<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

In <[log in to unmask]>, on 03/02/98
   at 02:25 PM, CUrban8020 <[log in to unmask]> said:

>> I have also had some food allergy
>>testing done which found that I was sensitive to milk and eggs.

According to Dr. Hugh Sampson, Mt. Sinai Medical Center, at an AMA
sponsored press briefing on "Nutrition",  in a list of "Facts vs.
Fictions",

"Fiction: Skin tests or blood tests can be used to diagnose food
sensitivities. Fact:  ...A positive test does not mean a person will react
to a food...Furthermore these tests do not tell whether a person has a
non-IgE mediated sensitivity to food."

He describes these tests only as useful guides and points out that diet
testing is the only reliable way to identify a food allergy, preferably
where the person doesn't know whether they've eaten the suspect food.

>>question is this, if I am sensitive to milk and eggs, if I eat them
>>would it damage my villi the same as gluten? Or would I just have to
>>deal with the side effects of eating milk and eggs?

There's a specific note in Michael Marsh's book about food allergies
causing villi damage. That's the book "On Coeliac Disease", page 155.
Table there shows that the Type 3 stage of intestinal response, "flat
destructive" does occur with milk, egg, soya and chicken or fish
allergies. DIffers from celiac response in that only 1 or 3 of the 5
stages of lesion connected with CD occur with an allergy.

What's unclear from this reference and from Medline searches I've made is
whether food allergies in adults   cause villi damage.  All the references
I found were for children. Villi destruction does occur  in children with
milk allergy, but this like other pediatric allergies, apparently is
usually outgrown.

                                               Kemp Randolph
                                               Long Island
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