Food Allergy and Sensitivity Testing - pls help!

Hi all,
I recently visited a naturopath to see if there is anything they could do as I've exhausted my drug therapy options (Simponi doesn't seem to be working) and surgery is the only thing left. He suggested I do a food allergy blood test and a GI panel. The GI panel (stool and saliva) tests for parasites, inflammation, bacteria, H pylori, food sensitivities for egg, soy, dairy and gluten, as well as a few other things.

The food allergy test is based on IgE and IgG4 (immediate and delayed) to give you a score, and that score tells you whether or not there is a low, moderate or high reaction, with moderate and high deemed "unsafe" and to avoid.

A whole slew of items popped up on this test - some that I have known issues with, and others that I eat frequently and don't seem to have any issues with. Gluten, which is interesting, showed up as low on the blood test, but as a positive intolerance on the saliva test. I haven't been eating gluten for almost 3 months now, so not sure if that can affect the blood test.

The naturopath said that after 5 days of eliminating all of the food, I should essentially be "better" - which I think is absolutely ridiculous. I am in the middle of a very long flare that won't go away, accompanied with lots of blood, urgency, and pain (surprisingly, have been having formed stools since cutting out gluten and introducing a strong probiotic). I think making the claim that eliminating the foods will cure me is bogus, but I wanted to get other people's opinions and hear your experiences with getting similar testing done. I kind of feel like I was "conned" into the GI panel test (~$400 with shipping) as the naturopath was unable to explain to me in plain terms what the results meant and I had to ask my best friend who is a physician to explain it to me. She basically said that the test gives you a lot of information, but nothing that is useful. Nothing that you can draw conclusions from, except for perhaps the "positive' intolerances that I could try to avoid. In addition, the H Pylori test came back as "borderline", which she said that a saliva test for H pylori is inadequate and that I should talk to my GI about it. She said that a red flag for that may be the only useful item within the test...

The blood test was done through Meridian Valley Lab and the GI panel was done through Diagnos-techs, Inc.

Any insight or personal experiences are welcome! I'm really at the end of my rope, and surgery seems imminent. I am certainly going to try to cut out the foods and see what happens, but he also told me to go off of VSL3 because there is dairy in it, and this morning I was really ill with terrible pain and D, which happens to coincide with day 1 off of the VSL3....not sure if that's a coincidence or not...

Thank you in advance for your help!

Thank you, I appreciate it!

I have - Salofalk is 5-ASA (taken oral and rectal). I didn't realize that they are known for being inaccurate prior to taking the tests. Wish I had time to research it prior to committing. Lesson learned I guess.

I was tested by my GI for gluten and lactose and results were negative. Tests not only didn't help me they prevented me from removing foods that would have made me better.

When I removed gluten (much later in desperation) my bleeding stopped. When I removed milk it really helped urgency and diarrhea. I also removed many other foods that seemed to be problems, after seeing positive results from the first two food removals. It was a long trial and error process.

Some foods/drinks were easy to see made a difference and others were harder to pinpoint.
Bottom line: I do not think the current food tests are accurate when it is a gut intolerance.

For the OP: the gluten test (I've heard) will not be accurate (or even less accurate I should say) if you are not eating gluten when tested. But I don't trust the gluten test so for me would not have mattered.

My diet mod. success was not an overnight success but like you I was facing bad choices so made a strong effort with diet. I kept up with it and saw enough positive results to keep me going. Today I'm in remission.

However I failed with diet (many types) several times over my 14 years with UC. Tried the SCD diet 2 or 3 times, very adherent to their food/drink list. It didn't work for me. Later I found out that my gut cannot tolerate SCD yogurt, most fruit or juices, and no beans due to fiber (green beans are OK not shelly beans).

I suggest starting with the Paleo diet (although in my case fruit is out) or no diet list at all, just start a food journal and be your own food detective. Starters=remove dairy and gluten and go from there.

What I think is that in my guts very wounded state it reacted badly to almost all food and needed a very low fiber, low sugar, low everything diet. Meat and low-fiber veggies were the best thing for me to eat until my gut was less inflamed.

Today I can eat some dairy and many, many foods that caused problems before. Gluten will stay out because I don't need it.

Diet mod. is very, very hard in the beginning--to change a lifetime of eating anything you want. But it gets easier and in the end is worth it.
Some people do not see any benefits from diet mod. and if you don't see improvement in 30-60 days then you might be one of them. Give it a try.

Good luck.

Thank you so much for your responses. I must say - since eliminating gluten, I've noticed a huge difference (eliminated it 2.5 months ago), however not enough of a difference since I'm still trying to get out of this flare. I need to take 2 T3s every day to control the pain and urgency, and really hope I can stop that soon.

I started to cut out dairy this past weekend and am going to try my best to keep up with it. I will also look into the paleo diet and see if that may be a good fit for me. Again, I really appreciate your responses.

I see my GI in a few weeks and I know he's going to strongly recommend surgery. I keep wanting to try different things hoping that something will work, but so far nothing has been able to keep me out of a flare. I find it difficult to determine what the triggers are as even when I eliminate foods, I'm still waking up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, having really bad stomach pains, and lots of mucous and blood. Even when I limit what I eat to very few items, I still have symptoms.

Again - thank you so much for your responses with your experiences having the food allergy tests done. I really appreciate it.

Just a thought have you tried rectal steroids? It might help get things under control until you work with your diet and possibly other meds. Also I have not tried but have read about sodium butyrate enemas being useful too. I am just now trying the oral form but its too soon to tell.

I've tried Cortiform, but haven't had too much luck with that. I've also tried 5-ASA enemas, and find it difficult to retain them. I have the best luck with 5-ASA suppositories, however only when I take imodium or T3s before bed. Otherwise I'm up in the middle of the night and everything comes out...

What does the diagnostechs say? What flora was found? What was calprotectin? So they can back positive on gluten, via saliva?

What did she suggest for the "weak" h.pylori?

I do believe in these tests and I do believe it helps to eliminate foods and rotate foods while sealing the gut.