https://www.gdx.net/product/igg-food-antibodies-food-sensitivity-test-blood

I have been fielding a lot of questions and requests recently from patients who are trying to pin down food reactions that they suspect are aggravating their chronic joint pain.

The umbrella of food reactions is complex and includes several categories including:

• Reactions mediated by the immune system and manifested as blood antibodies to common food proteins. Those can be tested using IgG antibody blood testing. We use Genova labs at the office and a basic panel costs around $100. Because some of those slow immune mediated food protein reactions can spread over 72 hours post ingestions, the test can be hugely helpful since the correlation to a specific food item is not always readily connected to ingestion.

• Reactions mediated by the interaction of some food macronutrient with the digestive tract: fat maldigestion, protein maldigestion, aggravation of dysbiosis, bacterial, and fungal overgrowth by simple sugars, fiber, FODMAP foods. In those instances, using a GI specific functional markers test will be the best way to work this up along with a good history.

• Reactions to certain chemical compounds found in a food such as MSG, histamines etc. Those can be much trickier to assess by lab or other diagnostics and may require food/ symptom journaling to correlate an ingredient list with a particular timing of symptoms.