Last week I took you through my first 2 weeks of the LEAP Immunocalm Dietary Management Program (completion of phase 1, start of phase 2). Now I’m going to share with you my experience with the rest of the program.
Phases 2-5 are essentially the same; you are just adding 1 new food each day. The thing to remember is that even though the MRT is very accurate (remember it has a sensitivity of almost 96%, specificity of almost 92%, and split sample reproducibility of more than 90%), there is still a 4-10% chance that one of the foods you are adding back in during phases 2-5 could cause a reaction. Because food sensitivity reactions can be delayed up to 3 days, that means if you do have a reaction, you have to back track 3 days and eliminate all 3 of those new foods until you feel better.
Luckily for me, nothing I added back caused me any problems. One thing I did find now that I had greater variety, it took more work to be diligent about reading food labels to make sure they still did not contain any of my yellow or red reactive ingredients. Even though there were now a few processed “snacks” I could use, the majority of the time I still had to make all my own meals and snacks. Usually this isn’t a problem, but I have to admit, I really did miss being able to just grab a Cliff bar before my 4:30 a.m. workouts! I couldn’t do that anymore, as just about ALL brands of energy/protein bars had some type of reactive ingredient for me (usually soy or almonds). Eventually I did find a few brands I could use: “Think” bars, Dr. Weil’s bars, and Bumble Bee Bars. Note that with all 3 of these brands, I still have to label read because there are only 1 or 2 selections from each that I can have; the rest of the products in these lines still contain something I react to.
Once I had completed phase 5 it was time to make sure I was rotating my foods, which is phase 6. In this phase, you are supposed to follow a 3-day rotation diet. Once you are in this phase, depending on your symptoms you may start “trying” foods that may not have been included in the MRT. You may also start trying very low yellow reactive foods.
It has been a couple of months now for me since I started trying yellow reactive foods; and while there are still some that I cannot tolerate (I notice my skin starting to get dry again), there are many that I can have in small doses which makes me happy! I still have not attempted any reds yet (at least not on purpose!), and don’t plan to for several more months.
All in all it has been a good experience, and definitely “do-able.” For anyone who is considering having MRT done, but is afraid it’s “too much work” I can assure you it is well worth it.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
My personal experience with MRT
Last week I briefly explained what the mediator release test (MRT) is. This week I want to talk about my own personal experience with it.
As a healthcare professional, I have always thought it is extremely important that I practice what I preach. If I recommend something to someone I believe I should have gone through that process myself, if at all possible. Whether I was working in a nursing home, coaching runners, or providing individual or group instruction, if I ever told someone to do something I made sure I knew myself what it was like to eat/drink that food/supplement, do that workout, self-test my blood sugar, etc.
Therefore, when I started studying immunology and went through the process of becoming a Certified LEAP Therapist, I made sure that I also had MRT blood test done. Granted I do not suffer from fibromyalgia, food triggered migraines, or irritable bowel syndrome, I do have allergies to other things (some medications, pollen, chemicals, etc.) which means I am at high risk of developing food sensitivities. I also found out that the dry, cracked, bleeding knuckles on my hands that I attributed to the weather or chemicals in lotions was actually eczema. Knowing that eczema involves the immune system, I was hoping maybe the LEAP Immunocalm Dietary Management Program would help.
After getting tested, I did not have a lot of reds show up, but I was devastated by the ones that did! As far as chemicals, I had a very high red reaction to benzoic acid. Benzoic acid is in MANY things, including the gum which I chewed on a regular basis (several sticks a day). Another high red reactive for me: mint! There went my mint gum, mint toothpaste, mint mouthwash, mojitos made w/mint. . . ugh!! The only other spice that was red reactive for me was paprika. No biggie, I can live without it. But the worst news for me was that I was red reactive to pecans, almonds, walnuts and soy!! Keep in mind I am a vegetarian, so I was eating all 4 of these items on an almost daily basis. “No soy, what am I going to do?” was my first reaction. Besides the fact that I cooked with a lot of tofu, soy is in TONS of things. Many cereals are fortified with soy, vitamin E is often from soy (whether as an individual vitamin, included in a multivitamin, or added to other foods/cosmetics), not to mention that it has gotten very popular to add soy to shampoo, soap, and other toiletries. I knew right away avoiding soy was going to be a huge challenge.
Thankfully the only other red reactives I had were banana, pineapple, asparagus, and buckwheat. I did have several yellow reactives in the chemical group, a few in the spices, fruits, vegetables, and grains, and just one (each) in dairy, seafood, legumes, and miscellaneous.
The first phase of the program is the hardest because you are restricted to only about 25 of your safest foods, which gives you a few choices from each major food group, plus spices and nuts/seeds/oils. That may sound like a lot, but it really isn’t. Have you ever looked at the ingredient labels of something as seemingly simple as a condiment? They have TONS of ingredients! One of the worst things for me was having to get all new shampoo, face wash, and soap because all of my current products had soy in them. But I was determined to follow the program. Because of my “pantry” situation, rather than starting phase 1 immediately, I first just “avoided” my reactive foods for about a week so I could “use up” some foods before starting phase 1. Luckily I like to cook, and my husband and I rarely eat out, so avoiding processed foods was not that difficult. Once I started the program, it took about a week to complete phase 1. By the end of phase 1, I already had significant improvement in my hands.
I couldn’t wait to start phase 2 (which is where you add 1 new “safe” food each day). Eating from the same limited choices every day was starting to get old. I am happy to say just a few days into phase 2 and within 2 weeks of starting the program my hands had completely healed; no more painful, bleeding knuckles!! That really made a believer out of me. I hadn’t even completed phase 2 and had already seen complete remission of my eczema.
Come back next week for the rest of my personal account of the LEAP Immunocalm Dietary Management Program.
As a healthcare professional, I have always thought it is extremely important that I practice what I preach. If I recommend something to someone I believe I should have gone through that process myself, if at all possible. Whether I was working in a nursing home, coaching runners, or providing individual or group instruction, if I ever told someone to do something I made sure I knew myself what it was like to eat/drink that food/supplement, do that workout, self-test my blood sugar, etc.
Therefore, when I started studying immunology and went through the process of becoming a Certified LEAP Therapist, I made sure that I also had MRT blood test done. Granted I do not suffer from fibromyalgia, food triggered migraines, or irritable bowel syndrome, I do have allergies to other things (some medications, pollen, chemicals, etc.) which means I am at high risk of developing food sensitivities. I also found out that the dry, cracked, bleeding knuckles on my hands that I attributed to the weather or chemicals in lotions was actually eczema. Knowing that eczema involves the immune system, I was hoping maybe the LEAP Immunocalm Dietary Management Program would help.
After getting tested, I did not have a lot of reds show up, but I was devastated by the ones that did! As far as chemicals, I had a very high red reaction to benzoic acid. Benzoic acid is in MANY things, including the gum which I chewed on a regular basis (several sticks a day). Another high red reactive for me: mint! There went my mint gum, mint toothpaste, mint mouthwash, mojitos made w/mint. . . ugh!! The only other spice that was red reactive for me was paprika. No biggie, I can live without it. But the worst news for me was that I was red reactive to pecans, almonds, walnuts and soy!! Keep in mind I am a vegetarian, so I was eating all 4 of these items on an almost daily basis. “No soy, what am I going to do?” was my first reaction. Besides the fact that I cooked with a lot of tofu, soy is in TONS of things. Many cereals are fortified with soy, vitamin E is often from soy (whether as an individual vitamin, included in a multivitamin, or added to other foods/cosmetics), not to mention that it has gotten very popular to add soy to shampoo, soap, and other toiletries. I knew right away avoiding soy was going to be a huge challenge.
Thankfully the only other red reactives I had were banana, pineapple, asparagus, and buckwheat. I did have several yellow reactives in the chemical group, a few in the spices, fruits, vegetables, and grains, and just one (each) in dairy, seafood, legumes, and miscellaneous.
The first phase of the program is the hardest because you are restricted to only about 25 of your safest foods, which gives you a few choices from each major food group, plus spices and nuts/seeds/oils. That may sound like a lot, but it really isn’t. Have you ever looked at the ingredient labels of something as seemingly simple as a condiment? They have TONS of ingredients! One of the worst things for me was having to get all new shampoo, face wash, and soap because all of my current products had soy in them. But I was determined to follow the program. Because of my “pantry” situation, rather than starting phase 1 immediately, I first just “avoided” my reactive foods for about a week so I could “use up” some foods before starting phase 1. Luckily I like to cook, and my husband and I rarely eat out, so avoiding processed foods was not that difficult. Once I started the program, it took about a week to complete phase 1. By the end of phase 1, I already had significant improvement in my hands.
I couldn’t wait to start phase 2 (which is where you add 1 new “safe” food each day). Eating from the same limited choices every day was starting to get old. I am happy to say just a few days into phase 2 and within 2 weeks of starting the program my hands had completely healed; no more painful, bleeding knuckles!! That really made a believer out of me. I hadn’t even completed phase 2 and had already seen complete remission of my eczema.
Come back next week for the rest of my personal account of the LEAP Immunocalm Dietary Management Program.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
What is a Mediator Release Test (MRT)?
Happy Tax Day!!!
Hopefully by now everyone either has their taxes done or has filed an extension. Besides dealing with taxes, there are many things going on this month of April: wear orange for ASPCA (Association for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to mark “prevent cruelty to animals awareness” month, Easter, Passover, etc. April is also “Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Awareness” month. Because of that, I’d like to talk about the Mediator Release Test (MRT) I often use in my practice to treat people with IBS, as well as many other food sensitivity related conditions.
Before I get into what the MRT is, let me first explain a little about what food sensitivities are, and how the MRT is useful in treating them. Food sensitivities involve the immune system, but are different from true food allergies. There are 4 main pathways used by our immune system to “fight” antigens (the object causing a reaction). Allergies use the type 1 pathway, involve IgE antibodies, and symptoms manifest within minutes. For this reason, a person often does not even need a test to know that they are allergic to something, their body tells them immediately by causing an outbreak of hives, difficulty breathing, and itchy/watery eyes. Food sensitivities typically involve the type 3 and type 4 pathways, which do not use IgE antibodies, but may use other types of antibodies or cell mediated reactions or complement. Symptoms can take from as little as a few hours to as long as 3 days to manifest and include IBS, migraines, joint pain, skin eruptions, and many more. Because of this, food sensitivities have historically been very difficult to evaluate.
The MRT is a patented blood test developed by Dr. Mark Pasula of Signet Diagnostic, Inc. In actuality, it is 150 separate tests that analyze your blood’s response to 27 different chemicals and 123 different foods. It is currently the most accurate test available on the market, with a sensitivity of 94.5%, a specificity of 91.7%, and split sample reproducibility consistently greater than 90%.
Because MRT is an end-point test, it can determine sensitivities whether type 3 or type 4 pathways are used. When a food sensitivity reaction occurs, mediators such as histamine, cytokines, etc. are released from various immune cells. MRT works by measuring the changes in the ratio of liquid to solids after whole blood is exposed to an antigen and mediators are released. The principle behind MRT is that the total volume of the sample will remain the same (V1 + V2 = V3), but when exposed to an antigen, the volume of solids (V1) and the volume of liquids (V2) will change due to mediator release. (www.nowleap.com) MRT quantifies the level of reaction into 3 categories: green (least reactive), yellow (moderately reactive), and red (reactive), which allows an individualized diet plan to be developed. Based on these results, a 6-phased diet called the "Lifestyle Eating and Performance" (LEAP) immunocalm diet is implemented.
By following the immunocalm diet, the majority of people with food sensitivities can experience at least a 50% reduction in symptoms, while some people experience complete resolution of symptoms. Next week I’ll talk about my personal experience using MRT to resolve eczema in my hands.
Hopefully by now everyone either has their taxes done or has filed an extension. Besides dealing with taxes, there are many things going on this month of April: wear orange for ASPCA (Association for the prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to mark “prevent cruelty to animals awareness” month, Easter, Passover, etc. April is also “Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) Awareness” month. Because of that, I’d like to talk about the Mediator Release Test (MRT) I often use in my practice to treat people with IBS, as well as many other food sensitivity related conditions.
Before I get into what the MRT is, let me first explain a little about what food sensitivities are, and how the MRT is useful in treating them. Food sensitivities involve the immune system, but are different from true food allergies. There are 4 main pathways used by our immune system to “fight” antigens (the object causing a reaction). Allergies use the type 1 pathway, involve IgE antibodies, and symptoms manifest within minutes. For this reason, a person often does not even need a test to know that they are allergic to something, their body tells them immediately by causing an outbreak of hives, difficulty breathing, and itchy/watery eyes. Food sensitivities typically involve the type 3 and type 4 pathways, which do not use IgE antibodies, but may use other types of antibodies or cell mediated reactions or complement. Symptoms can take from as little as a few hours to as long as 3 days to manifest and include IBS, migraines, joint pain, skin eruptions, and many more. Because of this, food sensitivities have historically been very difficult to evaluate.
The MRT is a patented blood test developed by Dr. Mark Pasula of Signet Diagnostic, Inc. In actuality, it is 150 separate tests that analyze your blood’s response to 27 different chemicals and 123 different foods. It is currently the most accurate test available on the market, with a sensitivity of 94.5%, a specificity of 91.7%, and split sample reproducibility consistently greater than 90%.
Because MRT is an end-point test, it can determine sensitivities whether type 3 or type 4 pathways are used. When a food sensitivity reaction occurs, mediators such as histamine, cytokines, etc. are released from various immune cells. MRT works by measuring the changes in the ratio of liquid to solids after whole blood is exposed to an antigen and mediators are released. The principle behind MRT is that the total volume of the sample will remain the same (V1 + V2 = V3), but when exposed to an antigen, the volume of solids (V1) and the volume of liquids (V2) will change due to mediator release. (www.nowleap.com) MRT quantifies the level of reaction into 3 categories: green (least reactive), yellow (moderately reactive), and red (reactive), which allows an individualized diet plan to be developed. Based on these results, a 6-phased diet called the "Lifestyle Eating and Performance" (LEAP) immunocalm diet is implemented.
By following the immunocalm diet, the majority of people with food sensitivities can experience at least a 50% reduction in symptoms, while some people experience complete resolution of symptoms. Next week I’ll talk about my personal experience using MRT to resolve eczema in my hands.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Eating vegetarian at NASCAR
Because I recently returned from a trip to Denton, TX for NASCAR weekend, I want to talk about the challenges of eating vegetarian in that type of environment. The last time I was at NASCAR was a few years ago, and at that time I was not a practicing vegetarian, so eating really did not pose any challenges. This weekend was a different story! I already knew what we would be facing, so to get prepared, I made about a dozen black bean patties for burgers and froze them for the trip. I also took a 6-pack of mixed bell peppers, a veggie tray, fruit, cheese, hummus for sandwiches, etc.
NASCAR is a completely different world. There are campgrounds all around Texas Motor Speedway where people can either set up tents or RVs and “camp” out for the whole week. Pre-race festivities usually start on Thursday, and events take place daily until the last race on Sunday. People will then start leaving Sunday or Monday. One of the nice things about going to the races is that you can take your own food and drinks into the track, so if you plan ahead, you can save a lot of money and eat healthy.
Near the campgrounds, there is a “tent” grocery store set up where you can get almost anything you could buy in a regular grocery store. They even sale some foods already cooked (primarily ribs, turkey legs, breakfast tacos, etc.). You will see people with grills and deep fryers set up, and you can smell meat being cooked almost 24/7.
We arrived Friday afternoon and set up our camper. We made a quick grocery run to get additional supplies and decided for our first “meal” we would grill a veggie pizza. Wal-Mart didn’t actually have any veggie pizzas, but they did have a plain cheese pizza, so we opted for that and put our own veggies on top. Quite yummy! Meal 1 down, no problem. Our neighbors had several deep fryers going and cooked up a ton of fish, hush puppies, and fries. I’ll admit we did have some of their food for meal 2.
Saturday, one of our friends decided to run to the "tent" grocery store to buy breakfast tacos. Alas, all of their tacos had meat in them, so we opted to cook our own. Eggs, potatoes, and mushrooms. Yum! I packed up some hummus sandwiches, quinoa cashew butter cookies, and peanuts for our lunch at the track. That evening when we got back, it was black bean burger time! We also had grilled mixed veggies (bell peppers, potatoes, onions). Our neighbors politely declined the black bean burgers and stuck with their brisket, but they did make a killer potato salad.
By now, we felt like we had the meal routine down, and had planned well. Sunday we basically followed our Saturday routine for all of our meals. Our neighbors even got in on the act, making a very nice green salad, a cheesy potato casserole, and deviled eggs (granted they still had their meat, but at least the had a variety of non-meat items as well).
So what did I learn over the weekend? Don’t plan to buy vegetarian breakfast tacos at the track! It’s probably also best to buy most of your groceries at home before you leave. And make sure that you have a plan for ALL your main meals, especially if you want something on the grill. While it takes a lot more planning, and may not be as easy as just slapping some meat on a grill, you can definitely successfully eat vegetarian on a “camping” trip at Texas Motor Speedway.
NASCAR is a completely different world. There are campgrounds all around Texas Motor Speedway where people can either set up tents or RVs and “camp” out for the whole week. Pre-race festivities usually start on Thursday, and events take place daily until the last race on Sunday. People will then start leaving Sunday or Monday. One of the nice things about going to the races is that you can take your own food and drinks into the track, so if you plan ahead, you can save a lot of money and eat healthy.
Near the campgrounds, there is a “tent” grocery store set up where you can get almost anything you could buy in a regular grocery store. They even sale some foods already cooked (primarily ribs, turkey legs, breakfast tacos, etc.). You will see people with grills and deep fryers set up, and you can smell meat being cooked almost 24/7.
We arrived Friday afternoon and set up our camper. We made a quick grocery run to get additional supplies and decided for our first “meal” we would grill a veggie pizza. Wal-Mart didn’t actually have any veggie pizzas, but they did have a plain cheese pizza, so we opted for that and put our own veggies on top. Quite yummy! Meal 1 down, no problem. Our neighbors had several deep fryers going and cooked up a ton of fish, hush puppies, and fries. I’ll admit we did have some of their food for meal 2.
Saturday, one of our friends decided to run to the "tent" grocery store to buy breakfast tacos. Alas, all of their tacos had meat in them, so we opted to cook our own. Eggs, potatoes, and mushrooms. Yum! I packed up some hummus sandwiches, quinoa cashew butter cookies, and peanuts for our lunch at the track. That evening when we got back, it was black bean burger time! We also had grilled mixed veggies (bell peppers, potatoes, onions). Our neighbors politely declined the black bean burgers and stuck with their brisket, but they did make a killer potato salad.
By now, we felt like we had the meal routine down, and had planned well. Sunday we basically followed our Saturday routine for all of our meals. Our neighbors even got in on the act, making a very nice green salad, a cheesy potato casserole, and deviled eggs (granted they still had their meat, but at least the had a variety of non-meat items as well).
So what did I learn over the weekend? Don’t plan to buy vegetarian breakfast tacos at the track! It’s probably also best to buy most of your groceries at home before you leave. And make sure that you have a plan for ALL your main meals, especially if you want something on the grill. While it takes a lot more planning, and may not be as easy as just slapping some meat on a grill, you can definitely successfully eat vegetarian on a “camping” trip at Texas Motor Speedway.
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