What can I do if I suspect I have a food allergy or sensitivity?

If you suspect you have a food allergy, eliminate common culprits from your diet and re-introduce them to see if symptoms recur. Watch functional medicine expert Mark Hyman, MD, discuss this method, as well as blood tests that diagnose sensitivities.

Transcript

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There are other tests you can get, like blood tests that look for these delayed allergies. They're called IgE. [UPBEAT MUSIC]

00:17

If you suspect you have a food allergy, you want to eliminate the most common causes of food allergy--

00:23

gluten, which is wheat, barley, rye, and oats, dairy, eggs, soy, citrus foods, nightshade foods,

00:32

which are tomatoes and peppers and potatoes-- and you eliminate those for a week. And then you slowly reintroduce them two days apart,

00:41

eating them throughout the day, and see how you feel. And if they trigger a reaction, any of those chronic symptoms, like fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, digestive issues,

00:49

sinus problems, et cetera, then you know you're having a reaction. So that's the basic idea. You eliminate, and then you reintroduce,

00:55

and you see how you feel. The best test for finding out if you have food sensitivities is to get rid of the food and add it back after a period of time.

01:01

But there are other tests you can get, like blood tests that look for these delayed allergies. They're called IgE, as opposed to the IgE, which

01:09

are the acute shellfish, peanut allergies. Most allergists will not recognize this kind of testing or won't do it, but there are some doctors

01:16

of functional medicine who actually are using these tests to help diagnose these problems. [AUDIO LOGO]