Comments on: Food intolerance blood tests have no place in the pharmacy

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:33:56 +0000

Here’s a useful checklist that can be applied to IgG tests and its promotional material:

10 Questions to Distinguish Real from Fake Science

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emilywillingham/2012/11/08/10-questions-to-distinguish-real-from-fake-science/

By: Scott

Scott — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:23:51 +0000

This post by Edzard Ernst explains why personal experience is an unreliable predictor of effectiveness:

http://edzardernst.com/2012/11/what-is-and-what-isnt-clinical-evidence-and-why-is-the-distinction-important/

I don’t hate IgG food intolerance tests. I am disappointed that pharmacists, who are health professionals, are ignoring the overwhelming clinical evidence and putting profits ahead of patient care by selling tests like Hemocode and Yorktest in pharmacies. These tests are inaccurate. They are unvalidated. They have no value in diagnosing food intolerances. Purveyors rely upon the ignorance of consumers to sell them.

By: karen

karen — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 02:25:49 +0000

why are you such a hater scott? If someone is saying this helped them or their family…then guess what…that’s EVIDENCE!!!!!!!!

By: notaboy

notaboy — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 01:29:01 +0000

Just 50 years ago mothers were being blamed for their childrens autism, because of being emotionally detached. Only 75 years ago doctors advertised smoking. The medical community doesn’t know everything. They are not “God”. Of course diet affects people – who would be stupid enough to think it doesn’t!? Maybe Hemocode is a bunch of malarky, but I’m not going to take the medical industry’s word for it until they remove it from the market. If it’s as dangerous as claimed above (people hurting their bodies by drastically changing their diets) then I have no idea why it isn’t under severe investigation. Sounds to me like it may not be as far fetched as they are putting it out to be. Many Doctor’s who find out a woman is seeing a midwife for her pregnancy will go on and on talking about the dangers associated with that – and that is utter nonsense as many of us can tell you. Doctor’s tell you co-sleeping is dangerous, but what they don’t tell you is that babies who co-sleep have lower incidences of SIDS and that the “danger” only lies in the parent being intoxicated or an extremely heavy sleeper (which I think most can agree that most parents pretty much sleep with one eye open for the first three months at least). They also don’t tell people that “SIDS” is an umbrella term that refers to diseases or disorders that haven’t yet been discovered. Babies don’t just die.
Some food intolerances are far worse than food allergies. My daughter suffers from Encopresis which, till recently, we had no idea was related to a severe food intolerance to Casein and Food Dye’s. It was our allergist who did an IgE test on her and discovered she wasn’t allergic that told us that the proof was in the elimination diet we tried and that she should not consume casein or food dye and should probably start avoiding gluten and soy. An allergist – yes people, a trusted member of the medical community. My daughter also has ADHD and I absolutely believe that removing things that her body considers toxins while adding things that her body needs more of will help her with her ADHD. No, ADHD cannot be cured – I know, I have ADHD. But as an adult who deals with this I can honestly say that of course diet affects it. And of course diet can improve it. As with anything in life. And exercise – that helps too. A medical professional told me that folks – though there hasn’t been any clinical testing on exercise and ADHD.
Did you know that adults who have ADHD but don’t know it are often heavy coffee drinkers because the caffein acts as a stimulant for their brain – in turn helping them focus and concentrate? True fact. Food for thought.

Here is a good read written by a medical proffesional:

http://www.betterhealthusa.com/public/336.cfm

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:49:41 +0000

It's important not to confuse situations where there are unanswered questions about efficacy, with a situation where something has been studied and important efficacy questions have been answered. In the case of IgG tests, vendors have provided no evidence their specific tests are effective. So we look for other studies with IgG. What tests using IgG show is that they always give positive results, because IgG is a normal immune responses to food. See IgG Food Intolerance Tests: What does the science say? for more detail. I agree with your comment regarding the sale in pharmacies. Over at Science-Based Medicine, Jann Bellamy raised the comment as to whether a health professional who is directly selling this type of test has an legal or ethical responsibility to disclose scientific implausibility and lack of efficacy. I would argue "yes" to both questions. One of the most perplexing issues with unvalidated laboratory testing is that regulators like the FDA get justifiably upset when pharmaceutical companies promote and sell drug products for unapproved uses - look at the $3 billion dollar fine that GlaxoSmithKline has recently agreed to pay for this behaviour. Yet regulators seem to be indifferent when a blood test promoted and sold where there is no published evidence demonstrating it is effective - and there is published information suggesting these tests are ineffective.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 18:16:10 +0000

The TRUTH is there is no black or white answer here. I’m not for or against these tests, but the fact that they haven’t been proven to work scientifically isn’t enough prove that they are some sort of scam. Basically, it’s a 450 dollar gamble….I believe 100 percent that some people may get some good guidance from these tests, but I’m far from believing that they are foolproof. It is a little shady to have them in pharmacies though…makes it seem like Hemocode has the full support of the medical community

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:22:16 +0000

Because personal experience is a poor guide to judging what really works.

By: Scott

Scott — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 02:33:16 +0000

Conspiracy theories and the naturalistic fallacy.

I urge you to read the article above and the references. Sadly, the only ones being duped are those buying IgG food intolerance blood tests.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 01:45:19 +0000

But how can you say it’s useless if you’ve never tried it for yourself.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 01:43:21 +0000

I am being open an honest. My son has been seeing psychologists and what did they want to do??? Here’s a prescription!!! I took matters into my own hands and now have a happy socially functionable little boy! And the change from being mostly in his own world with temper tantrums and never wanting to do anything that was new, to a happy, outgoing, boy who clearly communicated and almost never had a tantrum was a matter of days.

And where is your source of information about Jenny McCarthy causing massive outbreaks of preventable diseases…. Anyone can write anything they want on the net and the pharmaceutical companies do just that to try to keep people paying for drugs. And they have enough money that they can even pay news casts to say whatever they want them to say to make it look like fact! You never see an hour of news without half a dozen drug commercials (cause they are sponsoring the news cast). They have complete power! So who’s being duped here??? You keep shoving money into their pockets and they will keep feeding you lies to make you believe natural stuff just can’t work! They WANT you to be sick, and they want you to believe that the only way to be healthy is to use a drug. They actually made it illegal in the USA to say that anything other than a drug can cure, treat, or prevent a disease. You are breaking the law if you say “oranges cured my scurvy” food and drug companies have all the power and they have no problem sacrificing your health to keep it!