Food Allergy Accuracy?

[Guest guest]

Hi,

I am wondering if anyone knows how accurate food allergy tests

are. I had one done in Dec. (a blood test) which showed allergies to

wheat, milk, garlic, almonds, and rye. I quit all these foods and

basically am living off of brown rice and vegetables, but I did not

notice any relief in my pain. I did eat Middle Eastern food last

week and I did not notice an increase or decrease in pain. I am just

confused as to why I would test positive to it yet have no reaction.

I have been off the foods (real strictly) for about 4 months. I now

want to stop this diet and start eating what I really want to eat,

but psychologically, I am still a little scared as I keep thinking,

why did I test positive? Does anyone know if that test gives lots of

false positives? Thank you.

Seema

[Guest guest]

> Hi,

> I am wondering if anyone knows how accurate food allergy tests

> are. I had one done in Dec. (a blood test) which showed allergies

to

> wheat, milk, garlic, almonds, and rye. I quit all these foods and

> basically am living off of brown rice and vegetables, but I did not

> notice any relief in my pain. I did eat Middle Eastern food last

> week and I did not notice an increase or decrease in pain. I am

just

> confused as to why I would test positive to it yet have no

reaction.

> I have been off the foods (real strictly) for about 4 months. I

now

> want to stop this diet and start eating what I really want to eat,

> but psychologically, I am still a little scared as I keep thinking,

> why did I test positive? Does anyone know if that test gives lots

of

> false positives? Thank you.

>

> Seema

All tests can have false positives. You can add ONE item at a time

and see how you feel. If it makes you worse---you can't have it. If

not, then go ahead.

It may not be those items that are causing your pain. It could be

hormones, detergents, vitamins you are taking, ANYTHING you ingest,

touch, inhale can cause allergic reactions. Another thing to try is

NAET allergy testing. They test using muscle weakness testing then

treat you with acupressure. You avoid the item for 25 hours then you

can have it again. They say it is permanant cure. I have been doing

NAET for several months. I can now use Estrace cream without

additional burning as we tested for it and I was positive to

Propolyne Glycol and Alcohols. Here is a place you can get more info:

http://www.naet.com

My appts run about 55.00 per visit. You can go weekly, twice a week,

2 times a month, once a month---whatever works for you.

I was negative to hormones but positive to mercury/amalgam, Sugar in

every form (I no longer get heartburn from sugars), latex etc etc.

Lynn

[Guest guest]

Hi Seema,

I think a blood test for allergies is so sensitive that it may pick

up any allergy antibodies that your body has ever made in reaction to

a food. I think it's like there are many levels of food allergy, from

the kind that can cause you to go into shock (the strongest allergy)

to ones that, technically you are allergic to, but you will not

notice any difference and if you don't eat those foods all the time

you will not have any problems. I don't think it is exactly a false

positive, sometime in the past your body produced antibodies against

those foods, but maybe it was not very strong or you eat that stuff

so infrequently that it has never caused any problems.

If you have been avoiding these foods for 4 months now and have

noticed no difference I would try to reintroduce them one by one,

slowly. If you don't notice any difference in your pain maybe you

should double check to see if you don't have some sort of infection

or if you can track your pain to your menstrual cycle changes. In my

experience I noticed a difference in my pain level within a few days

of starting to avoid my no no foods. Of course, it is so hard to

avoid stuff like wheat and milk 100%, but if you are cooking your own

food and not noticing any difference maybe you should look into other

possible causes of the pain.

On the upside, it sounds like your diet is very healthy now, that is

a great habit to get into!

Rebecc in SF

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

I guess I still don't understand because I used to eat all those

foods all the time - Indian meals consist of a wheat bread, rice,

lentil soup, vegetables, and yogurt. So I was getting a lot of milk

and wheat. In my opinion, I think my diet is unhealthier now. Before

I was eating whole wheat and yogurt -the foods I eat are very healthy

- I don't eat sweets or sodas or anything like that. Also, since my

weight is 90 pounds, this kind of diet does not allow me to gain any

weight, which I am still concerned about. I do know that the first

few days of my menstrual cycle, the pain is less and then it gets

worse after. But someone explained to me that can occur due to the

hormones causing the nerve endings to be less sensitive during that

time. I am hoping that biofeedback will help me. So, when you

reintroduce the foods - can you explain to me how you do it slowly -

do you mean only eat little portions of wheat (not like a sandwich)

and how often are you supposed to eat it? Also, once I eat one, then

how long do I wait til I test another food i.e. first wheat and then

dairy? Sorry for all the questions - I guess I just never bought into

the food allergy part in my case because it sounds like you would

start to feel better by a couple of months if you had a food allergy.

Also, my boyfriend told me that these things can psychologically

affect you now - if you are told you are allergic to something, you

start to feel like you are allergic to it and you may get a reaction

because of what the mind is capable of doing. That scares me - I

almost wish I was never tested for the food allergies!! Take care.

Seema

[Guest guest]

When I started the diet I was in a lot of pain so I went the extreme - For the

first two or three days I ate only no-oxalate foods. I had immediate relief so

I knew I was doing something right. Then I started eating other low oxalate

foods and eventually found out which ones I could manage and the ones I had to

stay away from.

Still, I can eat some high-oxalate foods and they do not bother me but others do

and some of the low and mediums also bother me.

If I eat something regularly for three days I will know whether it is one that I

should not be eating.

Others get me almost immediately like onions, celery, bell peppers and

grapefruit. White bread does not bother me but whole wheat does. It's the

wheat bran.

Ora

>Hi ,

> I guess I still don't understand because I used to eat all those

>foods all the time - Indian meals consist of a wheat bread, rice,

>lentil soup, vegetables, and yogurt. So I was getting a lot of milk

>and wheat. In my opinion, I think my diet is unhealthier now. Before

>I was eating whole wheat and yogurt -the foods I eat are very healthy

>- I don't eat sweets or sodas or anything like that. Also, since my

>weight is 90 pounds, this kind of diet does not allow me to gain any

>weight, which I am still concerned about. I do know that the first

>few days of my menstrual cycle, the pain is less and then it gets

>worse after. But someone explained to me that can occur due to the

>hormones causing the nerve endings to be less sensitive during that

>time. I am hoping that biofeedback will help me. So, when you

>reintroduce the foods - can you explain to me how you do it slowly -

>do you mean only eat little portions of wheat (not like a sandwich)

>and how often are you supposed to eat it? Also, once I eat one, then

>how long do I wait til I test another food i.e. first wheat and then

>dairy? Sorry for all the questions - I guess I just never bought into

>the food allergy part in my case because it sounds like you would

>start to feel better by a couple of months if you had a food allergy.

>Also, my boyfriend told me that these things can psychologically

>affect you now - if you are told you are allergic to something, you

>start to feel like you are allergic to it and you may get a reaction

>because of what the mind is capable of doing. That scares me - I

>almost wish I was never tested for the food allergies!! Take care.

>

>Seema

>

[Guest guest]

>THis sounds like food allergies, not high oxalate

>pain. I think I've read that it takes a min of six

>months to a year to start to feel better from high

>oxalate pain (and thats using the calcium citrate

>along with avoing high oxalate foods). Maybe you

>started avoiding foods you are allergic to, hence the

>immediate relief. SOmething to think about.

>--- taurusrc@... wrote:

I started out eating only milk, bread and drained and rinsed canned peaches for

the first couple of days. I had already learned that canned peaches helped my

pain but sugar made it worse. So I rinsed them before eating them. I expect

that taking the calcium citrate along with the low-oxalate diet prolongs the

period of time for relief for some people because calcium supplements make me

constipated. Being constipated is one thing that causes me to have pain.

I think if I was merely allergic to some of the foods I would have problems

immediately. I can eat chocolate one day and the next day but if I eat it three

days in a row all hell breaks loose.

Ora

[Guest guest]

>does anyone know really what an oxalate is and why it is so bad for VV?

>Traci

>

Oxalic acid is often accumulated as a metabolic end?product in plant cells

either as the free acid, as sodium and potassium oxalate, or precipitated as an

insoluble salt most commonly calcium oxalate. Deposits of calcium oxalate occur

as microscopic crystals in many different organs and tissues a wide variety of

plant taxa. Their accumulated amount varies among species and may comprise up to

85 % of dry weight of some plants [1]. In the animal kingdom oxalate and its

salts are presented in urine and blood of mammals. Much of the oxalate in

animals originates from the oxalate ingested with plant material, although

minute amounts are synthesized by mammals through the oxidation of glyoxlate and

ascorbate.

Many fungi, belonging to Ascomycetes, Basidiomycetes and Zygomycetes, a few

Lichens [2] and slime mold genera Perichaena and Dianema [3] produce calcium

oxalate crystals during some phase of their life cycle. Accumulation of oxalate

by fungi, particularly in Aspergillus, Penicillium and Mucor species is of such

an order that these fungi could be used for industrial fermentation for

oxalate. On the death and decay of plants containing oxalate, the soil where its

chelating properties will prove toxic and interfere with plant growth.

Nevertheless, as oxalate does not seem to accumulate significantly in

soils and in the litter below oxalate?bearing plants, it can be postulated that

it is rapidly catabolised aerobically by soil microorganisms. Oxalic acid is

naturally occurring, highly oxidized organic compound with powerful chelating

activity. At high concentrations, oxalic acid causes death in humans and animals

due to its corrosive effects. In smaller amounts, oxalic acid causes a variety

of pathological disorders, including hyperoxaluria, pyridoxine deficiency,

cardiomyopathy, cardiac conductance disorders, calcium oxalate stones and renal

failure [4].

This condition is thought to result due to a failure in the conversion of

glyoxylate arising from the oxidative decarboxylation of glycine in to formate,

or in the reconversion of glyoxlate in to glycine by glutamate?glcine

transaminase. The excess of glyoxlate formed in these cases is oxidized to

oxalate. There is an interesting suggestion that treatment of kidney stones

could probably be attempted with oxalate degrading microbes (Oxalobacter

formigenes).

Though all oxalate?utilizing microorganisms may play important role in the

carbon cycle aerobic, oxalate?decomposing bacteria will be discussed in the

following paragraphs. A limited number of aerobic bacteria were described, which

are able to utilize oxalate as sole carbon and energy source.

[Methylobacterium] extorquens was the first described oxalate?degrading

bacteria [5]. However, the taxonomic position of this organism and other

pink?pigmented, facultative methylotrophs (PPFM) was uncertain. Thus, they were

subsequently assigned to several different genera (e.g., Vibrio, Pseudomonas,

Protomonas) until it was proposed that PPFMs be grouped in the genus

Methylobacterium and that Protomonas extorquens be classified as

[Methylobacterium] extorquens [6].

" [Pseudomonas] oxalaticus " is most popular oxalate?decomposing bacterium

described in the literature and was initially named Vibrio oxalaticus by Bhat

and Barker, 1948 [7]. This organism was subsequently assigned to several

different genera (e.g., seudomonas, Alcaligenes). Current taxonomic position is

not clear for the starin Ox1. Jenni et al., (1988) showed that Pseudomonas

oxalaticus Ox1 phenotyphically and genomically related to Alcaligenes eutrophus

[8, 9]

Thiobacillus novellus is a facultatively chemolithoautotrophic

sulfur?oxidizing bacterium able to utilize oxalate for growth but oxalate?grown

cells of T. novellus do not oxidize thiosulfate ! [11]. Carbophilus carboxidus,

Pseudomonas carboxydoxydrogena and Oligotropha carboxidovorans are

carboxidotrophic bacteria and can also utilize oxalate for growth [12]. Along

with R. eutropha [10] (formerly A. eutrophus ) strains, three other species of

hydrogen?oxidizing bacteria were shown to utilize oxalate namely, Variovorax

paradoxus (formerly Alcaligenes paradoxus), Xhanthobacter autotrophicus and X.

flavus [13]. These organisms assimilate oxalate via the glycolate pathway.

Tamer (1982), was isolated 27 strains of mesophilic, non?hydrogen lithotrophic

oxalate?oxidizers belonging to genera Ralstonia, Alcaligenes, Pseudomonas and

Methylobacterium from soil litter close to oxalate excreting plants Rumex,

Oxalis and Arum sp. [14]. He was obtained a new yellow pigmented bacterial

strains using oxalate as the sole carbon end energy source from litter of

Mesenbryanthemum sp. not resembling any previously known yellow pigmented

oxalate oxidizers and designed as Pseudomonas sp. TA17. Cells of the strain were

motile, Gram?negative rods with 1?3 polar flagella. The strain was a strict

aerobe growing optimum was 25?30 ¦C and pH: 6.9; no growth factors were

required. Assimilation of oxalate via the glycolate pathway. Ammonium salts,

glycine and peptone are utilized as a nitrogen sources. In addition to oxalate

the strain grew on glycolate, DL?lactate, DL?glycerate, L?malate,

2?ketoglutarate, pyruvate, glyoxlate and DL?alanine. G + C content of DNA is

62?64 % (Tm method).

Ammoniiphilus oxalaticus and A. oxalativorans are, ammonium?dependent,

obligately oxalotrophic and haloalkalitolarant bacteria that were recently

described. Ammoniipilus strains were isolated from the rhizosphere of sorrel

(Rumex acetosa) and from decaying wood respectively. Assimilation of oxalate

proceeded by a variant of the serine pathway [15], other known oxalate?oxidizers

assimilates oxalates via the glycolate or serine pathways. A few calcium

oxalate?decomposing Streptomyces and fungi species were isolated and showed that

oxalate utilization are useful substrates for differentiation of Streptomyces

sp. [16, 17].

Biological production of high amounts of oxalic acid is of interest for

biohydrometallurgical applications. Because oxalic acid may be used to

solubilise heavy metals from ores and minerals [18]. Aerobic oxalate?oxidizers

may be used to removal oxalates from waste water and soil.

[Guest guest]

Have you ever heard of delayed reaction to allergies?

Sometimes allergy reactions dont occur right away.

With delayed reactions it can be a couple days or more

before you notice a reaction to the food. Not all

allergic reactions are immediate.Check out the link

below. It gives you a defintion for a dealyed reaction

vs. " clasical allergy. "

http://www.animal-allergy.com/info-vets1.html

It sounds to me like you are having a dealyed allergy

reaction to some substances. But, that is only my

opinion. You know your body best.

--- taurusrc@... wrote:

> On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 12:33:38 -0800 (PST), SO

> wrote:

>

> >THis sounds like food allergies, not high oxalate

> >pain. I think I've read that it takes a min of six

> >months to a year to start to feel better from high

> >oxalate pain (and thats using the calcium citrate

> >along with avoing high oxalate foods). Maybe you

> >started avoiding foods you are allergic to, hence

> the

> >immediate relief. SOmething to think about.

> >--- taurusrc@... wrote:

>

> I started out eating only milk, bread and drained

> and rinsed canned peaches for

> the first couple of days. I had already learned

> that canned peaches helped my

> pain but sugar made it worse. So I rinsed them

> before eating them. I expect

> that taking the calcium citrate along with the

> low-oxalate diet prolongs the

> period of time for relief for some people because

> calcium supplements make me

> constipated. Being constipated is one thing that

> causes me to have pain.

>

> I think if I was merely allergic to some of the

> foods I would have problems

> immediately. I can eat chocolate one day and the

> next day but if I eat it three

> days in a row all hell breaks loose.

>

> Ora

>

>

__________________________________________________

[Guest guest]

I have thought of that but I have the delayed reaction to some things such as

cheese. It gives me swollen ankles. Dry milk which is added to stuff gives me

a headache the next day. But I read the labels and try to avoid it.

I do better if I cook all my vegetables because I think it is possible that when

they go through the digestive tract they sometimes cause irritation which does

not happen when they are cooked. But onions do it every time I eat them, cooked

or not.

Ora

>Have you ever heard of delayed reaction to allergies?

>Sometimes allergy reactions dont occur right away.

>With delayed reactions it can be a couple days or more

>before you notice a reaction to the food. Not all

>allergic reactions are immediate.Check out the link

>below. It gives you a defintion for a dealyed reaction

>vs. " clasical allergy. "

>

>http://www.animal-allergy.com/info-vets1.html

>

>It sounds to me like you are having a dealyed allergy

>reaction to some substances. But, that is only my

>opinion. You know your body best.

>

>

>

>

>--- taurusrc@... wrote:

>> On Fri, 05 Apr 2002 12:33:38 -0800 (PST), SO

>> wrote:

>>

>> >THis sounds like food allergies, not high oxalate

>> >pain. I think I've read that it takes a min of six

>> >months to a year to start to feel better from high

>> >oxalate pain (and thats using the calcium citrate

>> >along with avoing high oxalate foods). Maybe you

>> >started avoiding foods you are allergic to, hence

>> the

>> >immediate relief. SOmething to think about.

>> >--- taurusrc@... wrote:

>>

>> I started out eating only milk, bread and drained

>> and rinsed canned peaches for

>> the first couple of days. I had already learned

>> that canned peaches helped my

>> pain but sugar made it worse. So I rinsed them

>> before eating them. I expect

>> that taking the calcium citrate along with the

>> low-oxalate diet prolongs the

>> period of time for relief for some people because

>> calcium supplements make me

>> constipated. Being constipated is one thing that

>> causes me to have pain.

>>

>> I think if I was merely allergic to some of the

>> foods I would have problems

>> immediately. I can eat chocolate one day and the

>> next day but if I eat it three

>> days in a row all hell breaks loose.

>>

>> Ora

>>

>>

>

>

>__________________________________________________

>

[Guest guest]

>But even if it is a delayed reaction, the only remedy is avoidance of the

>substance.

>

>Ora

>

I found the following regarding delayed onset allergies.

Delayed-onset food allergies are

commonly reversible. If you completely eliminate the allergic

foods for 3 to 6 months, you can reintroduce most of them

(approx. 86%) back into your diet and remain symptom-free.

Because delayed-onset food allergies are so often undetected

and untreated, they lie behind many chronic medical conditions

of unknown cause. The allergic person suffers for years, even

decades, without ever suspecting that their health problems are

being caused by what they eat.

----------

Ora