article: Food allergy tests can be misused, doctor warns

Source

This article sparked my interest because I highly suspect that the food allergy test that my naturopath gave me falls into this topic. Maybe I'm not allergic to all of these foods after all! She (the naturopath) had made a bunch of inferences based on my results too. Even though I had scored a low reaction to a food, if she made an association to another food that I had scored highly one, she crossed it off the list of foods on my 'good' list. I'm trying to get my hands on the original CMAJ article. 


A Toronto doctor is warning people about testing to determine whether a person has allergies, sensitivities or intolerance to certain foods.
Dr. Elana Lavine of Humber River Regional Hospital says some of these tests, which can cost hundreds of dollars, can be misused and misinterpreted.
Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Lavine says in some cases, readings are interpreted to mean an intolerance to a food or foods when in fact the reverse is actually true.
She says both traditional physicians and holistic medicine practitioners may offer blood testing to diagnose adverse reactions to food, and unstandardized tests can be bought from a variety of health-care providers as well as some pharmacies.
Lavine says doctors should tell their patients about the controversies surrounding testing for food sensitivities, including the fact that there is no proven role for using readings of antibodies called IgG in testing for food allergies.
Recent position papers from European and U.S. allergy and immunology societies also emphasize the limitations and potential misuse of testing looking for IgG4 antibodies, saying these tests are not appropriate for making a diagnosis of food allergy.