My Test Results

[Gary]

I had the testing done and I received the following results today. I figured the Gluten and Dairy, but not the egg. Eggs never seem to bother me. I have been doing the GF DF for about a month now and I am feeling much better. I have had an occasional egg and I do eat products that say they have soy in them. So what now?

A-2) Gluten/Antigenic Food Sensitivity Stool/Gene Panel

Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA 54 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-casein (cow’s milk) IgA 29 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-ovalbumin (chicken egg) IgA 30 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-soy IgA 64 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

HLA-DQB1 Molecular analysis, Allele 1 0501

HLA-DQB1 Molecular analysis, Allele 2 0602

Serologic equivalent: HLA-DQ 1,1 (Subtype 5,6)

Fat Malabsorption Stool Test (Fecal Fat)

Quantitative Microscopic Fecal Fat Score Less than 300 Units (Normal Range is less than 300 Units)

[tex]

I figured the Gluten and Dairy, but not the egg. Eggs never seem to bother me. I have been doing the GF DF for about a month now and I am feeling much better. I have had an occasional egg and I do eat products that say they have soy in them. So what now?

The immune system seems to have a unique characteristic that is not documented in the medical literature (to the best of my knowledge), but many members here have experienced it, and IMO it explains why you have not yet noticed that soy and eggs are a problem for you. This is well described in the book, so in order to save time and effort, I hope you don't mind if I just quote from the book. And in case you don't have a copy of the book available, I'll include most (but not all) of that discussion from chapter 10, pages 119–122.

While our immune system is always alert to any perceived threats to our health, when confronted with multiple food sensitivities it seems to concentrate on the most significant single issue at any moment in time. That is to say, it appears to focus on the one food sensitivity that is likely to do the most damage to the digestive system and to long-term health.

That doesn’t mean that it will totally ignore secondary food sensitivities, but it suggests that the immune system will concentrate most of its attention on the one that it perceives as the most important threat at the moment, while postponing or minimizing action on the other food sensitivities. That implies that the immune system may have a pre-established hierarchy that it follows, when determining which food sensitivity should be the primary focus of its attention.

As we discovered in chapter six, based on the compiled experiences of hundreds of people who have microscopic colitis, the number one food sensitivity threat as perceived by the immune systems of those individuals is gluten. Casein, the primary protein in all dairy products, appears to rank number two in this hierarchy, while the third-ranking food sensitivity is usually soy. Whether by coincidence or design, it appears that this ranking also correlates with the relative probability of someone with microscopic colitis being sensitive to each of those respective foods. That is to say, gluten is the most common food sensitivity among people with microscopic colitis, casein is the second most likely food sensitivity, and soy is the third most likely food sensitivity.

This information can be very important to someone trying to control their symptoms by diet
Many MC patients who have decided to see if diet changes will reduce or eliminate their symptoms, will start by eliminating only gluten from their diet. In many cases, though not always, after a few weeks, more or less, they will discover that they are feeling much better and the intensity of their symptoms are definitely diminishing. Some will even reach remission. After the passage or more time, though, if gluten is the only food that is being avoided, most people in this situation will experience a relapse of symptoms, and from that point on their symptoms will progressively become worse as time goes by. This very frustrating turn of events inspires many people to make the mistaken decision that they must not be sensitive to gluten after all, since they are back in a full flare of symptoms. However, there is more to this dilemma than meets the eye.

In my opinion, this is simply a real-life demonstration of a quirk of the immune system that causes it to focus its attention on only the single threat that it considers to be the most serious of all those with which it is confronted at any given time. When gluten is withdrawn from the diet, antibody production does not cease immediately. In fact, the immune system will continue to produce antibodies for a very long period of time, at a slowly decaying rate, as it continues to remain at a high alert level, remaining vigilant just in case gluten should reappear in the diet.

Anti-gliadin antibodies have a relatively long half-life (120 days), so it typically takes them months to decay, and to be eliminated from the system. Eventually, a point will be reached where the anti-gliadin antibody level has decayed to below the threshold where a reaction is triggered, and after that point is reached, the clinical symptoms will begin to fade away and remission may occur. At some point, the immune system will cease to focus its attention entirely on anti-gliadin antibodies and it will begin to be responsive to other threats.

The immune system will then turn its attention to the next available food in the hierarchy of food sensitivities with which it is faced, and that will typically be casein, assuming that casein remains in the diet and the individual is actually sensitive to casein. The immune system will begin to aggressively produce anti-casein antibodies, and at some point, the casein antibody level will exceed the minimum threshold level required to trigger a reaction. At that point, the inflammation process will flare out of control again, due to a reaction against casein.

If casein is withdrawn from the diet, then the level of anti-casein antibodies will begin to decline much faster than the rate at which anti-gliadin antibodies decay, and at some point, the immune system will turn its attention to the next item in the hierarchy of potential threats. Experience shows that this cycle will be repeated until no more food sensitivities are present in the diet. Of course, if the person going through this procedure were to eliminate all of his or her food sensitivities at the start of the process, all of the secondary and subsequent reactions could be avoided.

This concept of an immune system hierarchy is strictly a theory and I am not aware of any scientific proof of the concept. However, as evidence that the logic is sound, note that a precedent exists to demonstrate that this concept does indeed have merit. Extensive research has demonstrated that treatment of inflammatory bowel disease and other autoimmune issues by helminth therapy is extremely effective at bringing remission of symptoms.1 In essence, the presence of parasitic worms in the intestines causes the immune system to focus on them, and as a result, the inflammatory reaction causing an IBD or some other autoimmune issue will virtually always disappear, bringing remission of clinical symptoms to the patient. If the helminths are not replaced as they reach the end of their life cycle, the previous symptoms will return as the helminth population in the intestines dwindles. Clearly, helminths are either at or near the top of the hierarchy.

In other words, the immune system perceives the parasites as a more serious threat than whatever is causing the IBD or any other autoimmune reaction. As a result, it withdraws its attention from the perpetuation of the autoimmune disease in order to focus its resources on the helminths. By the same token, the immune system seems to assign a hierarchical rating to various food sensitivities and it tends to address them one at a time, beginning with the one that it perceives as the greatest threat. If that issue is resolved, then it proceeds to the next one in the hierarchy.

In practice, many of us have found that by avoiding only gluten and dairy, we are able to achieve remission in roughly 4–6 weeks, and then we may experience a relapse of symptoms (as our immune system discovers one or more additional food sensitivities). This doesn't apply to every one of us of course, but it happens often enough to be a rather common experience among the members here. At any rate, I'm guessing that this is why you have not yet detected a problem with soy and eggs.

Do you mind if I add your results to our list here?

Tex

[nerdhume]

When I got my results I was surprised about the eggs too. Check ingredient labels carefully. A lot of things have soy, especially all canned soups (which is what I would eat when I was sick and got sicker).
At first I was overwhelmed and couldn't think of anything to eat. After the initial shock I realized I could eat meat and well cooked vegetables. The biggest problem is the need to cook your own food. Most convenience items are out. I recall someone commenting about the number of ingredients, if the label has more than 5 ingredients I just put it back on the shelf.
Best of luck on your journey. You are off to a great start with this group and the enterolab tests.

[Gary]

Tex,
Thank you so very much for that excellent explanation. It certainly appears that I will have to eliminate G,D,E,S from my diet to make everything heal properly. Thank GOD I have such a wonderful wife that is so attentive to all the food contents and is helping me through this. Stay well!

Gary

P.S. Please feel free to add my test results to the list.

[tex]

Gary,

You're very welcome, and you are indeed fortunate to have such a supportive wife. That benefit will make your recovery much easier.

Thanks, I'll add your results to the list. And I hope that your recovery continues to go smoothly.

Tex

P. S. Incidentally, I notice that you have a double DQ1 gene combination. Unfortunately that gene arrangement is usually associated with a higher than average number of food sensitivities, and lower sensitivity thresholds (meaning that you may be more sensitive to smaller traces of problem foods than many of us). That does not mean that you are guaranteed to have more (and more severe) food sensitivities, it just means that you have the genetics that predispose to it. IOW, if you cannot remain in remission after removing from your diet all of the foods found by the EnteroLab tests to be a problem, you may need to do additional testing, to track down additional foods that may be causing problems.

For an idea of what others who have this gene configuration are dealing with, take a look at Polly's list of food sensitivities (listed under her avatar in all of her posts). You can also view other members' gene test results here.