Food reactions are one of the most common reasons for chronic GI distress, joint pain, itchy skin, a mysterious rash, acne, insomnia, cranky moods and more.

Food allergies and sensitivities can make a leaky gut much worse. By removing reactive foods and healing the gut, you can calm symptoms and lower systemic inflammation for all-around better health. There are options for functional testing, which can be accomplished via blood, saliva or stool, as well as the elimination diet protocol.

Allergies, sensitivities and intolerances are three separate types of food reactions. You can have just one or all types of reactions happening at the same time! We can either dive into an elimination diet, or precisely screen for specific reactions using IgE allergy, IgG, IgM or IgA sensitivity, or MRT mediator release testing. This allows us to identify your safest, least reactive foods to begin an even more successful elimination diet. We choose which lab test will be best for you based on your current symptoms and food journal, as well as your history diet, medicine and health history.

An IgE food reaction is a true allergy. Think of IgE as an “emergency” potential reaction that may cause anaphylaxis or hives, but certainly not always. Some food allergy symptoms are quite subtle, but they typically occur within a short time after ingesting a food antigen.

An IgG, IgA or IgM food reaction is a delayed-reaction sensitivity. Many people refer to this as a type of allergy but it is an entirely different immune system reaction than an IgE allergy. Of the types of sensitivity reactions, IgG is the most common. Think of IgG as a “gradual” onset reaction that can be almost impossible to identify since symptoms may not show up until several hours or even days after a food antigen is ingested.

An intolerance to a certain food or food group means your body lacks the ability to break it down in the GI tract or clear properly from the bowels and liver. The most common example is dairy intolerance, caused low production of the enzyme lactase that’s needed to break down the dairy sugar lactose. Wheat intolerance is also common, since the grain itself is hard to digest, apart from its proteins instigating possible allergies and sensitivities. Fructose intolerance is also common, and not everyone can successfully clear the chemical caffeine from the liver.

What’s bothering you? Together, we can figure it out! I will guide you through which ever approach we decide to take. I work with the functional labs listed here.