Medical Questions » Allergy Questions » Question No. 1138
| Question: | How do I test myself for food intolerances? |
| Answer: | A Food allergies or intolerances are a common cause of fatigue, water retention, digestive problems and more. Wheat and dairy are the most common, though other foods can also be involved check out foods you eat a lot of. You can check if these foods are a problem by either having a proper blood test or doing an exclu-sion diet for at least 10 days (that means absolutely no wheat, dairy or whatever you' re testing, while being sure to replace them with similar foods, such as soya or rice milk for cow' s), followed by a pulse test.
Here' s how to do it. Take your resting pulse. Then eat more than normal of the suspect food. Retake your pulse after 10 minutes, then 30, and then 60. If it rises by more than 10 points your body is reacting to the food. Pay particular attention to symptoms over the next 72 hours. Reintroduce foods one at a time, with at least a few days apart. Do not make any other major changes at the same time.
If you do get symptoms or 10-point pulse changes, it would be best to fmd alternatives for at least three months. Then you can try reintroducing the food, again using the pulse test. This is because the body can ' unlearn' an allergy. Rotating a food, which means eating it every fourth or fifth day, is another way to reduce the likelihood of an allergic response.
My favourite blood test for food intolerances is called an IgG ELISA food intolerance test. This can be done from a ' home test kit' and involves a pinprick test which you then send to the laboratory, which can test it for food intolerance to a wide range of foods (see Resources, page 483, for details on these tests). |
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