Hello,
Is there a blood test or anything that can be tested accurately for food intolerances? Also, I'm hypothyroidism, is there a way to determine whether lactose/gluten affects me in any way except of just eliminating those foods from the diet? Would much rather prefer to test it if it's possible. Thanks
There isn't really an accurate way to test for food intolerances. The popular home kits aren't evidence based and the marker they give you (IgG) only actually indicates possible traces of particular foods you might have eaten recently or had some cross contamination with. Inevitably there'll be something that comes up that you might already know you have trouble with because they 'test' so many, but there unfortunately isn't anything more reliable than an elimination diet and going by how you react to things.
The exception is the lactose breath test, which can tell you if you are lactose intolerant, but again, symptoms can often give you an idea. The tests are very useful for allergies but not intolerances sadly. A better use of money would be some kind of GI map or microbiome test to see if you have anything like SIBO, but they can be expensive and a bit of a rabbit hole.
In my book not all food intolerances will show in a blood test and the gold standard for detecting the culprit/s is an elimination diet. I have had coeliac and lactose testing and both showed no issues and yet I am better off gluten and dairy free.
I discovered soy intolerance as when I stopped dairy I bought everything soy and it made me so ill!
When eliminating for instance gluten you do need to do a bit of reading up on it to find out where it hides. Many processed foods contain either gluten or daiy and its easier cooking from scratch to eliminate things. You also will need to be reading a lot of labels!
Do you know if you have an IgA deficiency, this can give false negative results if only tested this, along with not eating enough gluten to test of cause. Regardless if gluten is a problem for you only thing is going gluten free and remembering what nutrients in gluten we’re giving you will have to be replaced, predominantly this is fibre and B vitamins as gluten free flours cereals etc do not have to be fortified by law like regular gluten containing food do.
No I don't know if I have an IgA deficiency. I'm pretty content with the results of elimination though and don't feel the need for it written on paper. Others may differ.
Now that I'm supplementing key vitamins and eating a healthy balanced diet I don't feel I'm missing out on vitamins. I eat plenty of red meat including liver etc It's vegans and vegetarians that have more issues with lack of vitamins due to diet.
I found this one really useful at pinpointing the real culprits.. complete intolerance test
lifelabtesting.com/?raf=ref...
Gives you this kind of information... life without barley is a whole lot better!!
Yes there’s a test for gluten and a GP can run these, you have no need to pay if you are having gluten like problems. This area should be ruled out before any other diagnosis re digestive problems but also coeliac disease can cause neurological, fertility problems, osteoporosis, nutritional deficiencies and few other nasty conditions.
Nip on Coeliac U.K. and tells you all information you require re gluten with or without Coeliac disease and what’s required before testing for gluten along with which test to have especially if any IgA problems.
I believe lactose is an elimination diet, blood tests and hydrogen breath test re NHS , it is quite common to have both gluten & lactose intolerance initially with coeliac disease some gastroenterologist like you to eliminate both then reintroduce along with oats.
I haven’t any experience re Lactose area this is just what I remembered from what was explained to me at time of my diagnosis a decade ago… things may of changed a bit…so refer to Coeliac U.K. for up to date advice, especially re gluten.
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