Enterolab results: I can't eat anything?

[aginternist]

Here are my enterolab results. I feel like I can't eat anything based on these!

Any ideas?



Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA      11 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-Oat IgA      22 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-tissue Transglutaminase IgA      8 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae (dietary yeast) IgA      1 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Mean Value 11 Antigenic Foods      12 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:
Rice
White potato
Garbonzo Bean
Sesame Seed
Soy
Corn

Food to which there was some immunological reactivity (1+):
Almond
Walnut
Egg

Food to which there was moderate immunological reactivity (2+):
Milk

Food to which there was significant and/or the most immunological reactivity (3+):
Cashew


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

Nuts:
Nut toward which you displayed the most immunologic reactivity: Cashew
Nut toward which you displayed intermediate immunologic reactivity: Almond
Nut toward which you displayed the least immunologic reactivity: Walnut

C-3) Antigenic Meat Panel

Beef      14.3 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Chicken      26.4 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Pork      28.1 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Tuna      12.5 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Mean Value # Antigenic Foods      20 Units   (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Gluten Sensitivity Gene Test

HLA-DQB1 Molecular analysis, Allele 1*      06:09   

HLA-DQB1 Molecular analysis, Allele 2*      03:01   

Serologic equivalent: HLA-DQ 1,3  (Subtype 6,7)

*Molecular HLA results are now being reported utilizing the latest official WHO/ASHI/ESI HLA-nomenclature which inserts a colon (:) between the first two digits and the last two digits (e.g., 05:01 rather than 0501). Result interpretation is the same as they have been in the past when results were expressed without the colon.



TEST INTERPRETATION(S):

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA:  The level of intestinal anti-gliadin IgA antibody was elevated, indicative of active dietary gluten sensitivity. For optimal health; resolution or improvement of gluten-induced syndromes (mainly falling into six categories abbreviated as NAAAGS – neuropsychiatric, autoimmune, asthma, abdominal, glandular deficiencies/hyperactivity or skin diseases); resolution of symptoms known to be associated with gluten sensitivity (such as abdominal symptoms - pain, cramping, bloating, gas, diarrhea and/or constipation, chronic headaches, chronic sinus congestion, depression, arthritis, chronic skin problems/rashes, fibromyalgia, and/or chronic fatigue); and prevention of small intestinal damage and malnutrition, osteoporosis, and damage to other tissues (like nerves, brain, joints, muscles, thyroid, pancreas, other glands, skin, liver, spleen, among others), it is recommended that you follow a strict and permanent gluten free diet. As gluten sensitivity is a genetic syndrome, you may want to have your relatives screened as well.

For additional information on result interpretation, as well as educational information on the subject of gluten sensitivity, please see the "FAQ Result Interpretation," "FAQ Gluten/Food Sensitivity," and "Research & Education" links on our EnteroLab.com website.

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-Oat IgA:  Level of fecal IgA antibody to oat proteins was greater than or equal to 10 Units, indicative of an immune reaction, and hence immunologic “sensitivity” to oats. It is recommended that for any elevated fecal antibody level to a highly antigenic food such as oats, that it be removed from your diet. You should avoid all oats, even those claiming to be gluten-free (which merely means they certify there is minimal to no contamination with wheat gluten). It is estimated that 40-50% of gluten-sensitive people are oat sensitive as well; you are among this 40-50%. Studies claiming oats are tolerated by all gluten sensitive people, and that consequently conclude that oat gluten is non-toxic, by design, inherently select study patients from the 50-60% of gluten-sensitive people who can tolerate oats. (This is because if a person could not tolerate oats they could not be in a study asking them to eat oats regularly for long periods of time.) The original research by Dr. Willem Karel Dicke finding that gluten was the cause of celiac disease identified wheat, barley, rye, and oats as the offending grains.

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-tissue Transglutaminase IgA:  The level of intestinal IgA antibodies to the human enzyme tissue transglutaminase was below the upper limit of normal. Hence, there is no evidence of a gluten-induced autoimmune reaction to this enzyme.

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae (dietary yeast) IgA:  The level of intestinal Anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae (dietary yeast) IgA antibody was below the upper limit of normal, indicating that the main immunologic reaction specific to the diagnosis of Crohn’s disease is absent. This stool test alone cannot rule out Crohn’s disease however. Further gastroenterological and/or serological testing is warranted if you have any of the following symptoms chronically: moderate to severe abdominal pain; blood, mucus, or pus in stools; diarrhea; partial or complete intestinal obstruction at any time; and/or signs of ongoing chronic systemic inflammation such as fever, weight loss, arthritis, or fatigue. Furthermore, some immunocompetent people can still have clinically significant reactions to a food antigen despite the lack of a significant antibody reaction (because the reactions primarily involve T cells), if there are any suspicious symptoms or signs of Crohn’s disease consult your health care practitioner for further diagnostic testing. And if you think you may be immunologically sensitive to dietary yeast even without these symptoms, we recommend avoiding foods and beverages with added Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast (i.e., foods/beverages made with baker’s or brewer’s yeast) or high concentrations of this yeast naturally (like wine).

Interpretation of Mean Value 11 Antigenic Foods:  With respect to the mean value of the 11 foods tested, overall, there was only a modest amount of immunological reactivity detected to these antigenic foods in terms of fecal IgA production.

Many foods besides gluten, milk, egg, and soy are antigenic in their own right; the main classes of which include other grains, meats, nuts, and nightshades (potatoes being the primary food eaten from this latter class). Minimizing exposure to antigenic foods is an important component of an anti-inflammatory lifestyle to optimize immune system health. This is especially important for those with chronic abdominal symptoms and/or chronic immune/autoimmune syndromes, or for those who want to prevent them.

For immunologic food sensitivity testing, the actual numeric value (in Units) for any given food or for the overall average of a group of foods is important mainly for determining: 1) if the immune reaction is present or absent, and 2) the immune reaction in relative terms to different foods tested in a given individual at a given point in time. It is not a score, per se, to be interpreted as a measure of clinical or immunological severity for that individual or between individuals. This is because the amount of IgA antibody made by a given person is particular for the immune function of that person. Furthermore, sometimes a person can display what can be viewed as immunological and nutritional “exhaustion,” whereby a more significant and symptomatic immunologic food sensitivity is accompanied by a lower positive measured anti-food antibody value (rather than a higher positive). In such an instance, following clinical improvement and improved nutritional status (while the suspect antigenic foods are withdrawn), values can actually be higher for a time before finally falling into the negative range after several years.

Thus, the overall average food sensitivity antibody value for this panel is an assessment of your overall humoral immunologic food reactivity, which can help determine if dietary elimination trials may help you. If the mean value is less than 10 Units, the humoral immune reactions can be considered clinically insignificant (negative); if greater than or equal to 10 Units, they can be considered clinically significant (positive). Rather than reporting the absolute value of a positive result for each individual food, since it cannot be considered as an assessment of severity, the results are reported in semi-quantitative terms between the foods tested (1+, 2+, or 3+). This provides you with the knowledge of which foods are stimulating the most immune response which, in turn, is indeed the most practically applied information to dietary elimination trials.

Dietary Recommendation Based on Test Results to Individual Foods:

This test panel was designed to guide your choices when building a new more healthful, less antigenic dietary plan. The results are delivered in such a way that you are not left with “nothing to eat,” but instead they should guide you in avoiding the foods to which the highest or most immunologic reaction was detected (and hence, are most stimulating to your immune system). We discourage dietary changes that involve removing too many foods at once. This can lead you to feel too hungry too often, especially if adequate healthful replacement foods are not readily available. Dietary elimination (beyond gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free) is best approached over a period of weeks to months and sometimes years, removing one or two additional foods at a time, rather than removing many foods at once.

If you reacted to more than one of the grains, meats, or nuts, we recommend that you first eliminate from your diet the one food from that class you reacted to most strongly, while keeping in your diet the ones you reacted to less strongly. When you want to try and eliminate additional foods, do so in the order of the strength of reaction from highest, intermediate, to least. In the case of potato, you may want to eliminate it if you reacted positively to it.

If you have an autoimmune or chronic inflammatory syndrome, or just want to pursue an optimally healthy diet and lifestyle, avoiding all grains, meats, and nightshades can optimize an anti-inflammatory diet (despite a negative result on food testing). As nuts and seeds are a very healthful source of vegetarian protein and heart-protective oils and minerals, rather than avoiding all nuts and seeds, you can render nuts and seeds less antigenic, more digestible, and more easily tolerated by choosing the few that you seem to best tolerate overall, soaking a one-day supply in a glass jar filled with clean water for 4-8 hours (or for ease, overnight), and pouring off the water and rinsing before eating. The resultant soaked nuts or seeds can be eaten as is (alone or with fresh or dried fruit), blended into nut butters (by adding some water), or added to “smoothies.”

Interpretation of Beef:  Not yet categorized

Interpretation of Chicken:  Not yet categorized

Interpretation of Pork:  Not yet categorized

Interpretation of Tuna:  Not yet categorized

Interpretation of Mean Value # Antigenic Foods:  Not yet categorized

Interpretation of HLA-DQ Testing:  Although you do not possess the HLA-DQB1 genes predisposing to celiac disease (HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8), HLA gene analysis reveals that you have two copies of a gene that predisposes to non-celiac gluten sensitivity, in your case HLA-DQB1*06:09 and HLA-DQB1*03:01. Having two copies of a gluten sensitive gene means that each of your parents and all of your children (if you have them) will possess at least one copy of the gene. Two copies also means there is an even stronger predisposition to gluten sensitivity than having one gene, and the resultant immunologic gluten sensitivity may be more severe. This test was developed and its performance characteristics determined by the Kashi Clinical Laboratories. It has not been cleared or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

[Gabes-Apg]

I think you have fairly good results


the mean value is reasonably low so you have moderate inflammation at time of testing

this part was good news

Food to which there was no significant immunological reactivity:
Rice
White potato
Garbonzo Bean
Sesame Seed
Soy
Corn
not reacting to corn or soy makes gluten free life a lot easier

It was low result for eggs, you would be able to eat duck eggs with no expected issues
and handle small amount of chicken egg occasionally

yes you reacted to mainstream meats, but there are loads of available options. Venison, Lamb, other game meats

[tex]

Welcome to the group. I hope that you can find the solutions you need here. As Gabes pointed out, your results are way better than the test results for many of us. Quite a few of us react to every food tested. You still have many choices. I can't add much to Gabes' suggestions, except that you might benefit from reading a newsletter The Microscopic Colitis Foundation published over a year and 1/2 ago:

https://www.microscopiccolitisfoundatio ... 479987.pdf

Tex

[I_zwem]

Just received my Enterolab results. I was in full flare and eating eggs everyday. Pretty good about gluten since getting diagnosed with Microscopic Collanenous Colitis back in 2019 and a subsequent flare in 2021. Found this website after going out to eat with visiting family and throwing caution to the wind and eating too much pizza!!! and then had a major relapse. I'm new here so haven't figured out how to do a new post, so tagged on to this one. So glad I did the A+1 C+1 test. Finally starting to heal and soooo, soooo, grateful for information I found on the forum.

I'm feeling as though my result might be one of the worst! Just curious, since I was born in the Netherlands next to the North Sea could that be why Tuna (fish) tested as the least immunologically? Any food suggestions ideas? I'm not going to continue with chicken anything or eggs.

Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA 144 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-casein IgA 19 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-ovalbumin (chicken egg) IgA 101 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Fecal Anti-Soy lgA 49 Units (Normal Range is less than 10 Units)

Mean Value 11 Antigenic Foods 49 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:
None

Food to which there was some immunological reactivity (1+):
Tuna

Food to which there was moderate immunological reactivity (2+):
Corn
Rice
Beef
Pork
Almond
Walnut
White potato

Food to which there was significant and/or the most immunological reactivity (3+):
Oat
Chicken
Cashew

Hierarchy:

Grains:
most immunologic reactivity: Oat
intermediate immunologic reactivity: Corn
least immunologic reactivity: Rice

Meats:
most immunologic reactivity: Chicken
next most immunologic reactivity: Beef
intermediate immunologic reactivity: Pork
least immunologic reactivity: Tuna

Nuts:
most immunologic reactivity: Cashew
intermediate immunologic reactivity: Almond
least immunologic reactivity: Walnut

Nightshades:
You displayed immunologic reactivity to white potato, .......

[Gabes-Apg]

There are still plenty of protein options look into Wild game / Grass fed meats (venison, rabbit, lamb, etc) and the Tuna

vegetable wise - again there are still plenty of options that dont involve white potato or corn
I have lived on the same vegetables since diagnosis (cauliflower, sweet potato, parsnip, carrots are stables)


Some people who react to chicken eggs, can tolerate duck eggs. as your inflammation levels appear high, I would wait a while and get some reduction in inflammation before you try them

[tex]

Hi,

Welcome to the group.I can't add much to Gabes' response, but if you need guidance in interpreting your Enterolab results, and selecting safe foods, and you haven't already seen this, the Microscopic Colitis Foundation Published a newsletter a couple of years ago that included some tips that you might find helpful. For your convenience, you can download a copy at the following link:

https://www.microscopiccolitisfoundatio ... 479987.pdf

I hope this helps, and again, welcome aboard, and please feel free to ask anything.

Tex

[I_zwem]

Thanks to you both! Since changing my diet to organic turkey, white jasmine rice, bananas, apple sauce, grass fed filet mignon, lamb, sea bass, tuna,
organic raised duck, my WD has finally cleared. At onset a month and a half ago, I made home made chicken and beef bone broths. And was in denial about eggs! So glad I did the Enterolab test!! The results came back in a week!

So, I do have a question. Is it still safe to cook my jasmine rice in the chicken bone broth? I froze quite a bit in muffin pans like Gabe recommended.

A super big thank-you Gabe and Tex! I believe I have read the Guidelines. I'm going to read it again.

[tex]

If I were in your situation I wouldn't take a chance on bone broth made from chicken bones — that's your most reactive meat. If I wanted bone broth, I'd make it using turkey or lamb bones.

Tex

[hey ya'll]

Hi!

I see here that I_zwem is eating foods that are lower on the list as far as reactivity, but not "no reaction" like beef, tuna, and rice. My Enterlab results also showed no foods with no reactivity, but I have wondered about adding rice, beef, and tuna to my diet since they are the least reactive of my foods. Is this advisable?

Many thanks for all of this great information as always!!!

[tex]

Some of us are able to do that, especially when the overall score on the 11 antigenic foods is relatively low. But there are never any guarantees, because we're all different. The safest policy is to avoid those foods until you've been in stable remission for a while. If you try them sooner, it's at your own risk.

Tex

[hey ya'll]

Thank you, Tex, that is helpful. I have not yet reached remission but was following the Stage 1 diet to the best of my ability and was doing better. But this week has been a big setback with lots more D and more stomach burning/discomfort than before. So much so that I started back on Budesonide this morning to try to get things under control again.

I don't understand why Enterolab does not test for turkey and other meats. I have been eating a lot of turkey but I don't understand why my body would not have created an inflammatory response to that like it has to other meats. Also, why does Dr. Fine (at the end of the Enterolab report) recommend avoiding all meats and following a plant-based diet when everything I understand from this site advises the opposite - a mostly meat diet?

I am beyond grateful for this site and all the great information and knowledge I have gained. I hope I will be back on the path to remissions soon, and I wish good health to all of you!

[tex]

We react to certain common proteins that we have eaten all our lives. The Enterolab tests cover all the proteins that are known to cause MC patients to react. The Enterolab tests do not Include proteins that don't normally cause us to react, because that would greatly increase the cost of the tests, while providing no benefit.

Doctor Fine has MC, and he initially achieved remission (over 20 years ago) on a meat-based diet. Apparently he decided to adopt a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle a few years ago, and he's developed a group of plant-based products that he promotes and sells. As far as I'm aware, only a few members here have tried those products, and to date, no one has reported any beneficial results. The only reports I recall seeing were comments on the excessive cost of the products in the treatment he recommends.

Tex

[hey ya'll]

Ahhhh, interesting. Thank you, as always, for explaining!