Food Sensitivities

There are three main types of negative reactions that a person can have to food: food allergies, food intolerances and food sensitivities.

What are food allergies?

True food allergy involves the type 1 pathway in the immune system. This type of reaction is almost immediate, can be caused by as small as one molecule of food, and may even result in death.  Food allergy involves IgE antibodies and typically affects the respiratory system. Symptoms include hives, difficulty breathing, and itchy/watery eyes.

The following video animations illustrate this process:
Allergy overview
IgE Mediated Type 1 Hypersensitivity

What are food intolerances?

Food intolerances do not involve the immune system.  Food intolerance usually occurs because the person does not have enough of a particular enzyme to digest a certain food.  For example, people who are lactose intolerant do not have enough of the lactase enzyme to digest lactose in milk products.  If they have a milk product, all that lactose does not get digested, so when it reaches the intestines, bacteria in the intestines feed on that undigested lactose, causing bloating, cramping, and diarrhea.

What are food sensitivities?

Food sensitivities also involve the immune system, but typically involve the type 3 and type 4 pathways.  These pathways do not use IgE antibodies, but may use other types of antibodies or cell mediated reactions or complement.  Food sensitivities have been shown to cause or aggravate many different conditions, such as fibromyalgia, IBS, migraines, joint pain, skin eruptions, and many more.

This is a video animation of Type 3 (immune complex) hypersensitivity.

Here is a video animation of Type 4 reactions.

How can food sensitivities be detected?

Food sensitivities have historically been very difficult to evaluate because they involve more than 1 pathway, numerous mediators, and symptoms can take from as little as a few hours to as long as 3 days to manifest.  However, the Mediator Release Test (MRT), a patented blood test developed by Dr. Mark Pasula of Signet Diagnostic, Inc. has been able to identify the causes of both food and chemical sensitivities. It is currently the most accurate test available on the market.

Because MRT is an end-point test, it can determine sensitivities whether type 3 or type 4 pathways are used.  When a food sensitivity reaction occurs, mediators such as histamine, cytokines, etc. are released from various immune cells. MRT works by measuring the changes in the ratio of liquid to solids after whole blood is exposed to an antigen and mediators are released.  The principle behind MRT is that the total volume of the sample will remain the same (V1 + V2 = V3), but when exposed to an antigen, the volume of solids (V1) and the volume of liquids (V2) will change due to mediator release. (www.nowleap.com)

The strengths of the MRT blood test are that it is very accurate (94.5% sensitivity and 91.7% specificity), has excellent reliability (split sample reproducibility is consistently greater than 90%), measures the outcomes of all non-IgE mediated hypersensitivity reactions, is an indirect method of measuring mediator release (therefore is not limited to specific cells), can test both food and chemical reactions, is patented, and quantifies the level of reaction (which allows an individualized diet plan to be developed).

MRT tests 123 different foods and 27 different chemicals.  Results are classified into 3 categories: green (least reactive), yellow (moderately reactive), and red (reactive).  Based on these results, a 6-phased diet called the "Lifestyle Eating and Performance" (LEAP) immunocalm diet is implemented.

By following the immunocalm diet, the majority of people with food sensitivities can experience at least a 50% reduction in symptoms, while some people experience complete resolution of symptoms.

To see if you might be a good candidate for the LEAP program, contact us to set up a prescreening appointment.