Selected category: Food Intolerance

By Hannah van Schijndel (Artemis) and Dajana Domik (Tecan)

It is estimated that up to 20% of the world’s population may have some degree of food intolerance, which can manifest itself in pathologies such as celiac disease, dermatitis, atopic eczema, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and irritable bowel syndrome IBS.¹ We established in our previous article that IgG and IgG4-based ELISA testing can be used to reduce the guesswork in identifying food sensitivities, and is indeed the most widely used immunological method, despite the major challenges associated with it. ^2-5

By Nastya Yeska

There is a definite role for IgG4 testing when diagnosing and treating pathologies that are associated with elevated levels of specific IgGs, such as Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome.¹,² This is despite the fact that IgG4 testing has had a lot of bad press over the years, mainly because it has been shown that elevated IgG4 levels for certain food antigens may simply be an indicator of exposure and tolerance of a specific food, rather than an indicator of “true” food intolerance.³  With that in mind, we look here both at the science behind the tests, and the evolving IgG and IgG4 ELISA testing market.