Article: Food Allergies - A Missing Piece? Strategies to Combat Food Allergies

Hi Jenny

That's great news. I have heard excellent reports from a number of people (medical included) about how highly regarded Jean Munro is as well as the neutralization provocation therapy.

I understand something similar ( but not the same) is offered in the USA. I read the other thread and the other persons outcome, but am uncertain where they were being treated.

I hope you can provide us with an update in a few months time.

I am hoping to be tested here in Australia soon. I also understand that the antigens can be taken by way of drops 3x a day.

ISO

The antigens are normally injected once a day, but you can ask for sublingual drops. I gather they are quite a bit more expensive though. The injections are easy.

Jenny

What an amazing story. When I was seeing my allergist I heard stories like that. FOr the right person these treatments are very powerful...Getting better with MCS is not easy....

Hi Cort

No it's not easy and she was very fortunate.....as she sought treatment both here and in the USA which failed to assist her before she went to the UK.

ISO

I think the only way to get useful results from an elimination diet is to start from a baseline of 2-4 weeks eating only safe foods. Obviously there's the problem of deciding what's safe for each individual. I think a willingness to eat extremely simply for a few weeks is key. Then test foods one at a time with a 4 day wait between tests. I've read that we should test by eating a small amount, once; I've also heard that we should eat as much as you want on the test day. I think these are 2 different tests - if you're wildly sensitive, the small test will tell you. If you're less sensitive but still allergic, the large test would be necessary.

I confess that I have been unable to get myself to do this! But none of the allergy testing/clearing systems I've tried has worked at all (NAET, traditional scratch testing/shots, a variety of meridian-based protocols), either for correct diagnosis, or healing. This feels like the next step for me.

I too think food issues with our illness is basically ignored. Finding out what foods one has issues with and stopping those should be listed as a treatment recommendation (well before the more stupid stuff like GET and CBT).

Maybe as a patient group.. we could put together treatment recommendations which doctors could follow and try to get those awknowledged along side the ones the doctors love to aknowledge now.

I'd love to see a study done comparing things like GET and CBT with patients being helped to work out what their food sensitivities are, encouraged to pace their life eg not over do things and being put on suitable form of B12.

Would the result be 5 -10 times better the improvement result of the therapies the medical field likes to recommend to us now? Study= patient recommendations verses recognised medical field recommendation.

Yes, save your money, people! I have done two IgG Food Sensitivity tests, one recommended by KDM (De Meirleir) and one by another American lab. COMPLETELY different results! (In spite of my making sure that my diet was varied and similar in preparation for both tests.)

Also, a diet following the first (KDM's) IgG test didn't help at all, instead it actually made my IBS much worse.

If food allergies are in fact an issue (and I don't think they play as huge a role as KDM currently believes), then I think an elimination diet really is the only way to find out which foods you are reactive to.

I can make myself exhausted by eating either a large serving of gluten, or small servings over a few days. Hoping to prove myself not allergic to it, I've "tested" this many, many times. So in a way, I can "heal" a piece of my CFS picture by avoiding gluten. When I had traditional scratch testing done for food and environmental allergies, I tested fine for wheat; I think this is a common problem. I'm a strong advocate for elimination diets, but keep a diary and be watchful for delayed reactions. Nightshades give me arthritis overnight, but gluten can take 3 days to crash me. Milk doesn't seem to bother me at all, but after being off it for 2 months, my skin rashes have cleared up. It's a pain to figure out, and then to live with the restrictions, but it also gives me some control over symptoms that used to blindside me.

Madeleine

It is not uncommon to get varying results from common food and allergy tests like IgG. I also believe that food sensitivities change over time, and how much of that substance is in your diet at the time of testing will influence results.

Neutralization Provocation therapy as developed by Jean Munro in the UK is touted as being far more accurate and individualized. I know of a couple of people who have had huge turn arounds in their health,,,one person had lupus and was bed bound/ housebound, and it completely disappeared with this therapy much to the astonishment of her doctors. If you can calm down the autonomic and immune systems so they do not see substances as a threat, then inflamation and cytokine production etc lessens. it gives these systems in the body a rest, so the body can heal. I think this is also Prof KDM logic as well.