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What is IgE Allergy Testing?

Posted on by Kate Young

What is an IgE Allergy Test?

With so many options for allergy testing, it can be hard to figure out which kind you should go for. You may have come across the term ‘IgE allergy testing’ here and there but aren’t sure what it means. We’re here to clear up the confusion.

What does IgE mean?

An IgE allergy test is a scientifically proven allergy test that uses a blood sample to determine if you have an allergy to certain substances. It tests for the antibody immunoglobin E (IgE), after exposing the sample to certain substances. If the patient is suffering from an allergy, the antibody will become present. The higher the levels of IgE, the more likely you are suffering from an allergy.

Not all Allergy Tests will Test for IgE

First of all, not all allergy tests are IgE allergy tests. The allergy test that doctors prefer to perform – the skin prick test doesn’t test for Immunoglobin E. This test only looks for a visual response on the surface of the skin – after puncturing suspected allergens into the skin. Although the reaction is caused by IgE antibodies, it doesn’t detect IgE’s for certain. While not all allergy tests are IgE, blood allergy tests are usually IgE allergy tests.

Pros of IgE over other Allergy Tests

One of the main benefits of IgE allergy testing over traditional skin-prick testing is that there is no risk of a reaction during testing. Because the patient doesn’t come into contact with any allergens during testing, there’s virtually no chance of adverse reactions occurring or skin reactions developing. There’s also the benefit of only 1-3 punctures needed for the sample to be taken with IgE allergy testing. That’s a much lower puncture count compared to skin-prick testing which would require a puncture for each allergen tested.

IgE allergy testing is an excellent choice for people wanting an allergy test, without a trip to the doctors. It’s convenient, safe and can be done from the comfort of your own home.

Why Am I Always Tired?

Posted on by Donna Mastriani

Modern life comes with many trials and tribulations. More than ever we’re straining to see screens, staying up later watching boxset, popping to cafes for mid-afternoon coffees and following the latest Silicon Valley trend which advises waking up three hours before everyone else. It seems that the last consideration many people make is whether or not they’re getting adequate sleep. In the never-ending quest for productivity, we overlook the most vital factor in maintaining good health.

 Here we look at the factors affecting your sleep and why you’re so tired.

Caffeine

coffee allergy testing
Coffee: The Angel & Devil on sleep’s shoulder

The crutch many people lean on to get through a day of fatigue, caffeine consumption is a vicious circle. You take it to wake you up, downing coffee after coffee throughout the day in an attempt to stave off the creeping tiredness. However, caffeine is an adenosine receptor antagonist, which means that it disrupts the production of adenosine, a substance that contributes to sleepiness. One study found that consuming caffeine within 6 hours of sleep reduces total sleep time by one hour. Caffeine consumption should be limited to morning consumption and kept as far from bedtime as possible to optimise sleep.

Blue Light

Blue light is everywhere. Your phone, your laptop, your television, pretty much every screen you’re looking at has some level of blue light. Blue light has been proven to limit the production of the sleep hormone melatonin. Lack of melatonin affects the length of time you spend asleep as well as the quality of the sleep you do get. Blue light limits your ability to go into REM sleep (the deep stages of sleep where dreams occur) which affects the restorative processes your brain undergoes during rest. Using blue light limiting settings on devices, blue light blocking glasses and limiting exposure in the hour before bed will help improve sleep.

Allergy

During sleep, your brain attempts to recover from the work it has done throughout the day. It requires oxygen to undergo this restorative process, and clear nasal passages are essential. When you’re living with an allergy, you may experience restricted nasal breathing. Without taking an allergy test, you may not even know you have one. When breathing is limited, your brain doesn’t receive the amount of oxygen it needs to recover truly. Taking an allergy test can help you identify the substances you need to avoid to get a proper nights sleep.

Darkness

It is not only blue light that affects sleep. Your body responds to any light as a notice that it is time to limit the production of hormones that promote sleep. When your body detects complete darkness, it causes a flood of sleep hormones to flow to the brain and push you into a sleep cycle. Using blackout blinds and switching off unnecessary lights in the hour before bed can have a significant impact on sleep quality.

With allergies having a significant impact on your ability to sleep, it is essential to take an allergy test. You can find an allergy test to suit your budget here.

How Food Intolerance Testing can Help your Adult Acne

Posted on by Kate Young

One of the worst parts of puberty was how our skin would produce a seemingly endless onslaught of spots. Okay, maybe it was just me, but the majority of us have some memory of an untimely pimple or two ruining a weekend or event.

We can’t prevent the undesirable effects puberty, acne is just a part of growing up, but when the skin condition persists well into adulthood might be time for a change. Could testing for food intolerances help you fight off adult acne?

What is Acne?

Let’s first cover what acne is, before going into how intolerance testing can help get rid of it. Acne is a common skin disease with a variety of potential triggers and causes. 

Our skin is covered in hair follicles, some which are visible to the naked eye, and some that aren’t. These hair follicles are attached to tiny glands that produce sebum to help stop your hair from drying out. Sometimes, your hair follicles produce too much sebum, which can then mix with dead skin cells and, usually, harmless bacteria. As a result, the hair follicle gets clogged up, causing pimples, and by extension, acne.

Why does Acne develop?

While there’s still debate on the definitive cause of acne, academics agree that genetics is the primary cause in the vast majority of cases. A good rule of thumb is, if either of your parents had acne, you’ll probably develop it throughout puberty as well. The determining factor, on a genetic level, is how your skin and sebaceous glands are structured. If these glands don’t function quite the way they should do, it can cause a predisposition to acne.

Hormones can also play a large role, which is why pimples are so common throughout adolescence. It’s suspected that hormones like testosterone and cortisol can cause the glands to produce significantly larger amounts of sebum, triggering acne. Stress is also a potential cause, as our body produces more hormones when we’re stressed or aggravated.

Diet has also been shown to have an impact on individual cases of acne. It’s fairly common to develop acne seemingly out of the blue, if you have a food intolerance, without any previous symptoms. The foods we eat also play a significant role in general skin health. If your diet isn’t well-balanced, or you’re eating foods that don’t ‘agree’ with you, then this could trigger a rapid outbreak of spots.

How can Intolerance Testing Help Acne?

If you suddenly break-out in pimples, without warning, it could be that you’ve recently developed a food intolerance. While food intolerances are usually seen as a digestive issue, skin conditions such as acne are a common symptom of food intolerance.

All kinds of foods have the potential to trigger acne if you develop an intolerance to them, but there are a handful of common problem foods. These include;

  • Alcohol
  • Corn 
  • Nuts
  • Sugar
  • Dairy
  • Gluten
  • Wheat
  • Yeast

A food intolerance test can be effective at narrowing down the potential cause of your adult acne, by identifying foods you’re intolerant to.

How can Your Diet Improve Acne?

Vitamin A, zinc and Omega 3’s are vitamins and minerals that are known to contribute to good skin health.

Vitamin A is beneficial for all of our organs and helps your skin self-exfoliate. You can find Vitamin A in foods like; cod liver oil, eggs, carrots, broccoli and even spinach.

Zinc is especially helpful for people with naturally dry skin. It’s used to help keep your skin moist and prevent your body from overcompensating the dryness with extra sebum. 

Dry skin quite a common cause of acne, so keep yourself hydrated and enjoy a well-balanced diet with zinc-rich foods to help prevent it from getting worse (and even combat it). You can find plenty of zinc in most meat cuts as well as lentils, chickpeas and beans. 

Omega 3’s can also be effective in battling acne. Not only do they possess anti-inflammatory properties, but they help with hormone production too. You can get an abundance of omega 3’s from a portion of fish, but the vegetarians among you can also find these fatty acids in Flax seeds, Chia seeds and walnuts.

Attack Adult Acne on Multiple Fronts

Use a combination of avoiding foods you’re intolerant to and eating more skin-nourishing foods to help deal with stubborn adult acne. If you’re going through an unexpected flare-up, try commencing an elimination diet to identify potential problem foods.

It’s recommended that your elimination diet lasts for at least 4 weeks, to allow time for your body to flush out the offending foods and see the benefit. Afterwards, you can try reintroducing foods individually to see how your body handles them individually.

Can Allergy Testing Help with Eczema

Posted on by Donna Mastriani

The connection between allergies and eczema

You may be surprised to hear that there’s a strong connection between eczema and allergies. While two may seem like completely different issues, there’s solid evidence that they’re connected. This has prompted experts to ponder whether allergy testing would help those suffering from eczema.

There’s currently a lot of conversation about the connection between eczema and food allergies. The topic in question is; “does having eczema make developing food allergies more common than those without eczema? Can food allergies cause eczema? Does having one worsen the other?

Evidence suggests that those who suffer from the skin condition are more likely to develop food allergies than those without. Conversely, people who have a food allergy are also more likely to have eczema.

How Allergy Testing can help

The idea is that having an allergy test could help eczema sufferers alleviate their symptoms. Allergy testing looks for the IgE antibody – If you have an allergic reaction, the IgE antibody will be present. This testing can help you to understand if the eczema is a result of a food allergy. 

Identifying and avoiding a food allergy has been proven to help clear up cases of eczema. Most people expect an allergic reaction to cause symptoms such as anaphylaxis and swelling rather than skin conditions, but there’s a wide range of symptoms which can arise from an allergic reaction. Eczema is one of these symptoms. 

If you’re experiencing a bout of eczema, you should first figure out whether something topical could be causing it. Is it a new hygiene product or laundry detergent? Maybe something in the local environment? It doesn’t make sense to get an allergy test until you’ve ruled out all the other possibilities.

A Cure for Eczema?

Research indicates that food allergy testing could lead to alleviating eczema and, when used early in the diagnostic process, it could save lots of time and discomfort. Not to mention it can pinpoint an unknown food allergy that could cause much more serious issues than a skin condition.

Only time will tell if allergy testing can help cure eczema. but it’s exciting to imagine that a cure exists. Especially to those who are regularly dealing with severe cases and aren’t seeing impactful results from traditional treatment. 

While we try to connect the dots between eczema and food allergies — and which comes first — for now, it’s clear that food allergy testing could be the key to the dealing with eczema.

Antioxidants: The Elixir Of Life?

Posted on by Kate Young

The pursuit of longevity has been a fascination for humans for as long as we have walked the planet. Over millennia, people have tried different things in an attempt to extend their life but, as yet, the elixir of life remains undiscovered. In the interim, our understanding of nutrition is allowing us to increase life expectancy slowly.

This has been borne out of a better understanding of the mechanics behind ageing. We now know that one of the critical factors in age-related decline is an imbalance between antioxidants and free radicals. Free radicals are oxygen atoms that have split with unpaired electrons. As electrons like to be in pairs, these atoms now ravage the body, drawing electrons from other atoms to find their pair. This leads to degradation in other atoms which causes damage to cells and DNA, which can lead to diseases such as cancer.

Antioxidants, the heroes of the piece.

Antioxidants are molecules that protect against free-radical oxidative stress by donating their electrons to free-radicals to prevent them from drawing them from cells in the body. Your body is continually producing free-radicals, and many environmental factors contribute to increased production including;

  • Pollution
  • Smoking
  • High Blood Sugar
  • Alcohol
  • Excessive Sun Exposure
Pollution causes free-radical production

So, load yourself up with antioxidants and live forever (with a great tan) right? Not quite…

Free-Radicals: Complex Villains

Free-radicals have uses in the body. For example, they are used by immune cells to attack infectious diseases. In the same way, they draw electrons from cells of the body; they attack the infection in pursuit of an electron pairing.

 As with many things, the key is to find a balance.

Getting antioxidants into your diet is incredibly important; a severe deficiency is life-threatening. There are plenty of foods which are considered antioxidant-rich, which you should consider introducing to your diet:

  • Blueberries
  • Green Tea
  • Dark Chocolate
  • Coffee
  • Strawberries
  • Artichokes
Artichokes are a great source of antioxidants

When adding new foods into your diet, you have to consider whether or not that food is right for your body. This is where an allergy test comes in. By taking an allergy test, you can ascertain whether the antioxidant-rich food you’re considering introducing may not agree with your body. When seeking to improve health, you don’t want to be swapping one set of problems for another. You can take an allergy test today by visiting this link.

What is the Low FODMAP Diet?

Posted on by Kate Young

What is the Low FODMAP Diet?

The low FODMAP diet is a particular kind of diet that eliminates what are referred to as ’High FODMAP’ foods. It is known to be especially effective at helping sufferers of IBS control their symptoms.

The term ‘FODMAP’ is an acronym that stands for Fermentable Oligo-, Di-, Mono-saccharides, and Polyols. These are a specific group of carbohydrates that tend to be poorly absorbed by the body. FODMAPs can produce diarrhoea or constipation, bloating, wind and abdominal pain in those with gastrointestinal symptoms.

Fodmap Foods to Avoid

The major FODMAPs are; fructose, fructans, GOS, lactose and polyols. Below are a few examples of foods containing these FODMAPs.

Fructose – Honey, low-calorie yoghurt, various fruits, high fructose corn syrup, agave and figs.

Fructans – Wheat, rye, onions, watermelon, dried fruit, nectarine and garlic

GOS – Legumes, cabbage, cashews and pistachios

Lactose – Many dairy items, some bread and baked goods, salad dressings, deli meats and margarine.

Polyols – Found in a lot of marketed ‘health foods’, such as protein bars, to minimise the sugar content. Also found in cauliflower, apples, apricots, mushrooms and several sugar alcohol additives.

Low FODMAP foods

Now, it’s important to note that this diet isn’t all black and white. For starters, the low FODMAP diet is just that, Low in FODMAPs. It’s okay to consume foods with small amounts of these. So long as you avoid those high FODMAP foods, you’re good to go.

Hence, foods that are low in FODMAPs, such as polyols and fructose, but still contain them can be consumed. Here’s a short list of Low FODMAP foods;

Fruit

Banana, blueberry, grapes, honeydew, melon, lemon, raspberry, strawberry, rhubarb and lime

Vegetables

Broccoli, carrots, celery, ginger, green beans, lettuce, olives, parsnip, potato, pumpkin, spinach, swede, sweet potato, tomato and turnip

Grains

100% spelt bread, rice, oats, polenta and quinoa

Milk Products

Hard cheeses, brie and camembert, gelati and sorbet

Other

Artificial sweeteners (not ending in ‘-ol’), molasses and treacle. Also sugar, golden syrup and maple syrup in small quantities.

Please note that this list isn’t exhaustive and there are likely many other foods which the Low FODMAP diet permits, this is just a good starting point.

Tailoring Your FODMAP Diet

The low FODMAP diet isn’t one-size-fits-all. It’s most useful when fine-tuned to the individual. This is because not all FODMAPs will be a trigger for you, and once you’ve tailored the diet to your specific triggers, it becomes quite easy to follow.

Also, you should never completely eliminate FODMAP foods for an extended time.

See, FODMAPs are prebiotics, and they encourage the growth of good bacteria in your gut. They are essential for long term gut health. Studies have shown a strict low FODMAP diet can harm gut bacteria.

You can effectively tailor your FODMAP diet through the use of food intolerance testing. A food intolerance test can highlight which High FODMAP foods are likely to be the primary cause of your symptoms. After this, you can exclude them altogether, or use an elimination diet, and slowly reintegrate them back into your diet after 4-8 weeks of elimination.

Intolerance testing is an excellent way of keeping non-offending high FODMAP foods in your diet while ensuring your gut health stays optimal.

Alternatively, you could completely eliminate all FODMAPs for a short period and bring them back into your diet again after a while. Although, this may take longer to complete, as some foods reintroduced may cause digestive symptoms again when reintroduced. It’s far more efficient to narrow down the list of potential offenders.

Can Allergy Testing Reduce Asthma Symptoms?

Posted on by Donna Mastriani

If you’re not familiar with allergies, or asthma, then you might not be aware that there is a small connection between the two. Depending on your viewpoint, this may be good or bad news. Regardless, allergy testing can help asthma sufferers find relief from their chronic symptoms. 

Asthmas link with Allergies

In many cases, an allergy can actually be what causes asthma to develop. For example, if you’re allergic to dust, your body sees the dust particles entering unannounced as an enemy to destroy. This brings about rashes and other kinds of reactions, including lung issues such as coughing and wheezing. All these symptoms are your bodies way of dealing with the perceived threat. 

This formation of allergy-related asthmatic symptoms is named “allergic asthma”. This means the allergic reaction triggers the onset of asthma. From there, the allergen can trigger further asthma attacks.

How can allergy testing help my asthma?

Allergy testing can be quite helpful for those living with allergies. Your asthmatic symptoms can improve (or even dissipate) with proper identification and avoidance of the triggers. Once the body is no longer fighting off allergens as if it were a virus, the symptoms are no longer a problem.

Despite allergies and asthma being treated as separate conditions, there is evidence to suggest that treating one can help alleviate symptoms of the other. Allergic asthma occurs because the body is fighting off the allergen. The lungs and airways then suffer to the point of triggering the asthmatic symptoms. When you identify and avoid the allergen, the lungs and related symptoms are no longer triggered the same way.

Treating an allergy isn’t necessarily a cure for asthma though, as it can be triggered by issues other than an allergy (sometimes asthmatics don’t even have allergies). Still, there is research suggesting that treating allergies can help improve to alleviate asthmatic symptoms. Thus, improving the overall quality of life on both fronts.

Allergies and Asthma aren’t always found together

Some Asthmatics experience allergic asthma, but it isn’t always the case. Approximately 40% of asthmatics in the US don’t experience allergic asthma. It’s often symptoms like rashes or runny eyes when it comes to mild and moderate allergies. Anyone with a history of allergic asthma or who experienced hay fever as a child is more likely to deal with asthmatic reactions later in life.

Neither asthma nor allergies are fun to deal with. But understanding the connection between them and understanding how to deal with any symptoms and their causes can help you make the most out of this less-than-ideal situation. This is excellent news for those who regularly deal with asthma attacks. 

How an Intolerance Test can relieve stress

Posted on by Kate Young

Modern life is full of stresses and strains which can make life tiring and exhausting. Money, work, family life, the list of things having an effect on you on a day to day basis can seem endless. Did you ever stop to consider the fact that the food you’re eating could be having as significant an impact as anything? An intolerance test can help you identify the foods that are causing symptoms that are piling the stress on.

 Here we look at how an intolerance test could be the first step on a journey to a new, stress-free you.

Brain Fog

You’ve got a list of jobs to help put you on the path to a less stressful way of life. But you cannot seem to make head nor tail of the list. As much as you look at it, you cannot make sense of what you’re looking at. You know the words, but they won’t go in. You are likely experiencing a bout of brain fog. A commonly reported condition, brain fog can have a severe impact on your ability to process information or act effectively on instruction. Sodium nitrite causes with brain fog. An intolerance test will identify foods that may be causing irritations leading to brain fog.

intolerance test stressed

Anxiety and Depression

 Tackling the factors that are causing you stress are severely inhibited by anxiety and depression. These conditions lead to apathy which will reduce your productivity and contribute to the anxiety and depression. It can be a vicious circle. There is evidence of a correlation between food intolerance and depression and anxiety. Symptoms of food intolerance contribute to the condition as you get worn down by constantly not feeling well. A food intolerance test can help you identify the foods to remove from your diet to improve your mood.

Digestive problems

Have you tried being productive when you’re suffering from stomach pain, or bloating, or diarrhoea? It can be incredibly challenging to focus on the task at hand when you’re always rushing off to the bathroom or are struggling with searing stomach pain which leaves you bent double. These symptoms are incredibly common in food intolerances and is an avoidable stressor that can be identified and removed from your life with the completion of an elimination diet using the results of a food intolerance test.

Take back control of your stress levels by removing the foods that are causing you life-affecting symptoms. Take an intolerance test today.

No-Bake Cacao Round – Weekend Treats

Posted on by Donna Mastriani

If you’re in the mood for some chocolatey goodness, we’ve got the recipe for you this week. This gluten, wheat and dairy-free recipe needs no oven and is ready in just 4 steps. For those of you with a nut allergy or almond intolerance, it does contain almond butter so you’d be better off trying out a replacement.  

Here’s what you’ll need for this weekend pick-me-up;

Ingredients 

  • 30g coconut flour 
  • 30g almond butter 
  • 30g cacao powder (or cocoa powder) 
  • 60ml applesauce 
  • 60ml water 
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract 
  • 1/4 tsp liquid stevia extract
  • 30g cacao nibs 

Description 

  1. Combine the coconut flour, almond butter and cacao (or cocoa) powder into a bowl and mix thoroughly.
  2. Next, add in applesauce, water, vanilla extract, and stevia. Mix it all thoroughly.
  3. Scoop out the dough and roll them into equal-sized balls.
  4. Coat with cacao nibs and enjoy!

We recommend storing them in the fridge and consuming within 3 days (in case you needed an excuse). If almond butter is off the table for you, another nut or seed-based butter, such as; peanut butter, sunflower seed butter or cashew butter should work well while keeping the recipe vegan too. Tahini (sesame butter) is also a decent choice.

Can an Elimination Diet Cause Nausea?

Posted on by Kate Young

Elimination diets aren’t a walk in the park, especially if one of the foods you’re eliminating is something you were previously eating daily. But they’re a pretty important step following a food intolerance test.

The good news is that an elimination diet doesn’t cause nausea in and of itself. But it could indirectly be causing you nausea. There are a few ways this can happen. Let’s explore them.

Missing Essential Nutrients in Your Diet

A nutrient deficiency could cause your nausea. Beginning an elimination diet without making sure you replace the vitamins and minerals that are in the food you’re scrapping can cause various adverse reactions in your body.

Nausea is a common symptom of vitamin B12, magnesium and vitamin D deficiencies. You can essentially become deficient in these nutrients if you’ve suddenly excluded the only primary source of it from your diet. We recommend looking at the nutrients stored in the foods you’ve eliminated and seek to substitute them with foods of a similar vitamin and mineral contents.

Caffeine Withdrawal

If you’ve abruptly withdrawn from drinking coffee or consuming caffeine as part of your elimination diet, it could be a withdrawal symptom.

As caffeine is quite an addictive substance, many people can experience withdrawal effects if they suddenly stop consuming it. Symptoms include irritability, nausea, fatigue, low energy and poor concentration.

Experts recommend that those who experience these symptoms wean themselves off of caffeine, instead of quitting cold turkey. Try cutting down one cup at a time. Weakening your coffee could also help to reduce your intake. 

You’re Genuinely Under the Weather

It could just be that you’re under the weather with a cold, or feeling run down. Stress, smoking, drinking alcohol and several other factors can all contribute to lowering your immune system and make you more susceptible to catching a travelling cold.

Diabetes and other immune system disorders can also severely impact your immune system. It may just be a coincidence that feeling unwell has followed you starting an elimination diet.

Don’t let this tempt you to break your elimination diet streak. You’re much better off following through, provided you maintain nutrient balance than going back to experiencing daily frustrations and symptoms of which you can’t narrow down the cause.

To make your elimination diet even more effective, consider getting an intolerance test, to indicate which foods you’re intolerant to so that you only eliminate what’s necessary.