I was thinking of you last night as I was re-reading The E. I Syndrome by Sherry A. Rogers, M.D. The book has an entire section on Food Intolerance starting on page 201. She calls it food allergy but she is definitely speaking about delayed food reactions that are linked with colitis and any number of other diseases.
She gives you a step by step guide on how to detect your food intolerances using a two week diagnostic diet and then adding foods back in one at a time. While it might be a little challenging to do the diet, it's certainly not a starvation diet by any means, and probably far preferable to the misery and occassional depression that your condition brings on now. So check it out if it piques your interest.
Dr. Roger's books have helped me so much.
Of course, you can just wait for Dr. Fine's test too. In my case, my intolerances go way beyond the common ones in MC so I've had to do more detective work. I wish I had done Dr. Roger's diagnostic diet much earlier on!
Dr. Roger believes that many of us have developed food sensitivities because chemicals (and heavy metals) in our 20th century environment have damaged our immune systems and caused our antibodies to recognize as foreign, things that never before were recognized as foreign. She says these chemicals have damaged cells call the T suppressor cells which normally control how much antibody is made against various foods like beef, milk or wheat. Now that these cells are damaged, our immune systems have gone haywire, and we have developed symtpoms to foods that we normally tolerated for years.
She says, like people in this forum say as well, if you diligently stay away from your trigger foods for several months, you might be able to add some of them back in. She recommends doing so very slowly starting with small amounts just once a week. Some foods you may never be able to tolerate again. Also, the process can take much longer if one's immunse system is very damaged. Everyone is biochemically unique so the recovery process is similar but different for each person.
Whatever route you take, I wish you a quick end to your misery!
Now, I'm off to vacation for two weeks...
Be well, Celia
