me, so I had not tried it. So my improvements could have been the combination.

I also ate turkey weekly. I doubt that made thyroid autoimmune differences, there is no way to know for sure since I eliminated this at the same time. I could try adding it back, but dont really miss it and it did make my gut grumble a little more than other meat.

My gut feels better too, but that took time, was not obvious at first and not obvious on 90% GF diet ...what made that difference or if it was all the foods I eliminated I cant say for sure. I will never know. What I do know is eating paleo itself did help a little, but not as much as eliminating the "red" foods shown in this test.

Yeast was another "red" one. So for a while I had zero bread and zero alcohol of any type. Then I added G/F corn free bread. Thyroid antibodies still improved. Then I added GF beer, still has yeast. Still have improving antibodies. But I will never drink any alcohol on a weekly basis again for other health reasons such as bound liver detox pathways. So if yeast does anything to me besides triggering this food test, I most likely will never know.

Post Edited (astroman) : 7/9/2021 2:47:37 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 7/10/2021 1:08 PM (GMT 0)
I guess one question I have for both of you who did MRT, did you ever have a bad reaction to something the test listed as green?
Posted 7/10/2021 7:45 PM (GMT 0)
I have oral allergies to a lot of raw vegetables/fruits (celery, pears, carrots). They cause my throat to become irritated. Supposedly its the pollen. I thought some of these things would show up but none of them did. Although I don't know if the test was supposed to find something like that.
Posted 7/10/2021 9:05 PM (GMT 0)
Oh ok, thanks! That’s really useful! Yeah I’m just trying to determine if it would help me find new foods I can eat.
Posted 7/12/2021 5:13 AM (GMT 0)
"I guess one question I have for both of you who did MRT, did you ever have a bad reaction to something the test listed as green? "
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From the "green" listed foods. Some, but not because of Mediator release, because of other ways they bothered my body. If I eat a lot of fruit or starchy foods several days in a row, its guarantee candida will start building up again from all the NATURAL sugar.

There are many more ways the body can react to foods. Which is why there are different tests for the different ways food might "bother" the body.

**MRT only measures mediator (cytokin immune blood cells) response, its just one part of an individuals food puzzle.. This is whats behind the term "food sensitivity". Food sensitivity reactions are often delayed and dose-dependent. This means that a food you ate yesterday could cause unwanted symptoms today or even tomorrow. It’s the release of mediators that end up causing your unwanted symptoms of food sensitivities.**

It wont show other things like food allergies (another test I did) or FODMAP issues.

I also need to limit FODMAP foods, as FODMAPS are food for SIBO. It wont show foods that instantly bother you (bloating, pain, gas, puking) from a gut candida reaction either.

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There is no "one" test that will solve anyone's complete food mysteries. Each is just a part of the big puzzle and you much learn about / understand each possibility / condition.

In my case, a 10 year tumor dissolved and a 25 year old antibody normalized, at the same time. That, in the past, was pretty much unheard of.

Post Edited (astroman) : 7/11/2021 11:22:21 PM (GMT-6)

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