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Difference Between: Food Allergy vs. Food Intolerance (IgG vs Leap MRT Testing)

6/28/2013

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By the time you understand the difference between food allergy, food sensitivity & food intolerance I feel like you will be a well crafted allergy genius. It's taken me a long time to differentiate & I would use these terms interchangeably. Over time I learned they are very different, but I am just going to talk a bit about Allergies & Intolerances and explain in the most understandable terms how they are different. 

A food allergy is serious. This means pretty much instantly what you ate will make your mouth swell up, tongue swell, ears swell, throat gets tight, itching, hives, rashes, watery eyes etc. It can range from mild to fatal depending on how much you eat and how allergic you are. These are foods you want to avoid like the plague because it can make you quite ill. A true allergy is instant and requires the presence of Immunoglobin E (IgE) antibodies against the food, and a food intolerance does not.

A food intolerance is a delayed reaction & takes place in the gut, causing mostly digestion issues, brain fog, inflammation and other body-wide symptoms. The classification of an intolerance is a bit more complex, and it can happen in a few different ways.

1. Intolerance can result from the absence of a specific chemical or enzyme needed to digest a food substance. So when you eat the food (say fructose), when the time comes in digestion to be broke down, it won't be able to. This causes a tough digestion & discomfort/pain. Often this is called a hereditary intolerance.

2. Intolerance can be a result of an abnormality in the body's ability to absorb certain nutrients needed. (Malabsorption)

3. Intolerance can also be a reaction to naturally occurring chemicals in foods which causes the white blood cells to degranulate and release histamine. This can happen to the protein in one specific food such as corn, or a component of it. An example of this is salicylate sensitivity, where all foods containing that chemical will give you a reaction. People with an intolerance or sensitivity to a food component will have to remove a whole variety of foods from their diet to find relief. 

An intolerance is delayed. Often times it can happen 1-2 days AFTER you ate the offending food. That's because first it creates inflammation locally in the stomach, but afterwards the autoimmune cascade that happens body-wide can take some time to manifest. Therefore it can be hard to figure out the culprit by looking back at what you ate. Some reactions happen 12 hours later, some 24, some 36. For me personally I have a very sensitive stomach so I will know within a few hours if a food I ate is an intolerance by how it feels in my digestive tract. But the full ramifications of the intolerance (migraines, fatigue, etc) can take a full 24 hours to develop.

Testing

Food allergy testing is most commonly done by blood test checking for IgG or IgE antibodies to certain foods. This is important to know if you have a life threatening allergy to anything. You can find an at home test for IgE here, and the test for IgG here. 

Food intolerance testing is also done via blood testing, and it is equally important to know what your triggers are in order to reduce inflammation in your body. I have been dealing with food intolerances since 2010 and the best of the best food intolerance test I have found is called MRT. MRT is incredibly sensitive and accurate because instead of looking for specific markers such as IgG, IgE, or IgA (which will not be accurate for an intolerance), it looks at how your white blood cells directly react to foods. The way the test is done in the lab is that they separate out your white blood cells from your whole blood. Once separated they take the protein of many different food items and introduce it to your white blood cells, and then watch for a reaction. If your white blood cells begin to degranulate and release histamine then they know instantly that food is an intolerance, because thats exactly what is happening inside of your body as well each time you eat the food. MRT is very cutting edge and has never failed me in being incredibly accurate. You can get this done via an at home kit (this is what I do), and you can find the MRT test here.

While a food intolerance isn't life threatening it can be painful & really damaging to the stomach & intestines. I REALLY recommend this to those with Lyme or other autoimmune illnesses. Going on a gluten free or paleo diet can help, but until you remove foods not tolerated by your body you won't be able to fully help your immune system to the best of your ability (80% of your immune system is in the gut). And we all know you need the strongest immune system you can get to fight Lyme!

When I first had the MRT testing done in 2010 I had A LOT of foods I ate commonly come up. It made sense because I had a horrible case of leaky gut & candida. Not a good situation in the ole stomach at all! Of course I was stubborn at first, and it took me about 6 months to finally cut those foods out & work on healing my stomach. But since the end of 2011 I have gone on a strict diet, took care of the candida, added in lots of probiotics, began drinking marshmallow root tea & taking DGL licorice daily. And as you can see below (I attached a photo), my intolerance list from 2013 is much smaller. A lot of things have moved off of it & some others moved on. I typically get this test done yearly, because things change in my body and I found that once a year is a perfect timeline.

This came down to me just wanting to better help my stomach out, since its constantly giving me pain & trouble. I also wanted to help take some of the inflammatory burden off of my body. For some reason with Lyme many people develop a lot of different allergies and intolerances.. It's very odd. I have a soy allergy and also developed an apple, pear, kiwi, cherry allergy. My whole mouth swells up & it's actually really scary! A lot of times I will eat something and get an itchy mouth & stop without knowing what did it. So for my safety & to spare myself I get IgE testing as well. I found that a combination of these two testing modalities keep me safe and educated on both my food allergies & also any food intolerances.

This was long but I hope it helped better explain the two!

Xoxo,
Christina


Picture
Left is from 2010, Right is from 2013 MRT testing
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My 1 Advice For Lyme Patients & Supporting Each Other

6/26/2013

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Often times I'm asked what's the most important thing I would tell someone diagnosed with Lyme. So I wanted to take a moment to talk about that. Lyme disease is so complex, and there is always 100 tips to give and hard to settle on one. However, if I could give 1 piece of advice it would be "Never stop researching & being hungry for information."

Since there is no standard cure for Lyme disease (and so much debate on the terms of it), this means no 2 doctors will treat the same way for it. Every patient is doing something different with the same goal in mind: kill the Lyme.

As time moves on many doctors are slowly understanding the ins & outs of Lyme a bit more. This bacteria is so smart, so evasive of the immune system, and causes total body destruction. However, we still don't have an effective guaranteed way to rid the body of it. It's trial & error, until something sticks. Treatment is long because you have to do & try a lot while you piece the puzzle together. Just recently new research showed that the Lyme bacterium uses Manganese for fuel (most bacteria use iron). This was groundbreaking because going forward we know the Lyme must be starved of manganese to die. It can be a lead toward a cure.

More and more research is done constantly and I am like a sponge. I dedicate every free moment to researching & reading everything I possibly can. I constantly ask questions, I love talking to people in remission & learning from them. My inspiration has been Katina Makris, her book about healing Lyme was the first thing I read after being diagnosed, and she has helped keep my hope alive.

You have got to be obsessed with getting better. It can't be 3rd or 4th priority. You can't just take what a doctor tells you & do it like a zombie, you need to understand your treatment plan and be involved. Always ask your doctor questions, don't be afraid to ask him/her to run a test you researched, and fire him/her if something feels wrong. Remember, if you are educated to the highest degree possible, you follow your gut, and dedicate your heart to healing, you will get better.

I try to make this blog as informative as I know possible. As I get information, I will try it out & if I see results I love I always share. I think as a community of people in the same boat and we owe it to each other to share what we find successful, and most importantly we owe it to be open minded.

I've gotten a lot of criticism from people because I'm not doing long term high dose antibiotics. That is a personal choice that I won't ever force on anyone. No one has to do what I'm doing for treatment, but if it works & I see myself improving I will certainly toot it's horn & say how great it is. On the flip side I don't judge anyone for wanting to do long term antibiotics because I believe for some people that's what is right, and if they get their lives back I am thrilled. We MUST support each other in this fight. At the end of the day we all want the same things: CDC recognition & a cure.

As new research comes out from doctors now who treat Lyme by treating immune system dysfunction, go for a total body approach, I see the Lyme community start to get a bit of a division. It saddens me that instead being open minded so many are tearing each other down, or even tearing the Doctors down who treat patients like that. I just want to say that is not conducive to anyone or anything. It's so so important to always read up & analyze every different point of view & bottle that information up. Even if it offends you now or you don't agree with it, you never know if in the future it could be applied.

Long story short: be as informed as possible. Understand all your options. And always love & support your fellow Lyme warriors. I won't stop until there is a cure.

Xoxo,
Christina


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CD-57 Levels & Lyme Disease

6/9/2013

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We live in a world where instant gratification is the norm. It's hard to understand the concept of "6 months from now.." Or "a year from now." I will admit that fast paced mindset was how I used to be. And a part of me is still that way, when I set my mind to something it needs to happen ASAP. But I have also grown accustomed to letting time be a healer and having a bit more patience for things. Key words: a bit.

Going into this madness of Lyme disease I found myself let down a lot from the roller coaster ride of it all. So many ups and so many downs. It felt like some challenge was always infront of me, always a mounting list of troubles. I found myself not being able to notice subtle improvements because they were just that... Subtle. Healing with Lyme & co infections is like watching a flower blossom; if you watch it for hours you will never see it change. But if you see it before & after side by side you notice the growth.

Now that I'm about a year in of just solid treatment, I have been able to look back quite a bit from where I came from. I am able to see I AM better. My bad days now are actually better then what my good days used to be a year ago. When I crash now I don't crash as hard, and I can pick myself up quicker. Some symptoms spend longer times gone in between flares & others have gotten less intense. I feel so unbelievably lucky to have been able to see improvement. Being able to reflect & see this just shows me that I can get there, and to never lose hope. And that I can't give up, because I still have a way to go.

Today I want to talk about the CD-57 marker, and exactly what that is and why it is used in diagnostic Lyme disease testing.

The CD-57 level marker is a marker that a lot of LLMD's look at for Lyme disease because it is an extremely specific marker for Borrelia. Our body has many different Natural Killer (NK) cells, which are dedicated to certain organisms, and if that organism is present then those NK cells quickly get depleted. CD-57 is the name of the Natural Killers cells which attack Borrelia (Lyme disease). Therefore, checking the levels of CD-57 in your blood can show if there is an impact on certain natural killer cells in the body. CD-57 levels can indicate how active an infection is, and can often be a marker to show if treatment is working and how likely someone is to relapse.

If CD-57 levels are low it means that these NK cells are being used up by the immune system to fight Lyme. It is a great indicator of if you have an active infection and just how long standing it is. The lower the number is the longer your body has been fighting it. Most doctors, like mine, will keep an eye on this level to monitor things. When I diagnosed I tested quite low (I believe around 16), so my doctor knew I had been ill for a while (5 years to be exact), and he knew it would be something which would correlate as I progressed through treatment.

CD-57 levels are measured like this:
Below 60 is chronic Lyme stage. The lower the number the more active/worse it is.
60-100 is considered "normal" but still at risk.
Above 100 is normal & ideal, this range goes up to 300.
 *Many LLMD's say if you complete treatment & your levels are still below 60 you are considered more at risk to relapse.
You can access a link to a study done on the low CD57 levels in Chronic Lyme here.

My levels were crazy low to begin with, and I felt pretty crummy to match. After a year, not only do I feel better, but my levels have gone up to 45! That's still low, and it's not where I need to be, but honestly to see an improvement at all in clinical & statistical way is amazing. And it's something I had to look back a year to appreciate. I had to have the patience to see what I'm grateful for. 

You can check your CD-57 levels through your Doctor, or you can do it yourself with an "at home" test that you can get here. You simply go to a lab for the blood draw and they send it off for you. It's pretty fast and if you are curious this makes it possible without going through the hoops of an extra Doctors visit. 

This journey is long, and it's hard fought. But you can not give up. Not a week in, not a few months in, not even a few years in. It's easy to be consumed by the pain & have that blind your hope. Trust me, I hit my lowest point where I genuinely didn't know if I would make it every day. It was terrifying, and a place no one should ever go. But I want to stress that point greatly because if I can make it & keep fighting & improve, then so can anyone else. I've been at every stage of frustration; from lack of diagnosis, to uncertainty about treatment, to pain from Herxes, & wavering hope in progress. I can only say that if you have hit your lowest point then reach deep down and remind yourself that from here it WILL get better. You will prevail. You have to fully believe that, and take each day as it comes.

Xoxo,
Christina

Update 5/15/2016

I wanted to post an update on my CD57 levels since this post was originally written in 2013. Since then moved up to 75 in Spring of 2014, and as of now in Spring of 2016 its at 124. I hope this can be encouraging from anyone struggling to raise their levels up.

-Christina

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