Further enterolab testing

[Vanessa]

Hey guys,
It's been about ten months since I did my first enterolab testing and got most of my life back because of it. I still had some trouble around hormonal times but was doing pretty good. Until a couple months ago I have been working towards a flare. Not quite full blown with some days worse than others. I changed the diet but took things away, not added them. I took away all grains and legumes to experiment. My question is what enterolab test should I do to aid in a full elimination diet. I had a doctors data comprehensive stool analysis done back in sept. And it revealed my Secretory IgA was low at 35. Normal is 51 -204. Is this the same SIgA everyone is talking about? Forgive my stupidity. I feel I do best on safe grains like rice, quinoa, beef, fish, chicken. Anyway I had been eating beans, peas, all meats, lots of veg in tolerable amts. What would be the best test to get to rule as much out as possible. I dread doing an elimination diet.....my mental state will definitely be compromised I would love more guidance to take some of the guess work out. I still don't understand if I had a low SIgA how I reacted to gluten,dairy, and soy on my first enterolab test. I also just had lab testing done which showed I had an elevated C Reactive Protein-hs of 1.6. But cholesterol was perfect. I'm sure having an IBD will affect this number. Anyone else have a higher C Reactive Protein?
I also remember reading in Tex's book that once the gluten was finally out, the immune system will concentrate on the other allergies that are still there and we can start flaring after a period of wellness. Thanks again.....

[tex]

Hi Vanessa,

Secretory Immunoglobulin A (SIgA) is a subclass of Immunoglobulin A (IgA). It's the main immunoglobulin found in mucous secretions from the tear glands, salivary glands, mammary glands, respiratory system, genito-urinary tract, and the gastrointestinal tract. So yes, it's the one that affects the sensitivity of any IgA-based stool or blood tests (including the ELISA tests used by EnteroLab).

So what this means in your case is that with a SIGA reference result at 35, if you are very sensitive to a food, you might still get a valid result on an EnteroLab test. However, if your sensitivity level is low (IOW, if you only recently began to react to that food), then your IgA antibody level might not be high enough to trigger a positive result, resulting in a possible false negative result. IOW, if your test result were positive, then that would be a valid positive result. But if the result were negative, it might or might not be accurate.

Beans and peas are legumes, so if you wanted to test for antibodies to them, that would require a soy test (because most of us who are sensitive to soy, are also sensitive to most legumes). If your soy test result was positive on your previous test, then there is not much point in retesting — you are very likely sensitive to some of the legumes that you are eating. Some members have found that after they healed a while, they could tolerate certain beans, but not peas. And during recovery, it's best to avoid all legumes, in order to promote optimal healing.

The reason why you produced positive test results on the original EnteroLab tests is because you have probably been reacting to those foods long enough that your sensitivity level is well-developed. IOW, you are very sensitive to those foods. Normally, the longer we react to a food, the higher our antibody level climbs for that food. Therefore, as long as you are still capable of producing moderate amounts of IgA, you can still produce significant antibody levels against foods that are major problems. If you produced negligible amounts of IgA, then the tests would not work at all, and the results would always be false negatives.

Research shows that IBDs are capable of reducing cholesterol levels, because the malabsorption problem in the terminal ileum can limit the reabsorption of unused bile acids, and bile acids are normally recycled in the body to produce cholesterol. IOW, with an IBD, more of the unused bile fatty acids go down the toilet.

Try eliminating beans, peas, and any other legumes (and please don't overdo the fiber in the veggies), and see if that doesn't put your recovery back on track.

And please keep us posted.

Tex

[Vanessa]

Just out of curiosity Tex.....do you feel this is one of the reasons you were sent here? To guide and help thousands of us that can not get answers anywhere else? Feel free not to answer that thanks again!

[Leah]

Hi Vanessa. I have Selective IgA Deficiency ( I produce almost 0 antibodies. My test result was 6). So I obviously had to do this the elimination diet way. I know it is difficult, but so worth it. For the first six months, I ate all fresh meats,eggs, cooked carrots,squash, and green beans. White rice and it's products like rice cakes, crackers, rice noodles, and rice Chex with almond milk. I also ate Corn Chex and corn tortillas. Avocados and olives. I also had a bit of unsweetened apple sauce, almond butter with a little jam sometimes. I only used olive oil and coconut oil and only drank water and decaf tea.

I know that this sounds harsh, but it worked. After 6 months of healing, I tested white potatoes with success ( yay french fries and potato chips).As time went on, I was able to add small salads and small quantities of fresh veggies. Then small quantities of sugar and baked GF products. Now that I am three years into this, although I am soy free, I am able to eat kidney, garbonzo, and white beans. I remain dairy and gluten free and can't tolerate tomato sauce, but can eat some fresh tomatoes. I can even eat spicy foods now! Decaf coffee with coconut milk! Life is good :)

So, what I'm trying to say is if you do the hard work upfront and really take the time to heal your gut, then the reward of being able to slowly add foods back in can be within your grasp. Patience.patience. patience

Leah

[Vanessa]

Thanks Leah! This moral support helps so much. Going paleo did not work for me and I put so much hope in it. I really needed to add rice to get more energy and that's o.k. We are not all the same. You just hear all of these miracles that happen for other people so of course you get excited about it. I wonder how much of it was the stress of preparing those meals for 12 hour work days I did learn one thing though.....lamb is delicious but rabbit is not.

[Vanessa]

Oh yeah......good wishes for a quick recovery Leah!