Low dose antigen therapy

[darlagroat]

I have been seeing a naturopathic Dr. and she has done additional serum testing for food sensitivities that informed me of 36 additional things to avoid!! Some of it is confusing, and not in total agreement with Enterolab, and I know I have read on this forum that Enterolab trumps others. For example, eggs and rice seem to be allowed on this new list, so I wonder if that could have been a temporary issue. I have eaten 1 egg, and rice a couple times with no ill effect, but I am sort of hesitent to proceed.
She is recommending Low dose antigen therapy and I have been doing reading about that and research into all that that entails. It seems like a big commitment, but with potential good results. Has anyone done this? I didn't get anything to come up when I searched the archives. I would be grateful for any advice.
Thanks,
Darla

[Gabes-Apg]

I havent tried it, and have not done extensive research.

after a general read this is my thoughts;
based on the experience of so many MC'ers over a long period of time, the treatment protocols that help other IBD's and other allergy type issues dont work so well for MC.
my other observation is that diet types (Fodmaps etc) and some therapies/treatments (ie pro-biotics, L-Glutamine) dont work for MC'ers unless the inflammation is minimised, and good healing has occurred.

Keep in mind, the reason we have gut inflammation is the immune system is getting a 'tainted' 'dodgy' message about items.
Healing only occurs once inflammation is minimised, and the damaged villi, cells etc have the right nutrients/minerals to heal, and effective digestion process is occurring.

The most likely reason the immune system is reacting incorrectly, is due to deficiencies in our cells (ie Vit D3, magnesium, Zinc, B group etc) As per many of the recent discussions, quite a few in the past week, Chronic inflammation is toxic. not just to the gut, but to every other organ in our body. read through some of the recent posts, there is good information and links that expand on this topic.

knowing what i know now, my hesitance to these type of therapies is that they do not treat or help 'root cause' of the reactions / inflammation. We are all different, for some Histamine is the main cause of inflammation, for others it might be viral, bacterial, pathogens, candida in the gut.
There are affordable tests that can give indications of what might be the root cause for you. Treat the root cause, and subsequent causes in the right order, and viola wellness will happen.

In Australia, my nutritionist requested my doctor conduct the following tests; they were all free on the medicare system
Vit D3, Iron Studies, B12, Zinc and Copper levels, Poop test for common Parasites/Bacteria, SIBO.
(if there was any parasites/bacteria, sibo, none of the other treatments would work unless we fixed that first)

I paid for Gene Mutation Testing for MTHFR, Pyrrole. (both of these cause serious deficiencies of key nutrients that affect cell health and is likely to be in 10% of the population)

There is a fairly reliable Hair Mineral Analysis that will show any heavy metal toxicity and mineral deficiencies

Vit D3, Magnesium, Vit C, Zinc can help a MULTITUDE of issues;

Vit D3, reduces inflammation, needed for cell health, you need good levels of VitD3 in your body to absorb other nutrients via the gut
Magnesium deficiency is linked to a magnitude of symptoms, not just MC related
Vit C, reduces inflammation (especially histamine) and high doses will treat Candida in the gut, needed for cell rebuild, helps immune system and adrenals
Zinc, reduces inflammation (especially histamine) helps gum health, needed for cell rebuild etc

Heal the gut, stick to low inflammation lifestyle (food etc), support the immune system and the adrenals, and you will then narrow down majority of the issues. Any symptoms after this, is your body telling you what else it needs....

Hope this helps

[tex]

Hi Darla,

I have to agree with Gabes. Low dose antigen therapy is presumably a form of oral immunotherapy treatment, and they're all the rage among immunologists these days. The treatments sort of work, in that they can prevent clinical symptoms in many patients, as long as they continue to ingest the antigen. If they ever stop ingesting the antigen regularly though, they will lose their tolerance, and preliminary results indicate that many patients may lose tolerance anyway, after a year or so goes by, even if they continue to regularly ingest the antigen. And of course this means that the symptoms will slowly return. It is claimed that retreatment can induce tolerance again, though.

The problem with this plan, that's overlooked by the medical "experts", is that (IMO) the inflammation continues to be generated, if we continue to eat any food to which we produce antibodies, because the antibodies will continue to be produced, and they will continue to cause some form of inflammation. Here's my opinion on the topic, from the book, pages 114–115

Let’s explore this issue further, to illustrate how far off track the mainstream medical community has ventured with their treatment of allergies and food sensitivities. Oral immunotheraphy treatments offered by immunolgists are currently in vogue as a way to desensitize patients who have food allergies and food sensitivities. Based on results that show a resolution of clinical symptoms, these treatments are claimed to be very effective in resolving food sensitivities. Immunologists point to the elimination of clinical symptoms and a reduction in IgE antibody levels as proof that their treatments are effective and safe. But do they actually resolve the problem? In my opinion, the answer is a resounding “No!” True, such treatments can eliminate a patient’s clinical symptoms, but as I pointed out in the previous paragraph, antibodies to those allergens continue to be produced in the intestines. This is easily verified by testing for IgA antibody levels by means of appropriate stool tests, or by analyzing biopsy samples taken from the intestines. Serum tests are worthless for this purpose.

Furthermore, researchers have demonstrated that when tolerance to an allergenic food is attained by the use of such desensitizing treatments, damage to the intestines continues to accumulate if the consumption of those foods continues.24 Burggraf et al. (2011) used mice as research subjects to prove that continued feeding brought tolerance (as demonstrated by the resolution of clinical symptoms) and a reduction in IgE antibodies, but inflammation in the jejunum (the middle section of the small intestine) continued to increase. Obviously this raises some serious questions about the validity and safety of the current use of oral immunotheraphy treatments.

Here's reference number 24 from that quote:

24. Burggraf, M., Nakajima-Adachi, H., Hachimura, S., Ilchmann, A., Pemberton, A. D., Kiyono, H., . . . Toda, M. (2011). Oral tolerance induction does not resolve gastrointestinal inflammation in a mouse model of food allergy. Molecular Nutrition & Food Research, 55(10), 1475–1483. doi:10.1002/mnfr.201000634

The researchers concluded:

CONCLUSION: Our mouse model would be useful to investigate inflammatory and regulatory mechanisms in food-induced intestinal allergies. Our results suggest potential gastrointestinal inflammation in patients undergoing OIT as continuous administration of allergenic foods, even though the therapy may induce clinical tolerance.

In that quote, OIT stands for oral immunotherapy treatments. If you're not familiar with using doi internet addresses, the abstract can also be found at this URL:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21714123

The bottom line is that the treatments can bring tolerance, so that clinical symptoms are controlled or at least minimized (for a while), but inflammation continues. These treatments were originally developed for classic allergies, and for patients who develop anaphylactic symptoms, they can prevent a life-threatening crisis from developing. I'm not sure they work so well for the type of food sensitivities that we have though, because research shows that the inflammation remains.

But of course that's just my opinion.

Tex

[darlagroat]

Thank you both, Tex and Gabes. I appreciate your thoughtful informed responses. The people here are definitely the experts on MC, so I'm glad I asked. For clarification, this is a subcutaneous injection that would be about every 7 weeks, but if it is just masking inflammation, it is in some ways no different than the other medications that would be offered. I will continue with my diet.:/

[tex]

Darla,

I'm just an ignorant old country boy, but it appears to me that the people who develop these "vaccination" therapy treatments don't understand how vaccinations actually work. They view them as some mysterious and magical way to prevent disease. But they're actually pretty simple, in principle.

Basically, vaccines trigger an antibody response by the immune system, so that if the body is exposed to the antigen targeted by the vaccine at any time in the future, the immune system will recognize the antigen as an enemy immediately, and proceed to launch a massive attack to eradicate it. And the attack begins by the production of a flood of antibodies designed to alert and arm various components of the immune system's defense arsenal.

That approach works great for eradicating a pathogen to which we are exposed in a single discrete event (or in a series of events), because once the threat is past, then the inflammation fades away. But if the exposure to the antigen is chronic (as in the case of a food that we eat every day), then the inflammation also becomes chronic, and this is the epitome of autoimmunity. IOW, I don't see any way that a "vaccine/innoculation" can logically be used to prevent food sensitivities. That amounts to a misuse of the technology.

At least that's the way I see it, but as you are well aware, I'm not a doctor.

Tex