What Test is Best?
Allergy tests are used as a guide to help establish your allergy profile. They can not be used to formulate a diagnosis but are very useful in helping to determine your allergy profile.
First Step to Being Allergy Free
Establishing your allergy profile is an important first step towards being allergy free. This can be done by various allergy tests as well as by a thorough clinical history, which will help identify food, environmental and emotional sensitivities.
Once the allergy profile completed, your allergy specialist will help you formulate a plan to eliminate your reaction to the identified allergens.
What test is the best?
Unfortunately allergy test available today do not provide a comprehensive and accurate picture of all possible allergens. Some tests may even result in temporary worsening of symptoms.
Skin or scratch tests, although fairly reliable for the detection of environmental allergens, are not as accurate for detecting food allergies. The usefulness of skin tests can also be affected by skin conditions such as significant dermatitis or eczema, and by medications, such as histamines and some anti-depressants.
The most widely medically accepted allergy tests remains the Allergen IgE/IgG Antibody Blood Test. The IgE/IgG Tests unlike some other forms of testing do not have an effect on the person being tested. The allergen antibody tests are also useful in monitoring desensitization to the allergen after treatment.
Main Differences Between IgE & IgG Allergies
IgE antibodies offer immediate responses to a foreign substance that has entered the body. These foreign substances can come from food or inhalation. IgE allergies can cause very serious symptoms like difficulty breathing, swelling, and hives. In more serious cases, IgE reactions can lead to anaphylactic shock.
IgG antibodies offer long-term responses to a foreign substance that has entered the body. Symptoms, which may occur hours or even days after the offending food has been ingested, range from headache and nausea to seizure and hyperactivity. The degree and severity of symptoms vary due to the genetic makeup of the individual.
Neuromuscular Sensitivity Testing (NST)
NAET Allergy Elimination practitioners supplement information from conventional allergy testing with NST (Neuromuscular Sensitivity Testing). This innovative technique is harmless to the patient, and when practiced by an experienced professional, provides invaluable information on a wide range of both physical and emotional allergies.
Essentially a potential allergen or sample allergen is held in one hand by the patient, while the therapist tests the strength of the patient's other arm. A weak arm indicates sensitivity of the body's immune system to the allergen. A strong arm indicates the patient is not sensitive to the allergen being tested.
My allergy test was negative, but I still have symptoms?
Negative results from the allergen-specific IgE antibody tests most often indicate that a person does not have a "true allergy." But there are exceptions. If the allergen was not consumed during the three weeks prior to testing, the immune system may not have had recent enough exposure for IgG antibodies to be present in the body.
A person can also display a genetic hypersensitivity problem, such as sensitivity to gluten with Celiac disease or have an enzyme deficiency, such as a lactase deficiency causing lactose intolerance. There could also be an allergy-like condition that is not mediated by IgE for which there are no specific laboratory tests. Or it could be another disease that is causing allergy-like symptoms.
My allergy test was positive, but I have no symptoms?
Even if the specific IgE test is positive, a person may never have an actual physical allergic reaction when exposed to that substance. False positives may occur as a result of cross-reactivity with other foods or proteins. The proteins are not identical, but similar enough that the immune system reacts to them. For example, a reaction to bananas may also cause a reaction to pineapple and vice versa.
Another type of adverse food reaction is psychosomatic food aversion, which can result from a previous negative food experience (e.g. food poisoning).
In both of these cases, a person's clinical history and additional Neuromuscular Sensitivity Testing and other medically supervised allergy tests may be necessary to confirm an allergy diagnosis
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