Re: testing for food allergies

[Guest guest]

i'm interested in hearing what pat has to say on this. as a child, i could only

get RAST (blood) testing for food allergies due to the severity of my eczema.

i'm told scratch testing is the most reliable way to go, aside from rotation

diets (which i definately do not have the patience for).

i had mentioned a similar question (xolair and food allergies) a few weeks

ago, here was the response

/message/1993

heather

pyle456 <coachmac@...> wrote:

Pat, could you possibly weigh in on testing for food allergies. Is

scratch or IgE testing for food allergies the most reliable, or are

rotation diets still the way to go? What chances do we have that

Xolair will improve these, or do most of us have food sensitivities

rather than food allergies?

Thank you,

Addy

[Guest guest]

It's great if you can go off antihistamines for testing --- However, some

people (including myself) are better off with RAST tests simply because they

cannot go off antihistamines without getting extremely ill.

Best,

Meryl

In order to have a good skin test you must be off any kind of antihistamine

for 7-10 days. They used to say 3 days, but so many false negative tests

prompted allergists to say now 7-10 days.

[Guest guest]

Scratch testing and RAST testing both have their nuances. If someone has

hyper-responsive skin (if you scratch you get red welts) skin prick testing may

show false positive. I have seen a person have anaphylaxis to walnuts and the

RAST test be neither negative or positive. All in all scratch (skin prick)

testing I feel is more reliable. In order to have a good skin test you must be

off any kind of antihistamine for 7-10 days. They used to say 3 days, but so

many false negative tests prompted allergists to say now 7-10 days.

As for rotating diets, they are very hard to keep up with and a strain on the

family. I prefer elimination diets. For example after you eat pasta meal you

have eczema but don't know if it is tomatoes, pasta. bread, garlic etc... Bread

and pasta usually are both made from wheat, so eliminating wheat is a good

start. Wheat though has many names..gluten..etc... So you have to look up

wheat products to be able to eliminate wheat from a diet. Eggs, soy, corn and

milk are the other top food offenders. If you have a latex allergy you should

avoid avacados & bananas. People with berry allergies (strawberry, blueberry,

cranberry raspberry etc... should avoid tomatoes or atleast tomatoe seeds.

Tomatoes are a berry cousing and the seeds have the same protein that berry

seeds do. Elimination diets should avoid the possible allergen for 2 weeks then

add back the purest form you can. SO in the example of wheat, you add back

cream of wheat cereal. If you have shortness of breath with

any food, you should avoid it completely. No sense in causing your own death

just to eat whatever the offending food is.

Hope that helped.

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