28 Sep 2015
As I’m curious to get to root causes to my Graves’ disease, I had some further tests performed to determine what I’m allergic to and to really determine if I have a gluten intolerance. I got my results back last week and the good news is, I’m negative for Celiac and don’t have a gluten sensitivity. Now, that’s not to say that I don’t have antibodies present for gluten, I do, but the levels are ‘very low’ to ‘low’.
The tests checks for IgG and IgE (immunoglobulin G and E) levels. IgG are the types of antibodies that most people will associate with vaccinations and provide the long term protection against infection (flu, measles, chicken pox, etc.). It’s also the type of antibody that you want to measure for food sensitivity that may lead to an autoimmune disease. IgE are the antibodies that gives you an immediate allergic response like with cat allergies and hay fever.
Cutting to the chase, I tested for low reactivity towards: asparagus, cow’s milk, navy bean, string bean, bean sprout, egg white, parmesan cheese, tuna, clam, egg yolk, pinto bean, wheat bran, cottage cheese, lactalbumin (a milk protein), red snapper, and yeast. I was aware of my milk allergy as I couldn’t drink milk as a kid and didn’t start to eat cheese until I was into my teens. I’m surprised at the list of other foods as I’m not aware of being symptomatic when eating those foods. I will have to keep an eye on this list as it does include wheat bran and yeast but I should be good so long as I rotate what I eat.
Foods that I tested very low for include: alfalfa, broccoli, buckwheat, casein, cashew, cheddar cheese, cherry, chocolate, coffee, corn, corn gluten, crab, flax seed, gluten, goat’s milk, kidney bean, oyster, peanut, rice, rye, salmon, shrimp, sole, soy, triticale (a hybrid wheat/rye), trout, walnut, watermelon, wheat, and watermelon. Now that’s a pretty extensive list but again no real worries unless I overdo eating any one of these foods. The two items that stand out on this list are rice and soy – this will be pretty hard for me to avoid on a daily basis because I’m Chinese. Gluten pops up on this list too but so long as I keep a balanced diet and rotate through these foods, shouldn’t be too much of a concern for me. Longer term, I probably will need to move away from eating too much gluten or rice (kind of ironic as rice is often promoted as a substitute for gluten).
As for IgE reactivity, the only real surprise is I tested high for egg white to go along with my cow’s milk allergy. Another surprise, I am apparently moderately allergic to hazelnut (nooooo! I love my Toberlerone and Ferrer Roche!). Other foods where I tested very low to low allergic to are: bean sprout, cashew, cherry, flax seed, mung bean, navy bean, parmesan cheese, triticale, watermelon, and wheat bran. I eat some of these foods on a regular basis and have not noticed any reactions but since they have been identified, I’ll try to be more observant to see if my body is reacting and I’m just not noticing.
All in all, I’m pretty happy with the findings, particularly since I don’t have to go gluten free. I could probably benefit from going gluten free since I do have some reactivity but not enough to require an immediate lifestyle change. What I’ll wind up doing is to be more mindful of how much gluten and other foods I’m sensitive too I eat and try to rotate more of the foods I’m not sensitive to into my diet.
This week, I’ll have the first of my mercury amalgam fillings replaced and I will get my first ozone treatment for the infection under one of my implants. Wish me luck!
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