can you test for food allergies at home? no silly answers please!!!?

Answer 1

Not safely, no. The only way to test for food allergies is through a RAST test / skin prick test which your GP can arrange, or by a supervised food challenge in a hospital.

The danger of doing it at home is that you may find that someone has a severe food allergy the hard way. Peanuts, for example, can trigger a reaction in some people in truly trivial amounts.

Answer 2

You could do a test for food allergies at home but I wouldn't advise it. Food allergies can get worse over time and can also simply begin at anytime. In my case I became extremely allergic to dairy products having life threatening reactions at the age of 31.

But I guess it depends on the reaction that is causing you to become suspicious. When my dairy allergy progressed to hives, I experimented a bit and found that it was that causing them. Basically, as my reaction is instantious, I would stand in front of the mirror and drink a sip of milk or eat a small nibble of cheese and watch the hives errupt on my face.

Now, while this was my experience I would recommend you do it with caution as symptoms do vary by day. (When I did trial in the hospital I ended up vomitting blood and having an asthma attack in addition to the hives so...)

I would say be careful and would tell you to consult your doctor and allow him to be incontrol of the tests so that all necessary ER procedures are inplace, just in case.

Answer 3

Food allergy is an exaggerated immune response to dietary proteins.
Please see the web pages for more details on Food allergy.

Answer 4

If you had an allergy to something I think you would know
because you would be getting a nasty reaction that would make
you feel very ill. If what you have is an intollerance to certain foods
there are lots of places ( health food shops) that can test these
for you. Not sure how correct they are, but worth a try.

Answer 5

Yer you can people who can test for you as i believe the nhs waiting time is very long. my boss at work had one done recently. They use metal rods with a pot of certain food subsatnces etc in the other end of the machine. it cant be placed on carpetted areas though
she found the number is the yellow pages

Good luck

Answer 6

It is possible but certainly not advisable. I would consult your gp and ask for a referral to an allergy specialist person and they can help guide you on the correct course of action...

Answer 7

I wouldn't because if you do happen to eat something you are allergic to you don't know what the side effects will be, and food allergic reactions are typically severe. If you really want to know if and what foods you are allergic to then go to an allergist; they will give you a test which will show what you are allergic to.

Answer 8

Not wise. unless you had a particular substance in mind that you think may be causing a problem. leave it alone for 2 weeks then introduce it again and see what happens. failing that talk to your local health food store or doctor.
Just be careful if you try it yourself.

Answer 9

my brother had to eat one certain food on a certain day and only that one food. one day it was papaya, another it was another food. I've forgotten, it was so long ago. if you think you might be allergic to a food, don't eat it for a while. then eat it and see if there is a reaction. but be careful of a severe reaction.

Answer 10

you need to keep introducing things to your diet start with a very plan diet then agg different foods eg bread milk eggs and see if any affect you quite hard to do and will take a while best to go to the docs and get them to do it for u