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Where to get a food intolerance blood test
January 30, 2012
At least three accredited Canadian laboratories will provide blood tests to
determine food intolerances. They vary in cost, the number of foods covered
in the test, and follow-up. Some health plans may cover some or all of these
fees.
Hemocode Food Intolerance System
Costs $450
Available at participating Rexall and Pharma Plus stores,
rexall.ca/instore/hemocode, or $499 through Hemocode, hemocode.com
Tests 250 foods
Provides a colour-coded food chart and a detailed report outlining key food
intolerances. Includes customized suggestions for vitamins and supplements,
and a recipe book based on approved foods. Includes unlimited consultation
and access to a naturopath regarding results and food intolerances.
The Yorktest Foodscan blood test checks for 113 different food intolerances.
Yorktest Foodscan
Costs $700
Available online at yorktest.ca
Tests 113 foods
Provides a colour-coded food chart and includes a guidebook with information on problem foods and making choices, a food diary to help
assess the progress and two 20-minute phone consultations with naturopaths.
Rocky Mountain Analytical
Costs $250 to $350
Available online at rmalab.com/index.php?id=13
Tests for 111 foods (sends samples to a U.S. lab).
Provides a graph indicating intolerances. Consultation and follow up with your naturopath, who administers the test, is not included.
http://www.thestar.com/printarticle/1123668
1/31/2012
Page 1 of 4
Food intolerances
can be found
with a blood test
January 30, 2012
Barbara Turnbull
Life Reporter
Mary Tomas’s digestive problems
began slowly.
About seven years ago, she started to
get bloated and constipated after she
ate.
GEOFF ROBINS/TORONTO STAR
Strawberries are one of the foods Mary Tomas can still eat, after she
was diagnosed with a sensitivity to yeast. Even fruits such as grapes
A colonoscopy revealed nothing and
and blueberries contain yeast in their skins, so she has had to eliminate
doctors insisted she was fine. But her
them from her diet.
symptoms continually got worse. They
became so severe, she had to buy bigger clothes to accommodate her distended belly. She had also
become uncharacteristically exhausted in the afternoon and evening.
“It got to a point where it interfered with my life,” says the 70-year-old Simcoe woman. “I couldn’t go to
the bathroom without a laxative. I looked like I was pregnant. It seemed to depend on what food I ate, but
I couldn’t associate it with anything specifically.”
At her wits’ end, she took to searching for solutions online and ordered a blood test that looked for food
intolerances. Two days after she stopped eating the foods she tested intolerant to, her symptoms
disappeared.
Tomas’s condition is not unusual.
A recent study out of the University of Calgary put Canada at the top of the global list for irritable bowel
syndrome. And researcher Gilaad Kaplan says the condition is growing in prevalence. In 2004, the British
journal Gut published a controlled trial on irritable bowel syndrome that showed the average sufferer has
six to seven food intolerances. It found that 75 per cent of sufferers can be helped by strictly eliminating
problem foods.
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/articlePrint/1123642
1/31/2012
Page 2 of 4
Food intolerance is an emerging area amongst irritable bowel syndrome specialists, but it’s important in a
portion of patients, says Dr. Stephen Vanner, an irritable bowel syndrome specialist affiliated with the
Canadian Digestive Health Foundation.
Irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, indigestion, heartburn, joint pain, eczema, bloating, stomach pain,
anal bleeding, sleeplessness and weight gain can all be symptoms of food intolerances, says Dr. Gordon Ko,
director of the fibromyalgia clinic at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
RELATED: Where to get a food intolerance blood test
Most general practitioners don’t look at food as a cause for these symptoms, says Ko, who has been
working with patients with chronic conditions for 20 years.
“The typical patient would have been through five years of running around seeing specialists,” says Ko.
He says many doctors routinely prescribe anti-inflammatories and painkillers, which fight the symptoms,
not the cause, so any relief is temporary.
“It’s like putting water on fire within you, but you’ve got to find the source of gasoline.”
Ko recommends diagnostic tests for food intolerance, such as the one Tomas sought out. They can be
extremely effective, if there is proper follow-up and strict adherence to the results, he says.
Food intolerances are different than food allergies. Allergic reactions occur immediately with symptoms
such as hives, swollen lips and throat, and anaphylaxis. Food intolerances cause an immune reaction that is
delayed by hours or even days, but can intensify over time if the intolerant food continues to be consumed.
Because of that delay, they are more difficult to identify. Top culprits are wheat, gluten, dairy and yeast.
Intolerance to a food causes inflammation, which sets the stage for microscopic particles of food to get into
the bloodstream, causing the immune system to react, explains Alyson Munkley, a Toronto-based doctor of
naturopathic medicine. The symptoms differ in nature and intensity for everyone, she says.
Munkley estimates 50 per cent of her patients have food intolerances and almost all find relief once they
discover what food it is and remove it from their diet.
“I have seen things like migraines and joint pains go away with the elimination of certain foods that people
are intolerant to,” she says.
Stacey Bowman, who is one of Munkley’s patients, suffered from severe asthma, as well as environmental
and food allergies, from a young age.
Medications worked until her mid-20s, but then her health plummeted, says Bowman, now 29 and a recent
masters graduate from the University of Toronto’s faculty of forestry.
Chronic sinus infections led to numerous courses of antibiotics. She saw allergists and ear, nose and throat
specialists but couldn’t find relief.
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/articlePrint/1123642
1/31/2012
Page 3 of 4
“No doctor I was seeing was treating the whole picture. They were just looking at one thing or another.
They just threw prescriptions at me and tried to treat everything in isolation,” she says.
Soon digestive problems started and she got eczema all over her body, even on her eyelids.
“I was sort of at the end of my rope.”
She sought out Munkley who suggested Bowman test for food intolerances.
Bowman did the pinprick test and discovered she was severely sensitive to eggs, yeast, peanuts and
almonds, and moderately sensitive to gluten and wheat. She decided to remove those foods from her diet
for six months.
“Within a couple of weeks I was starting to notice differences,” she says. Her sinuses and eczema improved
and overall she felt better. “I felt like I really turned a corner once I stopped eating those things.”
It’s now been two years and her symptoms remain in check, but they occasionally return when she cheats
on her diet.
Traditionally, the way to define a food intolerance is by trial and error, going on an elimination diet for a
few weeks, consuming mostly bland foods and keeping a close tab on what you ingest. But symptoms are
not always related, and we consume so many different foods day these days that those diets are difficult to
track.
Food intolerance blood tests are less time-consuming and don’t require the same patient motivation and
compliance.
Blood tests are available from natural health and integrative medical practitioners, as well as at more than
200 participating Rexall drugstores across Canada. The test identifies specific ingredients, giving them an
intolerance rating of mild, moderate or severe.
The cost varies, depending on the number of foods tested and follow-up, but is typically between $250 and
$700. These blood tests are not covered by OHIP, but they are eligible under some medical insurance plans
that offer naturopathic benefits.
Tomas, was convinced food was the cause of her problems, so she ordered the test online, in spite of the
hefty $700 price.
She followed the instructions, which included pricking her finger, sent the blood sample to the YorkTest
Foodscan laboratory and waited two weeks for the results.
The test she took checked her reaction to 111 common foods, including vegetables, fruit, meats, fish,
grains and nuts. Her trouble foods were yeast, kidney beans and blackcurrants, all of which she ate
regularly.
Within two days of starting to avoid those foods, the symptoms eased. “It was absolutely amazing,” she
raves.
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/articlePrint/1123642
1/31/2012
Page 4 of 4
Almost one year later, she admits to missing bread and wine, but not enough to cheat on her new diet. “I’m
no longer bloated and now I can keep awake at night,” she says.
Where to get a blood test for food intolerances
At least three accredited Canadian laboratories will provide blood tests to determine food intolerances. They
vary in cost, the number of foods covered in the test, and follow-up. Some health plans may cover some or
all of these fees.
Hemocode Food Intolerance System
Costs $450
Available at participating Rexall and Pharma Plus stores, rexall.ca/instore/hemocode, or $499 through
Hemocode, hemocode.com
Tests 250 foods
Provides a colour-coded food chart and a detailed report outlining key food intolerances. Includes
customized suggestions for vitamins and supplements, and a recipe book based on approved foods.
Includes unlimited consultation and access to a naturopath regarding results and food intolerances.
Yorktest Foodscan
Costs $700
Available online at yorktest.ca
Tests 113 foods
Provides a colour-coded food chart and includes a guidebook with information on problem foods and making
choices, a food diary to help assess the progress and two 20-minute phone consultations with naturopaths.
Rocky Mountain Analytical
Costs $250 to $350
Available online at rmalab.com/index.php?id=13
Tests for 111 foods (sends samples to a U.S. lab).
Provides a graph indicating intolerances. Consultation and follow up with your naturopath, who administers
the test, is not included.
http://www.healthzone.ca/health/articlePrint/1123642
1/31/2012