enterolab, finally

Hopeful · Post by **Hopeful** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 7:18 pm

Whew, it's been a while since I posted but it's been a tough couple of months. I always seem to flare in the late fall. My current theory is that I eat so many nightshade veggies from our garden this time of the year. Need to cut back, I guess. All my autoimmune symptoms are in full flare as well. And winter closing in. Sigh.

After following a strict diet for over a year, and being clear of Entecort for the last 5 months, I finally had the wherewithal to do the Enterolab testing. Some results were expected, but some were a surprise.

-gluten tested at 67 - not a surprise
-casein tested at 21 - I'm thinking that cheese still needs to be off the menu, what a shame.
-egg tested at 11, borderline - I will probably not eat them everyday anymore
-soy tested at 10 - I don't miss soy in the least, but will not freak out at tiny hidden amounts anymore

-no reaction to rice, pork, walnut, cashew, potato
-small reaction to oats, tuna, almonds, and chicken, with an even smaller reaction to corn and beef, - I have detected reactions to some of these and probably eat way too many almond products.
-no items tested for moderate or high reaction

So, all in all, things could be a lot worse. I will continue to completely avoid gluten. I may sneak in tiny amounts of heavy cream and butter, which apparently have little casein.

I will continue to avoid oats and chicken and cut back on corn, tuna and salmon, and beef.

No worries with fat malabsorption.

How does this sound to all of you experts?

Thanks, Chris

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 8:12 pm

With that Caesin score and what you have said about other AI issues - if it was me, I would avoid Dairy totally. It is causing inflammation, inflammation depletes the key nutrients you need to heal the multiple issues you have...

Post by **tex** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 9:41 pm

All AI diseases are the products of inflammation.

And Chris — you didn't mention your overall score on the test for the 11 other antigenic foods. That's the most important result associated with that test, because it defines the significance of all the other results in that test series.

Tex

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Fri Dec 04, 2015 10:30 pm

http://www.rense.com/general26/milk.htm

Articles like this might be enough encouragement to give up the dairy

Lilja · Post by **Lilja** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 3:54 am

I quit drinking milk 2 years ago, and I think milk is unhealthy to even the healthiest persons. But my eyes were drawn to this sentence: "Cow's milk is an unhealthy fluid from diseased animals".

Does it mean what I think it means? How can you get milk from a dead cow?

Lilia

Hopeful · Post by **Hopeful** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 6:39 am

Thanks for your comments, Gabes and Tex. Any help with interpretation is appreciated. Here are the actual results. Mean score is 11.

Laboratory Report
Date: 11/23/2015
Name: Applegate, Christine
DOB: 7/3/1950
Comprehensive Gluten/Antigenic Food Sensitivity Stool Panel

Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA 67 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-casein (cow’s milk) IgA 21 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-ovalbumin (chicken egg) IgA 11 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

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

Mean Value 11 Antigenic Foods 11 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

While all of the foods tested can be immune-stimulating, the hierarchy of reactions detected were as follows:

Food to which there was no significant immunological reactivity: Food to which there was some immunological reactivity (1+): Food to which there was moderate immunological reactivity (2+): Food to which there was significant and/or the most immunological reactivity (3+):
Rice
Pork
Walnut
Cashew
White potato
Oat
Corn
Tuna
Chicken
Beef
Almond
None None

Within each class of foods to which you displayed multiple reactions, the hierarchy of those reactions detected were as follows:

Grains:
Grain toward which you displayed the most immunologic reactivity: Oat
Grain toward which you displayed intermediate immunologic reactivity: Corn

Meats:
Meat toward which you displayed the most immunologic reactivity: Tuna
Meat toward which you were next most immunologically reactive: Chicken
Meat toward which you displayed intermediate immunologic reactivity: Beef

Nuts:
Nut toward which you displayed the most immunologic reactivity: Almond

Chris

Post by **tex** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:13 am

Lilia,

The English language has many words that can sound or appear similar, but they are spelled differently and they have different meanings. "Diseased" means sick, ill, infected, etc. Deceased means dead.

But it wouldn't surprise me if they salvage milk from dead dairy cows. They recycle everything else about them. They probably can find some use for milk from dead cows.

Tex

Post by **tex** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:29 am

Chris,

With a low overall score of 11 for those 11 foods, you are probably correct that most of them shouldn't be much of a problem for you. Be careful though, because all AI diseases are a result of inflammation, and the source of that inflammation is almost always the gut. Clearly, your immune system is in a major battle with something that's probably in your diet (or a medication, supplement, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, makeup, toothpaste, etc.).

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

Tex

Hopeful · Post by **Hopeful** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:38 am

Tex, please feel free to post my results.
Yes, I thought a mean score of 11 means no major issues other than gluten and dairy.

I wish that I could pinpoint what's bothering my system. I've been working to monitor EVERYTHING for over a year now. It does seem interesting that symptoms are always worse in late fall/early winter. Perhaps it's related to my beloved tomatoes/peppers or to ragweed/fall plants or to mold released from autumn leaves on the ground. Can you recommend some further testing?

Chris

Post by **tex** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 10:46 am

Chris,

Many of us seem to be vulnerable to relapses in the fall. Pollen may initiate the reaction, and then it continues to build. Moldy leaves during late fall and winter are a major problem for me, but usually they only cause allergy symptoms, not an MC relapse. I wish I knew of some reliable testing or treatments, but the sad truth is that no one actually understands how any of this stuff interacts with MC to cause the problems that are so common for so many of us.

The medical professionals who have the best potential for understanding the mast cell connection with MC are located at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, under the direction of Dr. Maria Castells. But even they are just in the early stages of understanding the complexities of the immune system, and while they understand systemic mastocytosis, they don't actually understand MC, and how it specifically relates to mastocytosis.

Thanks. I'll add your test results.

Tex

Gabes-Apg · Post by **Gabes-Apg** » Sat Dec 05, 2015 12:49 pm

Chris
in line with Tex's reply, triggers can be more than foods etc.
(and there are not many medical professionals who understand these issues)

a good approach is to keep a journal/dairy. track activities, locations, meals, sleep patterns, sleep etc.

environmentally there are multiple things that can be contributing;
- have you checked lipsticks, toothpaste other bathroom products etc for Gluten and Soy and Oat?
- are you getting any gluten contamination in your kitchen? at work?
- do you react after using cleaning chemicals?
- are symptoms worse elsewhere, where their might be trees or pollen that you are reacting to?
- as you mentioned things like mold, dust mites, etc can also be triggers

what many of us have found, is that we cant remove every possible trigger, the aim is to minimise them as much as possible.
you might be ok with the items individually, but if in any day you have contact with multiples that might be where the reactions are stemming from (that is where the journal/dairy can help)
This is another reason to avoid the diet type triggers as much as possible, keep inflammation at a minimum, as then we can handle small amounts of exposure of the things we cant avoid 100%

Hopeful · Post by **Hopeful** » Sun Dec 06, 2015 10:55 am

Thanks, guys. Yes, I need to dig deeper to find the sources of inflammation.
You know how it goes, after a year of strict eating and feeling pretty normal, you start to get a little sloppy in your vigilance.
The bad knee started during my busy summer gardening season, but got worse in the fall. And then much worse after 2 weeks of traveling and a lot of car time. I carry a lot of food with me on trips and carry an "allergy card" with me to eating establishments, but I'm sure that I was exposed to some ingredients that I would not knowingly consume. So, little surprise that everything flared up on and after the trip.
Now I'm back to plain food and vigilance. And I think I may have knee surgery in my future. Sigh.
Chris

Lilja · Post by **Lilja** » Sun Dec 06, 2015 1:01 pm

tex wrote:Lilia,

The English language has many words that can sound or appear similar, but they are spelled differently and they have different meanings. "Diseased" means sick, ill, infected, etc. Deceased means dead.

But it wouldn't surprise me if they salvage milk from dead dairy cows. They recycle everything else about them. They probably can find some use for milk from dead cows.

Tex

Ha ha ! I went right into the language trap... And I can see - and I know - the difference

Lilia