Environmental Physician

[MamaC]

I have spoken with the office of an environmental physician, two hours away from our home. I was told that they can have a test that can show the severity of allergies to 150 foods, spices, environmental allergens, etc. (The lady said it even comes in color. I did not catch what she said that it was called and it took a few days to hear back from their office. She said that once they have the lab results, they give a series of 12 shots to treat all allergies. I have not read anything about this 12 shot process so thought I would put this out there to see if others have had experience with this.

 

I am willing to have this test done just to see what my six year old son is sensitive/allergic to and so we can take any precautions. We are currently experimenting with a gluten free (dairy for a month) diet. It has been six days.

 

Here are my questions:

 

Have you heard of this test and or treatment (as stated above)?

 

Should we go the route of an environmental physician or natropath? (We are seeing an ENT and another allergist tomorrow.)

 

Biggest Question: How long does it typically take to see results of an elimination diet?

 

I would appreciate replies with experience with any of the above. Thank you!

 

 

 

[Cj60]

Hi,

 

Once we had run the gamut of tradtional drs. (Pediatrician, Ped. Neruologist, Ped. Psychologist), we sought out an environmental practice. A big part of the practice (but not the only part) was the allergist. His method was the pin prick method. He asked for details about our son's diet, then based on that information targeted a whole bunch of food items to test for by pricking my son's upper arms with the potentially offending agents. According to the reaction, he determined the level of harm the item was causing.

 

My son was young at the time, and his upper arms weren't big enough to handle all the tests in one visit, so it took us two visits, with a period of around a month, I think, in between. But this worked for us. The allergist identified six or eight items that needed to be either eliminated or "rotated" in his diet. We had already identified some harmful foods on our own, and identified others even after the skin prick tests (perhpaps we hadn't included them on the list of foods that the allergist tested for), but the guidance from these tests put us on a strict rotation diet (difficult at first, but then became second nature) which over time was at the root of my son's improvement. I think from the time of the start of the rotation diet to the time when the tics were virtually unnoticeable was around six months or so. But there were some varialbles in there too; a couple of supplements that we learned about along the way that were also helpful.

 

I'll add that the allergist was only one component of the environmental practice we attended. The main dr. ran several diagnostic tests as we tried to figure things out. In the end, though, it was the diet and the advice we got on this forum concerning supplements that have had the most significant effects with regard to my son's improvement.

 

I know others swear by the blood test for determining intolerances. But the skin prick method was effective for us. We only did the food allergen tests. We always planned to go back for the tests for air born allergens, but never did. My son's issues were most probably gut-related, since addressing food issues cleared things up over time.

 

Good luck with your visit,

 

Chris

[MamaC]

Thank you very much for your response, Chris.

 

We seem to see a decrease in his tic when dairy and gluten are strictly avoided after a little more than a week. However, I am still not sure.

 

The allergist we saw last week was of no help, simply prescribed nasal spray (he preferred the steroid kind). Needless to say, we did not go that route. It seems quite the journey, but we are determined to find out what will be best for our son. Again, thank you so much for your reply!