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Enterolab Tests
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Coach Polly
- Little Blue Penguin
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Enterolab Tests
Okay I am seriously considering the Enterolab tests and have a question. Since I am already on a highly restricted diet (GF/DF/SF) is there a possibility that my lab results would be skewed. I remember when my doctor ordered the gluten intolerance blood tests he stressed the importance of NOT restricting gluten prior to the test.
"Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but doesn't get you anywhere."
Coach Polly
Coach Polly
Hi,
The answer depends on how long you have been avoiding those respective foods, and whether or not you have been avoiding them diligently, (IOW, avoiding them 100%). Gluten antibodies in stool have a very long half-life, and the Enterolab test for anti-gliadin antibodies is very sensitive, (several orders of magnitude more sensitive than the classic blood tests), so gluten-sensitivity can be reliably detected by the Enterolab tests for at least a year after the GF diet has been adopted, and in some cases they can still be detected up to two years later, (though not as reliably, obviously).
Unfortunately, antibodies for casein and soy are not nearly so persistent, so it is best to not wait more than a few weeks after removing them from one's diet, before collecting a stool sample for testing. If you are highly sensitive to them, you might still be producing antibodies up until a few months have elapsed after removing them from your diet, but it's difficult to predict how reliable the tests might be, at that point. I would guess that roughly about 6 weeks might be a practical limit for relatively reliable test results, for most people, but that's just a WAEG.
Also, a few days before collecting a sample, you need to discontinue taking any fish oil supplement, and/or flax seed oil, or similar oil supplements, (if you are taking any of them, in the first place), if you are ordering the fecal fat score, (fat malabsorption), test, since supplemental oil supplements could skew the results of that test.
If you happen to be taking Entocort, that's not a problem, so long as you have not been taking it long enough to provide any significant degree of immune system suppression, (usually at least 6 months to a year or more, for most people).
Tex
The answer depends on how long you have been avoiding those respective foods, and whether or not you have been avoiding them diligently, (IOW, avoiding them 100%). Gluten antibodies in stool have a very long half-life, and the Enterolab test for anti-gliadin antibodies is very sensitive, (several orders of magnitude more sensitive than the classic blood tests), so gluten-sensitivity can be reliably detected by the Enterolab tests for at least a year after the GF diet has been adopted, and in some cases they can still be detected up to two years later, (though not as reliably, obviously).
Unfortunately, antibodies for casein and soy are not nearly so persistent, so it is best to not wait more than a few weeks after removing them from one's diet, before collecting a stool sample for testing. If you are highly sensitive to them, you might still be producing antibodies up until a few months have elapsed after removing them from your diet, but it's difficult to predict how reliable the tests might be, at that point. I would guess that roughly about 6 weeks might be a practical limit for relatively reliable test results, for most people, but that's just a WAEG.
Also, a few days before collecting a sample, you need to discontinue taking any fish oil supplement, and/or flax seed oil, or similar oil supplements, (if you are taking any of them, in the first place), if you are ordering the fecal fat score, (fat malabsorption), test, since supplemental oil supplements could skew the results of that test.
If you happen to be taking Entocort, that's not a problem, so long as you have not been taking it long enough to provide any significant degree of immune system suppression, (usually at least 6 months to a year or more, for most people).
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.