Food hypersensitivity and intolerance can cause many diseases that patients suffer from and the cause of which remains undiagnosed for a long time.
Circulating (in food hypersensitivity) complexes of immunoglobulins IgG or enzyme deficiencies (in food intolerance) can cause a number of problems in the gastrointestinal tract as well as in other systems. Importantly, symptoms often do not appear shortly after exposure to an allergen (as in the case of IgE-mediated food allergy), but even several days after exposure.
Very often, the patient is not able to associate his diseases with a sensitizing substance.
The most common "provocateurs" of hypersensitivity and intolerance reactions include: foods (most often it is gluten, dairy products - including those containing lactose), histamine, tyramine or food additives (eg monosodium glutamate). Modern medicine does not allow us to test all of the above-mentioned substances, but tests for a variety of nutritional products, including lactose, are available to the patient. Importantly, the ordered tests should always be based on a detailed interview and physical examination, which will allow the selection of the appropriate test for the appropriate patient.
Symptoms:
The most common symptoms include abdominal pain, flatulence, a feeling of fullness after meals (from the gastrointestinal tract) as well as headaches (including migraine headaches), chronic rhinitis, recurrent sinusitis and catarrhal infections, chronic fatigue syndromes
Diagnostics:
Diagnostics of food hypersensitivity is based on blood tests, during which the levels of IgG antibodies to specific products are determined. Depending on the patient's interview, tests involving a different amount of allergens are ordered. At our Institute, we use ELISA tests for diagnostics, recognized by numerous clinical studies as the most consistent and reliable.
At Vitality, we work on IgG PROFILE GENOVA DIAGNOSTICS and FOOD PRINT CAMBRIDGE DIAGNOSTICS tests. If food intolerance is suspected, the HYDROGEN BREATH TEST for lactose intolerance is recommended, among others.
Treatment:
Treatment is based on an elimination diet in which the products causing the strongest immune responses are temporarily excluded from the patient's eating plan. Due to the fact that, according to the latest research, irregularities in the intestinal lumen (increased permeability of the intestinal wall or intestinal dysbiosis) are very strongly associated with the formation of food hypersensitivity (increased permeability of the intestinal wall or intestinal dysbiosis), treatment at our Institute is based not only on exclusion, but also on the reconstruction of the intestinal microbiome, which allows after careful reintroduction of previously eliminated products, will be tolerated by most of them in small amounts. This is extremely important because a long-term elimination diet deprives the patient of a variety of consumed foods, which in the long run may lead to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.