Food Sensitivity Testing

We’ve all been at the table with that person asking whether everything from the salt shaker to the dessert spoon have been in contact with gluten. We’ve rolled our eyes passing this off as a bougie ploy to skip the carbs, and while this might be the case for some, for 30% of Americans, gluten sensitivity is a very real thing! Some experience more severe symptoms than others, but believe it or not, almost all of us have some degree of food sensitivity. Your symptoms just might manifest a little more subtly or possibly in a way you think is just “part of life” … for instance:

Does pizza wreck your stomach? Does eating pasta make your joints ache? Does your kiddo have an eternally dry patch on the back of their arms? Do some lunch choices leave you feeling foggy when you get back to your desk? These issues, and more, could very well stem from a food sensitvity.

Sensitivity vs. Allergy

Often times, compromised guts can lead to more food sensitivities whereas allergies are typically more associated with over-reactive immune systems. That said, there is an immune response with the food sensitivity. Food sensitivity is an IgG reaction versus an IgE (allergy) reaction, and this does affect the immunoglobulins, which are part of the immune system. In sum, IgG reaction (food sensitivity reaction) is likely due to compromised gut issues, but it does still trigger an immune response, and that is actually how we test the sensitivites: via said immunoglobulins.

Food allergies can come on with even a microspcopic fleck of a reactionary food source, while food sensitivities might not take affect until a much larger portion has been eaten. Further, the reaction to food allergies is always acute, rarely chronic and the reaction to food sensitivites is always chronic, rarely acute.

So while a food allergy tends to be deemed more life-threatening due to its attack on the airway system, one could argue the chronic nature of a food sensivity is equally threatening to your quality of life. If you’ve been living with chronic bowel issues, brain-fog you cannot pinpoint, sluggishness, joint pain or discomfort and bloating everytime you eat, you could very well suffer from a food sensitivity.

I Think I Have A Food Sensitivity

If you suspect you have a food sensitivity, there’s no better time than now to get to the bottom of it. Food Sensitivity test results can aid in structuring elimination diets that may relieve symptoms of many chronic neurological, gastrointestinal, and movement disorders. The 93 foods tested in the IgG Food Allergy Test with Candida include representatives of major food groups common in the western diet.  Elimination of IgG-positive foods can improve symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, autism, ADHD, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and epilepsy, according to numerous clinical studies.

Benefits of Food Sensitivity Testing include helping to determine whether food reactions are contributing to physical or mental symptoms. The removal of highly reactive foods from the diet is a non-invasive, food-based therapy often mitigating a patient’s symptoms. Research and clinical studies suggest food allergies identified by IgG testing can be a major contributing factor in many chronic health conditions. Finally, food rotation and elimination diets can reduce stress on the immune system, lower gut inflammation, resolve food cravings, and reduce the potential for eating disorders.

Could It Be Adrenal Fatigue?

What does our adrenal system do, and why do we need to nourish it? Think of your adrenals as the producers and regulators of your hormones and neurotransmitters. These hormones and neurotransmitters then regulate your metabolism. So we're talking reproductive health, brain health, weight management, energy and mood, and since the adrenals regulate all these systems, you can see why it's so important to keep them in check! If you’re feeling off in any of the following areas, chances are adrenal fatigue might be the culprit:

• hair loss

• blurred vision

• severe allergies

• unexplained weight gain or loss

• muscle aches and pains

• dizziness when you stand up

• low libido

• infertility

• chronic fatigue

• feeling tired but can’t sleep aka “tired but wired”

Most of us have some degree of adrenal fatigue, and it comes with no surprise *stress* holds court as the leading suppressor of adrenal glands leading to their fatigue. Read below for a few steps to keep stress at bay and to heal your adrenal system:

• Eat clean: avoid inflammatory foods like gluten, dairy, refined sugar and too much caffeine

• Get plenty of zzz's... shoot for 8 hours!

• Do not over-commit. No is a complete sentence.

• Regulate your blood sugar by eating protein within an hour of waking each morning and by pairing your macros (our nutritionists can help with this!) 

• High-intensity/high-impact exercise elevates cortisol levels, so limit this as your exercise form when you're in a healing season

• Take the time and effort to heal emotional trauma.

• Supplements can help as well! Come get a B-complex shot or check out our adaptogenic herbs to reboot your system. If after 8-10 weeks you do not see improvement, we recommend a deeper look through a Functional Medicine appointment.

The beautiful thing about our bodies is they’re able to heal when we let them. Through dietary, lifestyle and supplemental adjustments, adrenal fatigue does not have to stick around for long. At R+R, we offer several healing modalities to support your adrenal system and the healing process!

Healing Is Not Linear

In this age of instant gratification and go-go-go, when our health shifts for whatever reason, the resulting recovery time can be incredibly frustrating. Sick days are viewed as cop-outs, and we place those who don’t take them (like ever) on pedestals. The expectation to dust yourself off and get back on the proverbial horse penetrates just about every industry. Case and point: on average, women in the United States are granted 10 weeks of maternity leave. Great job cooking up a child for ¾ of a year, but can you please be ready to part with him or her in a little over 2 months and pick up right where you left off? 

Maintaining all political correctness and never equating something as beautiful as child birth to a “health issue”, while we love our American go-getter attitudes and adore our bootstrap roots, it’s no wonder we place the pressure on ourselves to just get over it and toughen up when a health challenge comes along. Just as x number of hours typically yields y number of project progress, we believe x number of days should equal y improvement in our health. While sometimes this can be the case, for the most part: healing is not linear. 

We believe in the mind, body, spirit connection, and we believe that by God’s divine, intricate design, our beautiful bodies need a little more TLC than we’re often willing to give. The more we push, push, push past whatever the issue(s) might be on the front-end, the more we compound the work on the backend to unwind what’s broken in order to fully heal. Most often, a chronic health issue didn’t pop up overnight so the amount of time to heal likely won’t either. 

Frustrating? Sure. Catastrophic? Nah. 

At the risk of sounding trite and altruistic, we encourage you to be patient with yourself. Like an onion, our bodies are layered and our healing is too. One day you might feel great (and yay for improvement!), but don’t be discouraged if the next week pulls you back down. Sometimes our bodies are simply crying out for rest, but other times, this means you’ve healed one layer and another painful root pulls through. You’re not going backwards! It’s all part of the process. The name of the game at R+R is root-cause therapy, and we’re here to walk alongside you through our mind, body and spirit therapies as you peel back the layers to your best self. 

If you’re currently feeling great and this really doesn’t apply to you, yay for you! At R+R we preach preventative care and self-care. While the following services are beautiful additions to a gentle detox, our foot baths, IV therapy, vitamin shots and infrared saunas also serve as valuable tools in preventative care to keep both acute illness and chronic conditions at bay. A steady incorporation of these services will help you function at optimal levels to keep you feeling your best and to ease the healing process if and when a health struggle pops up. 

In sum, we’re all for working hard and showing up, but not at the cost of your health. Be patient with yourself and focus on how far you’ve come in the healing process when frustration starts to creep in because healing is not linear!