> Would a regular allopathic dr. do this kind of test, or is it best to find a
> holistic practitioner to get someone who understands the condition? Can any
> typical lab do the test, or does the blood need to be sent away somewhere?

Holistic doctors, naturopaths, nutritionists and some
chiropractors will do it.  The Holistic Medical Assn. (don't
know their URL, but they have a website) may be able to
direct you to someone in your area.  Great Smokies
Diagnostics (they have a site also - gdsl.com, I think?) and
a couple other labs (don't remember who they are) do the
test.

But I have to agree with Lauri Light (message below) about
the accuracy.  I've personally found more food intolerances
through elimination and challenge.  Some of the foods that
they found are okay for me to rotate in my diet due to a
lower reactivity cause me the most grief. Also, if a certain
food is eliminated long enough, your antibody levels will
drop.  Thus the test may show no reaction to a food you may
in fact be allergic to.  (Much like the anti-gliadin
antibody tests they due for Celiac disease.  If you haven't
eaten gluten grains for some time, they want you to poison
yourself by eating a daily portion of them for six weeks so
that, if you are reactive to gluten, the antibodies will
show up.  They can keep their wheat - I can live without
doing that!)  Example:  I had an overlapping test done (some
of the same foods were on an expanded test list) six months
after the first one.  Many of the allergins I'd eliminated
from the first test showed a negative or lowered reaction on
the second.  IgG allergies are the ones you can often "get
over", while IgE antibodies will return if you reintroduce
the offending food.  It's all rather complicated - makes my
brain hurt!

Lois

> Date:    Sat, 19 Feb 2000 12:34:14 EST
> From:    Lauri Light
> Subject: IgE
>
> << In general, IgE & IgG are two types of immunoglobulins
> (anitbodies) that react to certain food protiens.  Blood
> tests are available to detect whether and individual has
> immunoglobulins that react to specific foods.  >>
>
> Unfortunately these blood tests are only about 40% accurate. They show both
> false positives and false negatives. You could be allergic to foods that
> don't show up on the test, and positives on the test ONLY mean there's an
> antibody, it DOESN'T necessarily mean the food is a problem. We all have
> intestinal permeability (leaky gut) to some degree, it's problem only when
> the gut gets too permeable. The only way you can accurately find out which
> foods are a problem is to run a systematic elimination diet. I'm glad I did
> this, because TONS of the foods that showed up positive on the antibody test
> were great foods for me, and some highly allergic foods didn't show up on the
> test. Use the blood tests as one small piece of information only.