Private blood tests for allergies/intolerance

[Anastasia17]

I am thinking of doing private blood tests to check if I am allergic to gluten, dairy, soya, coeliac as I appear to react badly to these and they cause a lot of acute abdominal pains. I also have DIE (Deep Infiltrating Endometriosis). Please could you give me some advice as to which company to use/contact to check on these allergies/intolerances. I presume it's done via blood tests? Thank you.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Looking at you last post 3 years ago

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

You said then

I am also on a gluten free, dairy free, soya, chocolate, caffeine, brown rice free diet

You would need to be eating gluten daily for minimum 6-8 weeks before testing

But it’s probably not worth the hassle

you know you need to be gluten free, like thousands of autoimmune thyroid patients

Only 5% of Hashimoto’s patients test positive for coeliac but a further 81% of Hashimoto’s patients who try gluten free diet find noticeable or significant improvement or find it’s essential

Are you on levothyroxine ?

Are your thyroid and vitamin levels improved since 3 years ago

Thyroid hormones

TSH: 2.23mlU/L (range 0.27 - 4.2)

Free T3: 4.3 pmol/L (range 3.1 - 6.8)

Free Thyroxine: 12.6 pmol/l (range 12 -22)

Thyroglobulin Antibodies: x329.0 IU/mL (method used: Roche Modular) (Range 0 - 115)

Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies: x 44.9 IU/ml (Range 0 -34)

Vitamins:

Folate: 4.8 ug/L (Range >2.9)

Vitamin B12 - Active 93 pmol/L (Range 25.1 - 165)

Vitamin D: 81 nmol/L )Range 50 - 200

My lowest ferritin level reached 7 in 2013, I was just given iron tablet that did not work. After that, i monitored my ferritin levels that usually were between 10 and 30 max

Free T4 (fT4) 12.6 pmol/L (12 - 22) 6.0%

Free T3 (fT3) 4.3 pmol/L (3.1 - 6.8) 32.4%

Extremely low Ft4, low Ft3

High thyroid antibodies confirms autoimmune hypothyroid disease, also called Hashimoto’s

Low folate

Extremely deficient/permanently low ferritin

[Jaydee1507 Administrator]

Often what appear to be 'allergies' turn out to be intolerances and there is no test available to check intolerances thats officilly recognised to be accurate.

A BBC article explains this well: bbc.co.uk/programmes/articl...

If you know you react to certain foods then just avoid them. Keep it simple.

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Approx 50-60% of Hashimoto’s patients find dairy free beneficial

With loads of vegan dairy alternatives these days it’s not as difficult as in the past

Post discussing gluten

healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...

[Bertwills]

I paid £200 to have a blood test for food allergies & intolerances. It was a waste of money. When I received the report I found that the Fodmap foods eg onions, garlic etc that I have always reacted badly to were on the green list & items I was told not to eat eg eggs that have never caused me problems were on the red, don’t eat, list.

I stuck with it though in case they were right & did the 3 month exclusion diet as instructed. It made no difference at all. I think if you research online you’ll find many similar experiences.

You may do better consulting an experienced kinaeselogist. They can tell through muscle tension if you’re sensitive to a substance. I hade a session years ago. I was given test tubes containing different foods, chemicals etc & had to hold them in one hand & raise the other arm. The practitioner pushed down & with some things I couldn’t resist at all. One tube made me collapse on to the floor. The resulting list was amazingly accurate.

I don’t know how easy it would be to find this kind of allergy testing but I would put more faith in it even though it sounds extraordinary. Essentially exclusion diets are the only surefire way to test food sensitivities except for true coeliac disease when there are tests.

[Forestgarden]

I looked into doing these tests myself a year or so ago. Everything I read said they were not worth doing (inaccurate) for intolerances. If you have allergies, you would probably already know as the symptoms come on more quickly than with intolerances. The coeliac test can be done by your GP. It can be really difficult to identify specific foods causing problems. For me, dairy was an issue, but gluten was not - although some breads do cause issues (additives?). I now take a probiotic daily which has helped, occasionally I also take a betaine hydrochloride tablet with meals to increase stomach acid. I avoid (as much as possible) preservatives, artificial sweeteners, and anything on food labels which doesn't seem 'natural'. It's all helped.

[CoeliacMum1]

As per what others said allergy testing is waste of money… however your GP should be able to do the coeliac testing for free, once you’re back eating gluten, please follow coeliac uk for advice re testing and what’s required and why…I read you bio says, ulcerative colitis, is that a diagnosis and wasn’t coeliac testing done when this was investigated at all?

Any digestive problems coeliac disease should be ruled out first, and tested for, before any diagnosis especially IBS

Your endometriosis if it’s on the bowel as that’s definitely something to consider also, I’m diagnosed myself, and on bowel but no digestive problems except constipation which can be attributed to all my conditions 😵‍💫 mines pelvic lower back pain I have adenomyosis too 🤦🏻‍♀️

Many thyroid, coeliac and endometriosis gynaecological conditions are linked so remind GP and why you want more testing.