Enterolab Testing question
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Enterolab Testing question
Do you have to be eating the tested foods in order to test positive? I haven't eaten many of the foods they test against for a long long time. Also, is there any chance they are coming out with some new tests soon? Thanks
Hi,
Antibodies to gluten survive a long time, and they can be reliably detected in stool samples for at least a year, in virtually all cases. In most cases, they can still be detected up to 2 years after gluten has been withdrawn from the diet, especially when someone has been reacting to gluten for years.
For the other foods though, antibodies do not last anywhere near as long. If you absolutely avoid those foods, even in trace amounts, then their antibodies may not be detectable after several months on the diet. But it depends on how long you have been reacting before you cut them out of your diet. The longer we react, the higher our antibody levels. If those antibody levels are very high to begin with, it's possible that they might still be at detectible levels for 6 months or more. That's an individual thing, that's difficult to predict.
Also, the reality is that most people do not do nearly as good a job of avoiding their food sensitivities as they think they do. Most people get at least trace amounts through cross-contamination of the foods in their diet. Something like half the celiacs out there still produce antibodies many years after adopting the GF diet, because of problems with their diet.
I'm not aware of any new tests that might be coming out anytime soon, but who knows? They might surprise us one of these days.
Tex
Antibodies to gluten survive a long time, and they can be reliably detected in stool samples for at least a year, in virtually all cases. In most cases, they can still be detected up to 2 years after gluten has been withdrawn from the diet, especially when someone has been reacting to gluten for years.
For the other foods though, antibodies do not last anywhere near as long. If you absolutely avoid those foods, even in trace amounts, then their antibodies may not be detectable after several months on the diet. But it depends on how long you have been reacting before you cut them out of your diet. The longer we react, the higher our antibody levels. If those antibody levels are very high to begin with, it's possible that they might still be at detectible levels for 6 months or more. That's an individual thing, that's difficult to predict.
Also, the reality is that most people do not do nearly as good a job of avoiding their food sensitivities as they think they do. Most people get at least trace amounts through cross-contamination of the foods in their diet. Something like half the celiacs out there still produce antibodies many years after adopting the GF diet, because of problems with their diet.
I'm not aware of any new tests that might be coming out anytime soon, but who knows? They might surprise us one of these days.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.