Chronic Food Allergy Testing 90

Currently, the 90-yuan test for IgG-mediated chronic food intolerance (also known as "chronic food allergy") carried out by regular tertiary hospitals is basically a preliminary screening version covering the five most common allergens: milk, eggs, wheat, shrimp, and nuts. It can only be used as a reference for dietary adjustment and cannot be directly used as a basis for fasting.； However, similar tests that sell for less than 90 yuan on takeout platforms and social e-commerce and promise to detect dozens or hundreds of allergens have basically no clinical reference value. I advise you not to waste your money.

Some people may ask, aren’t they all tests for chronic allergies? Why are the prices so different? To put it bluntly, the 90 yuan initial screening uses the most mature enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, which has low reagent cost and simple operation. Most of the pricing in tertiary hospitals fluctuates between 80 and 120 yuan. This price is compliant and has certain reference significance. By the way, don't confuse this with acute IgE-mediated food allergy - the kind that will cause rash, difficulty breathing or even shock immediately after eating a few bites, and must be strictly avoided. It is completely different from the chronic intolerance we are talking about, which may only cause mild discomfort for a few days after eating. If someone says that 90 yuan can test dozens or even hundreds of foods for you, you can count on your fingers and know that it is impossible. The specific antigen reagents for each food alone cost more than a few yuan. It is surprising that the results are accurate.

Interestingly, this test itself is a "controversial player" in clinical practice. Director Zhang of the gastroenterology department I know has always thought that this thing is a semi-IQ tax. He has met many patients who came in with test reports from outside institutions. Once they saw a positive test for a certain food, they immediately stopped eating it. There was a 22-year-old girl who reported that she was intolerant to wheat and gave up all pasta and staple foods. She became anemic in half a year, and her face became sallow. The repeated abdominal distension that she had tried to treat before became more serious. Director Zhang’s point of view is very clear: healthy people will naturally produce food-specific IgG antibodies after eating. This is a manifestation of the normal working of the immune system. As long as there are no clear symptoms of discomfort, even high antibodies indicate that the body is in a state of immune tolerance, and there is no need to avoid foods.

But Dr. Wang, who practices functional medicine, has a different view. She has many cases of chronic diseases for which the cause cannot be found, and she has indeed found the direction of adjustment by relying on this 90-yuan preliminary screening. The one that impressed me the most was a 28-year-old new media editor who had recurring red and swollen acne for 3 years. He tried acid treatment, antibiotics, and quit sugar. It took at most half a month for the disease to relapse. Then he took a 90-yuan test with the intention of giving it a try, and it showed milk IgG3+. She recalled that she did drink two glasses of iced American milk every day. Occasionally, she would have diarrhea when drinking pure milk, but she didn't take it seriously. She tried to cut out all foods containing milk. In less than 2 months, 70% of her acne disappeared. Even her previous problem of constant sleepiness was much better. Dr. Wang’s point of view is that if you have unexplained recurring acne, chronic diarrhea, migraines, and fatigue, and you can’t find the cause after a lot of searches, this cheap preliminary screening can be used as a reference, and it is more efficient than trying various dietary taboo methods blindly.

To be honest, I myself took this NT$90 test last year, and it showed egg IgG2+. I did occasionally get bloating when eating boiled eggs, but it was fine when I ate scrambled eggs. Later, I didn’t give up eggs completely. I just reduced the number of boiled eggs per week from 5 times to 2 times, and the flatulence problem basically never happened again. In my opinion, the most useless way to use this test is to treat the report as a "fasting decree" and abstain from whatever yang you find. The most useful way to use it is to use it as a clue for troubleshooting and compare it with your own food diary - for example, if your test shows a small Mai Gao, then record your diet for a week and see if you feel uncomfortable after eating pasta. If there is no reaction at all, eat it as you should. If you really get bloating or acne every time you eat it, just reduce the intake appropriately. There is no need to kill it all at once.

As for those online services that can come to you for 90 yuan to collect fingertip blood and provide you with dozens of reports, don’t believe it. It is easy for fingertip blood to be mixed with interstitial fluid when sampling, and the results after diluting the sample are ridiculously biased. I once saw a person buy a test online saying that he was intolerant to rice. He was so scared that he did not eat rice for half a month. Later, he came to the hospital to draw venous blood for a reexamination. It was nothing at all, and he suffered for half a month.

After all, the 90 yuan chronic food allergy screening test is just a health tool worth a few dozen yuan. There is no need to boast about it, and there is no need to beat it to death and say it is all an IQ tax. How to use it is much more important than the test itself.