Allergy Treatments

Module 3.10

Allergy and Autoimmune Health Workup

A few specific tests can be helpful in distinguishing any medical causes of allergy and autoimmune disease:

●     For environmental allergies causing sneezing, congestion, itchy eyes or asthma, ideally see an allergist for skin testing of trees and grasses in your area, animals, mold, and dust mites or other insects. An IgE blood test, widely available at all labs, for all these is a secondary possibility—not as accurate, but better than no testing.

●     For food allergies, both skin testing (and make sure all relevant foods are included) and blood testing are equally valid and equally not entirely reliable. Still, they can point us in the right direction.

●     Food sensitivity testing may be useful if all the above testing is negative. It is even less reliable than food allergy testing, so I use it as a guide for the best food test—an elimination diet. A guide to an elimination diet is available in Appendix A. I would recommend U.S. Biotek as a lab for food sensitivity testing.

●     C-Reactive Protein (CRP): to look for chronic inflammation, which may indicate an underlying medical disorder

●     Arthritis panel—if significant inflammatory joint pain is the issue—RF (rheumatoid factor) and ANA (anti-nuclear antigen). If either of these are elevated, other clarifying tests should be ordered.

●     Thyroid function, as it can undermine immune function: TSH, free T3, free T4, and anti-TPO antibodies (the antibody test for Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism)

●     25-hydroxy vitamin D (low levels of vitamin D double the risk of autoimmune disease, and in a patient with autoimmune disease, it should be greater than 40)

●     Salivary Adrenal testing, if fatigue is an issue. This is typically performed by an integrative physician, naturopathic doctor or acupuncturist.

●     Comprehensive stool testing: This cannot be done by a regular lab, as they do not test for the species of normal bacteria in the intestine. I would strongly recommend the GI Effects test from Genova Diagnostics, an integrative lab. You will need a licensed practitioner to order this for you, and then help you restore your intestinal balance. Doctor’s Data also has a reasonably good comprehensive stool analysis.