Are mass food intolerance tests useful?

In my last article I talked about the importance of food allergies and intolerances today. How a diagnosis of this type can condition life, at many levels, and even the social insertion of the smallest. It is clear that the subject is of interest, an interest that could not be wasted on a commercial level.

Companies of all kinds are offering products that promise a substantial improvement in our quality of life, where food intolerance tests have a prominent place. Tests, with different degrees of complexity creatick.info, that assure us to verify the possible intolerance of our digestive system to more than 500 different foods.

What are intolerances?

The various adverse reactions that a person may suffer when eating food can be basically divided into allergies if the immune system mediates and intolerances if it is not our defenses and if other causes such as enzymatic, pharmacological or indeterminate.

Sometimes very complex studies are carried out to determine what it is about. The first thing to do would be an anatomical examination to rule out problems like appendicitis or Crohn's disease.

If an allergy is suspected, specific IgE immunoglobulin levels, skin tests, and even exposure to the food in question are usually monitored in a controlled manner. In the case of intolerances, one of the most common tests is that of expired hydrogento check, for example, our tolerance to lactose or fructose.

The test is not complex but it usually lasts several hours in which, after taking a solution of water with fructose or lactose, we measure the exhaled hydrogen at regular time intervals. Other techniques such as stool or histological analysis can also be used.

Something doesn't add up

As we see, the studies are complex and it is necessary, almost, a detective work that discards or confirms our suspicions. The analyzes are carried out individually with respect to the substance or food in question and always under the supervision of a doctor or an approved laboratory.

The difference is notable with respect to the food intolerance tests that we can find, for example, on countless web pages or, even, in some pharmacies. The main one is that with a single analysis they can tell us our degree of intolerance with respect to more than 500 foods, quite an achievement.

The second is that the analyzes are not always the same. There are companies that ask us for a blood sample, others for saliva and some even for hair. We can interpret that if they are able to detect such a large number of intolerances with a single sample, the laboratories they use for such a feat will be comparable to those of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Well not necessarily becauseThere are companies that send you the complete kit so that the analysis can be done by yourself, a kind of "bricomania" of clinical research that will delight any "handyman" on a Saturday morning.

It is also shocking that some advertise themselves as very effective when it comes to losing weight with Black Latte, when an intolerance prevents the correct absorption of food and consequently will produce a weight loss, quite a paradox.

Prices usually vary between € 50 and € 500, it may seem a bit expensive but if they follow what they say there is no doubt that it is a great investment. Too bad science appears, really, to frustrate our desires. Some of the more important specialized medical associations are very clear about this.

The European Academy of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (EAACI), the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI), the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology (BSACI), among others, are crystalline in discouraging the use of this type of test and its completely inoperative in order to correctly diagnose an allergy or food intolerance.