The Importance of Diagnosis For Food Allergy
Are you having a feeling that you are unable to digest a certain type of food? Is a certain food item evoking some serious reactions in your body? It may be a case of a food allergy or food intolerance. You should visit a qualified medical professional who would evaluate, diagnose and treat you accordingly.
To diagnose a food allergy, there are no particular or set tests that can confirm whether a person is having a food allergy or not. However, they use a certain set of techniques with an individual to determine if they are allergic to a certain food item or not.
Your dietician or doctor will ask you for the symptoms or signs that your body shows after taking a particular food. Food allergy can be a hereditary disease, so if you have someone in your family having food allergies, be sure to communicate this to your doctor.
The doctor may conduct a skin test to confirm whether there is an allergy or some skin disease that causes a certain reaction in your body. For this purpose, they keep a small portion of the suspected food item on your skin (usually on forearm). A needle is used to prick your skin to let that food item beneath the skin surface in order to observe the reaction.
To rule out the possibility of some other medical problem, a proper physical examination of an individual’s body might be carried out by the doctor. If there are no physical medical issues, your doctor might advise you to keep a food diary that will contain all your eating habits and the symptoms your body show after having a particular food.
Your doctor may conduct a blood test to measure the response of your immunity system against particular food item. During this blood test, a sample of blood is taken out from your body and sent to a medical lab for testing purposes. Your blood is then tested with different food items and the reaction is observed.
If there is a certain food item that you are suspecting of causing the allergy, your doctor may ask you eliminate that particular food item for a week or two. Additionally, they may also make you undergo an oral test in order to see the reaction. In this test, you are asked to intake the suspected items with increased amounts and determine whether that food is causing the reaction or not.
In some cases, there might be some psychological factors that a person might be confusing with the food allergy. A person sensitive to any food might trigger a reaction that might get confused with an allergy to that food. Food allergy cannot be cured completely, but psychological factors can be cured and the person can start eating the normal way.
The diagnosis of food allergy holds a great importance because if it isn’t treated on time, it can lead some serious effects on an individual’s health.
DISCLAIMER: The medical information on this site is provided as an information resource only, and is not to be used or relied on for any diagnostic or treatment purposes. This information is not intended to be patient education, does not create any patient-physician relationship, and should not be used as a substitute for professional diagnosis and treatment.