Food allergies

In reading many things about autoimmune disorders and anti-inflammatory diets, it seems that it all boils down to what foods in particular you may be allergic to that can set off your symptoms. I recently had a blood test to determine what foods I may be allergic to (I am hoping this will be a quick route to the things that can be discovered through something like an elimination diet), and I wanted to share some information I found about how they do allergy testing via blood. You can read up on it at labtestsonline.org.

Lab Tests

Autoimmune disorders are diagnosed, evaluated, and monitored through a combination of autoantibody blood tests, blood tests to measure inflammation and organ function, clinical presentation, and through non-laboratory examinations such as X-rays. (From labtestsonline.org)

Here is a link to some information about a blood test that is sort of a generic screen for auto-immune disorders:
http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/ana/test.html

It is called the ANA (antinuclear antibody) test. Different patterns in the cells used for the ANA test are associated with different autoimmune disorders.

Other blood tests for autoimmune disorders may include:
ESR - http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/esr/test.html

CRP - http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/crp/test.html

Many more antibody tests and conditions that may call for antibody testing are listed here:
http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/antibody_tests/glance-4.html