3RD ENTEROLAB RESULTS

[jcml12]

I am having trouble understanding Enterolab and frankly it does not make sense & I am beginning to not really trust. When my first flare since 5 yrs ago happened, 8/8/20 I ordered a test. It said Fecal Fat 391, Anti-gliadin IGA 69, Cows milk 16, Chicken Egg 34, Anti Soy 50 & mean Value 11 Antigenic 23. Foods w/ no reactive (white potatoe), 1+ were Pork, Beef, Chicken, Tuna, 2+ were Rice, Corn, Almond, Cashew & 3+ Oat & Walnut.
I ordered a new test since I wanted to recheck the Fat & results came in yesterday.
Anti-gliadin IGA = 131, Chicken = 71, Anti Soy = 57, Mean Value 11 = 38, Foods which there was no significant reactivity = 0, 1+ Beef, 2+ = Corn, Rice, Pork, Chicken, Cashew, Almond & White Potato & 3+ = Oat, Tuna & Walnut.
Now I have been following a Paleo diet for the last 6 years and white potato had never been in my wheel house. Since the prior test showed it as safe I probably have had white potato maybe 6 or 7 times in the last year where 3 or 4 times were in the last 2 months before test. Now it is showing up on 2+ list? I have been extremely careful and dont understand this at all.
Tex, please help explain because this potato thing makes no sense.
Thank you!

[tex]

Okay, I'll try to shed some light on what's happening here. The numbers you see in those EnteroLab results roughly correspond to the amount of time that you have been reacting to those items. The longer we continue to react, the higher those respective numbers will be. Apparently your diet is somehow being cross-contaminated with gluten on a regular basis, and gluten dominates everything else, with regard to our immune system. In other words an increased sensitivity to antigliadin antibodies, will cause a general increase in the sensitivity to all foods to which you are sensitive, and of course, that also includes white potato, whether you've been eating it regularly or not.

Antigliadin antibodies have a 120 day half-life, compared with a half-life of the antibodies for most foods of five or six days. This means that if we have a relatively high antigliadin antibody level, and we do a perfect job of avoiding gluten, it may take several years for our antigliadin level to return to normal levels, that is, below 10. But if we do a good job of avoiding gluten, it will steadily, but slowly, decline. By comparison, the antibody levels for most food sensitivities can return to a normal level within a matter of months, after we begin avoiding these foods. But since gluten dominates our immune systems, cross-contamination of our diet with gluten, will trump everything else, and our overall sensitivity to everything will continue to increase.

I hope I haven't just confused the issue.

Tex

[jcml12]

Thank you Tex but I am still very confused. I have not eaten anything with gluten. I live alone, it is not in my house in any form. I almost gag with eating Turkey almost daily with just salt and pepper. No flavor what so ever. I will sometimes eat lamb (again with salt & pepper). I think I have had chicken once or twice for the last 8 months. It is not in any supplements I take or anything I bathe with. I am not sure where it would come from?

[tex]

Hmmmm. This is turning into quite a mystery. What was the fecal fat score on your most recent EnteroLab test?

Do you eat or drink any commercially processed foods at all? is the turkey certified pure, that is, no added ingredients or injected solutions? Is it a name brand turkey or from a local butcher?

Tex

[Gabes-Apg]

some suggestions for possible sources of gluten

- make up / lipstick / lipbalms / toothpaste
- shampoos / body products with wheatgerm in it
- cereals / processed gluten free products (they still have minuscule amounts of gluten)
- workplace coffee cups washed in communal dishwasher
- instant coffee
- deli meats

eggs - i react to eggs where the chickens have been fed high gluten/soy grain

[Rosie]

Your results indeed are puzzling. I might suggest calling Enterolab and see if they have any thoughts. Perhaps they might be willing to retest your sample for free, since the results are hard to interpret in light of previous tests. In the past I know that they store samples for some period of time after testing in case you want further testing.

Rosie

[jcml12]

Tex,
My Fecal Fat on the test 8/8/20 was 391 (normal is less than 300). When I retested on 8/16/21 my Fecal Fat is under 300. That is what the test says. Normal. It is very perplexing. Here is average day meal. Breakfast: 2 soft boiled Duck eggs, Lunch: left over pork, lamb, turkey or fish (sometimes chicken) with salt & pepper. Sometimes I have a little well cooked green beans or carrots and other times just the meat. Dinner: lamb, turkey, chicken or fish with salt & pepper. Extremely boring. I have 1 cup of coffee in the morning (Kuerig) with Arroy-D coconut milk. Every once in a while I will eat some Boulder brand potato chips that are GF and cooked in Avocado oil. That is it. Repeat daily. I don't use much makeup and what I use I double checked again is GF. My shower gel is GF. I drink water the rest of the day. I did not call Enterolab as I had called him before last year. He was not very helpful as he said I could pay for the interpretation. I just spent a lot of money on the test and and one question. When I said I just had a quick question he then answered but very condescending. You know when you don't feel good you are just not in the mood for people treating you badly.

[tex]

Thanks for that information. Based on your fecal fat score, those results suggest that if your diet is being cross contaminated with gluten at all, it has to be very very slight. If there were any significant amount of gluten in your diet, your fecal fat score would have gotten worse with time, not better. So now, if gluten is not the problem, what is? While it's not impossible that some of the items in your diet might be causing a problem, none of those appear to be obvious culprits. It's possible that you may just have an extremely sensitive and overreactive immune system, that refuses to settle down. I would say you just need more time for the inflammation to subside, except that if that were true, your food sensitivity test results should be improving, not increasing.

But the bottom-line here is that you're still reacting to something in your diet. And because of that, and the fact that your immune system Is probably so ultrasensitive at this point, that you may be reacting to most of the proteins in your diet. The most likely suspect in your current diet is the duck eggs. Alternative eggs don't work safely for some of us. I would try eliminating them for a few days, to see if that helps.

Regarding Dr. fine, I have a hunch he may be suffering from the same problem I am — namely, old age, but that's just a guess. At any rate, I apologize for him — he may have just been having a bad day.

Anyway, try skipping the duck age for a few days, and then let me know whether that helped. If that doesn't help, we'll have to look for something else. We'll find the problem, if we keep searching.

Tex

[jcml12]

Thank you so much Tex. I really appreciate it. I will stop the Duck Eggs right away. In the last week I have been having fiery pain every so often in my intestines and then D. This is usually a couple hours after breakfast. That is all new to me. The fiery pain is telling me inflammation so that really scares me. I thought of increasing back up to 6mg on Budesinide as doesn’t that help the inflammation? My Enterolab report did show an increase in Chicken Egg. In 2020 it was 34 and now it is 71. I guess I thought the Duck egg was way different?

[tex]

Yes, a larger dose of budesonide might help. But try avoiding the duck eggs first, because if they're the problem, then avoiding them should eliminate any need for budesonide.

Tex

[jcml12]

Tex,

I am proud to report after ditching the Duck eggs for the last week I have had NO problems! Here I thought the duck eggs would be safe. Is this very common where you cant eat chicken eggs and duck eggs? It was my favorite meal of the day as I love eggs. I have had to get creative. It is very hard if you are trying to stay away from everything you seem to be reacting to. Thank you for your wisdom as I would never have thought of it since I felt they were safe.

[tex]

Great! Thanks for the update. I'm glad that finally resolved the problem. In tough situations like this, it's almost always a food to which we've given a free pass, that turns out to be the problem, because we eat it without even thinking, every day.

This is a somewhat common problem. I'm not sure how it ranks statistically, but probably over half of us who are sensitive to chicken eggs, also have issues with duck eggs.After your digestive system has time to do some significant healing, for example, after a year or two, you may be able to add duck eggs back into baked goods, but it's possible that you may never be able to eat them as whole eggs.

Tex

[jbrohlr]

I hear you on giving up on eggs, that elimination made me pretty despondent as I am fond of eggs as well. It's easier to let go of it once you know it is a definitive source of D however.

John R.

[Erica P-G]

This was a fascinating post…with great work sleuthing to find the culprit

I’ve been a part of this forum 6.5 years and I continue to be reminded that each of healing journeys begin and end with something we are reacting to, be it medication or food.

Every time I have a bad day I’m going to remember this post
Thanks Tex….Love this forum!
Erica

[tex]

Hi Erica,

I hope those bad days you mentioned will be few and far between.

Tex