Food Intolerance or Allergy: How to Test and What to Do

While the gas, bloating, rashes and other reactions caused by food intolerances cause discomfort, identifying the culprits can pose the real challenge. The mystery can be compounded because in some cases, symptoms don’t appear for up to 48 hours, and often can be mistaken for other ailments.

Food allergies, on the other hand, cause more immediate consequences and can pose greater, sometimes life-threatening, risks.

If you suspect you have a food intolerance or allergy, it’s important to keep in mind that since each affects your system in a different way, each should be addressed differently.

• Food Intolerance: Difficulty digesting certain foods is commonly, but not necessarily, linked with individuals with digestive system disorders, such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Typically, the body lacks the enzymes necessary to digest a particular food, or the individual has a sensitivity to certain chemicals in a food. Symptoms are temporary and can occur shortly after ingesting the food or take up to 48 hours to appear.
• Food Allergy: A food allergy can quickly manifest itself with hives, itchy skin, rashes or watery eyes, or more severe reactions such as trouble breathing and lethargy, which can pose serious threats. The most common triggers include milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat, and sesame.

How to Test for Food Intolerance or Allergy

At-home food sensitivity tests have met with mixed results. Trusted testing methods supervised by a medical professional are favored. These test for food allergies as well as a new option that is being utilized for those who have been diagnosed or suspect IBS.

Skin-prick Test

The best approach to reveal a food allergy is by having a board-certified allergist provide a skin-prick test. Skin testing is easy and relatively painless. You can watch Dr. Segal conduct skin testing in this minute-long video:

Patch Testing

When your immune system is activated in other ways, causing a variety of more nebulous symptoms, or the patient is diagnosed with IBS but the cause remains unexplained, we recommend a non-invasive dermatologic test that evaluates for foods that may cause symptoms. Similar to patch testing for environmental irritants, this test involves small patches containing a variety of food samples being taped to the patient’s back by a board-certified allergist. Within 24 – 48 hours, the skin is examined for inflammation associated with each of the tested foods.

In both cases, based on results the doctor and patient develop a customized treatment plan designed to address symptoms, prevent serious threats, and work with the individual’s lifestyle.

Treatment Options

For years, people who suffer from food allergies had only one choice: strict avoidance of anything that contains the offending food. While avoidance serves as a reasonable strategy for food sensitivities, it can be extremely difficult when facing a serious food allergy, especially for youngsters. Thanks to breakthrough oral immunotherapy treatment or OIT, today a select group of doctors are able to retrain the immune systems to tolerate and help individuals become desensitized to the specific food allergen.

If you suspect you have a food sensitivity or allergy, the first step is to schedule a test to identify the culprit(s). Then you and your allergist can develop a plan to reduce or eliminate symptoms and reclaim your lifestyle.