Hair Food Sensitivity Test

CazzKeewee
CazzKeewee Posts: 5 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi. After some advice. I had a hair test done out of curosity as i was feeling reactive to what i thought might be gluten. But my test came back saying I am highlt reactive to all dairy (plus soy and almond amongst few other things).

Does anyone know would that mean i should rule out dairy or go more lactose and or dairy free?

I dont eat alot of dairy but like yoghurt daily and a bit of milk.and cheese

Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    What type of doctor administered this s test?
  • Mithridites
    Mithridites Posts: 600 Member
    Sounds like pseudoscience to me.
  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
    thelastnightingale wrote: »
    Hello! Someone with actual life-threatening allergies here.

    A hair test is not a real way of testing for allergies. It really isn't. You can happily ignore those results. If you're not actually allergic to something, you do yourself no favours cutting it out. Milk and almonds are great as part of a balanced diet for people who aren't allergic to them.

    UK site, but what it says on this page is accurate worldwide: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/food-allergy/diagnosis/

    Skin-prick testing, or patch testing, is the best way of testing for allergies. It's a right bloody pain to get done, because they tape all kinds of things to your skin and you have to avoid getting it wet for days, but it's accurate. Blood testing is also good, and less inconvenient.

    Allergies are not fun to live with. Believe me, it's not fun reading the label of everything, being "that" person who asks questions about the menu that the server can't answer, missing out on trips because everyone wanted to go to that new restaurant that literally doesn't serve anything that won't kill you, or being rushed to the emergency room because you can't breathe. You really don't want to live like you have allergies if you actually don't have any. Worse, you don't want to avoid things you aren't actually allergic to and continue to eat things that you are allergic to.

    A serious allergy can kill you - a mild allergy is much more insidious and can make you ill over a prologued period of time. Serious allergies can be easily identified the hard way, but the milder allergies will really only come out via blood testing by a real doctor. If you think there are mild allergies derailing your life, arrange for real allergy testing through a real doctor - it might cost you money depending on where you live/your health insurance, but knowing what things you actually need to avoid is a real game changer.

    Hope you don't think I'm being overly harsh, I just don't want some quack to take advantage of you and make you live your life unnecessarily like people like me have to.
    I have a daughter with what used to be severe food allergies - it rocked our world! Thankfully she has grown out of the anaphylaxis severity and has other not-so-obvious reactions (poor girl ate some mislabeled Cheerios a couple years ago, lesson for us all, and had a blistered bottom for a couple days... days that included long hours sitting in the car. Ouch).

    I have never heard of a hair test for food allergies. Myself and my daughter have had the skin prick test (mine on my arm, hers on her back... poor thing was so small her entire back was covered!) I will say it’s not as common, but not all issues can be found that way. I have Oral Allergy Syndrome, enough of a reaction the allergist prescribes an epi pen, but it doesn’t show up on skin tests. Also Gluten Ataxia. My body is weird though.

    I would look into skin testing and see if it comes up with the same results. Or cut out dairy and see how you feel. Your body might have sensitivities more so than full blown allergies (and they might not show up on tests) and you can decide if it’s worth giving up a certain food or not.

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