Food – Friend or Foe?

Have you noticed a change in how you feel after eating certain foods…..cramps, diarrhea, constipation, bloating or acid reflux. Perhaps inflammation such as rashes, joint pain, mild swelling, headaches or fatigue? Did you know that it can take hours to days for these symptoms to slowly build with an IgG food reaction. This makes it very hard to identify the triggering foods.

There are cells in your body that create reactions to foods. IgE food allergy cell reactions have immediate onset peanut/strawberry allergy that may be life-threatening. IgG food sensitivity cells, in contrast, take hours to days to create symptoms. They create complexes that are normally removed from our body by macrophages. However, if enough of these are created, they build up and get stored in body tissue. This creates inflammation, and can contribute to imbalance and disease over time.

Before lab tests, we had to go on a hypoallergenic diet, and introduce the suspect foods slowly to watch for body changes. This takes great dedication and body awareness. Today, we can simply give a blood sample. The lab then looks for reactions when blood is combined with various food antigens. It also allows us to test individual components of key foods such as whole cow’s milk, casein, alpha-Lactalbumin whey, and Beta-Lactoglobulin whey.

You can get a basic panel of 125 foods, or more specialized panels through the clinic. Here is how a sample report looks:

Click here to make an appointment with Dr. Alison:

Organic Acid Test – A Deep Dive Into My Body

It is very challenging to get objective information about our internal state outside of disease. The subtle variations our body has within normal can be hard to monitor.

Organic acids are products of the body’s metabolic pathways. Evaluation of these downstream metabolites from various metabolic pathways provides insight into important areas related to gut health, mitochondrial dysfunction (energy), neurotransmitter status (feel good hormones), indicators of detoxification and macronutrient breakdown and nutritional status. 

The Organic Acids Test (OAT) provides a comprehensive nutritional and metabolic snapshot of an individual’s overall health. The OAT measures 76 organic acids from one easy to collect urine sample.

Sample needed:  Urine

Turnaround Time: 2 weeks

Cost: around $450 plus GST (can be used on a “Health Spending Account”)

Here is a link to a sample report: