Blood test questions - New Doctor Tuesday

cinemom · Post by **cinemom** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 12:50 am

I am starting with a new Primary Care Physician, and on Tuesday 2/17 I will have blood drawn for the usual CBC tests. I plan to submit a kit to Enterolab in the near future. Until then, should I be asking my new doctor for any particular lab tests? I'm experiencing myalgia and WD for now. It's hard to wrap my head around what I should be asking my doctor for in order to prepare for the Enterolab testing. Or does it matter? I have never had allergy testing, never had IgA or IgG testing. Should that be done before Enterolab? Or does Enterolab do that testing? Thanks!

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:02 am

Cant comment about the IgE IgG and enterolab

as for general tests, my suggestions are:

VitD3
B12
Iron
Calcium
Thyroid
Iodine levels (urine test) (reason for this is that the TSH thyroid test can be in range, but this will indicate if there is thyroid issues)
Zinc/Copper levels

Good luck, hope you like the PCP. and they have some understanding of Colitis

cinemom · Post by **cinemom** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:18 am

Thanks, Gabes - good ideas; I understand most of your suggestions. I'm curious why the Zinc/Copper though?

She gave me about 40 minutes of her time Friday, which is unheard of around here. So I had some time to introduce her to just a bit of what I've learned about MC. I hope I can influence her choice of tests.

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:26 am

Zinc/Copper

- higher range or excess copper is an indicator of heavy metal storage (due to leaky gut inflammation)
- if you are low in zinc, good idea to supplement, as it helps clears toxins and helps leaky gut healing, best to know what your level is before you supplement.
Zinc is essential for things like adrenals, immune system, balancing histamine inflammation, clearing toxins etc.

cinemom · Post by **cinemom** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 1:47 am

That makes lots of sense - thanks again Gabes!

Post by **tex** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 10:22 am

Cinemom,

Allergy testing is of very limited usefulness for our purposes with MC. Conventional allergy tests will not reliably detect the type of food sensitivities that are associated with MC.

About 1 in 500 people in the general population have selective IgA deficiency, which means that they are incapable of producing normal amounts of immunoblobulin A. For people who are sensitive to gluten, the risk rises to about 1 in 300. If you want to eliminate the risk of receiving false negative results on your EnteroLab tests (since they're based on detecting IgA antibodies), you might ask your doctor to order a test to rule out selective IgA deficiency. It's a simple blood test, so it's not practical for EnteroLab to offer that test (because you would have to go to your doctor or another lab for a blood draw, anyway). They specialize in stool tests for food sensitivities.

Good luck with your tests and your appointment with your new doctor.

Tex

cinemom · Post by **cinemom** » Mon Feb 16, 2015 5:55 pm

Thanks Tex. This is exactly what I was trying to figure out. Very helpful!

cinemom · Post by **cinemom** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:23 pm

Update: doc agreed to add the blood test (selective IgA deficiency). Will see results next week. Thanks again Tex!

Post by **tex** » Tue Feb 17, 2015 3:23 pm

You're most welcome,
Tex