The Allergy & Asthma Cure

by Fred Pescator, M.D.


This book is an easy read, and has some good information, but won't be added to my must-read list. I will admit that I skipped over most of the asthma chapters and focused on the food allergies.  ;)  The premise of this book is that most asthma and allergies are caused by a candida overgrowth, and the author takes you through the process of controlling candida through supplements and diet.  Although I think that candida is a problem for many people, and can cause leaky gut (leading to food sensitivities), I don't agree that it's a problem for everyone.  Also, the protocols for initially killing off the candida are too harsh for children in my opinion.

The author does discuss a few different types of food allergy/sensitivity testing, and highly recommends the ALCAT test.  He also discusses eliminations diets and nutritional supplements.

Atopy Patch Testing (APT)

Atopy patch testing (APT) is done to diagnose non-IgE, or delayed reaction, allergies.  Many allergists don't do this test, or even believe that it works.

According to the most recent AGA paper on eosinophilic disorders:

• "APT has been most extensively studied in atopic dermatitis. Most studies find that APT was better in identifying late reactions and GI reactions in children with atopic dermatitis."
• "...APT has shown promise in atopic dermatitis with good predictive values, high specificity, and low sensitivity, and APT has shown highly promising results with regard to food elimination diet and food reintroduction in patients with EE."
• "APT has been used for the diagnosis of food allergies in two published studies by Spergel et al. They examined 146 children with biopsy specimen-diagnosed EE and eliminated foods based on positive skin test and atopy patch test. The authors found that 77% of the patients had resolution of their biopsy specimens based on these results."

Basically, by using APT in conjunction with SPT (skin prick testing), greater improvements were seen in kids with eosinophilic disorders (and kids with food allergies and/or eczema.)

We searched and searched, and finally found a local doctor that does patch testing and regularly works with eos kids.   Here's how it works:

• First, foods are crushed up and made into a thick paste that will stick on the skin (and not dry out.)  Some doctors use food extracts, but from what I've read the accuracy is much higher when using real, fresh food.
• The foods are placed into small round or square disks that will be applied to the back for 48 hours, and taped into place.  The doctor carefully marks where each section is, so that they are easy to identify when the tape is removed. 

• After 48 hours, the patches are removed.  Some doctors will read the results 20 minutes after removal, but it's really hard to see much at that point since the skin is usually still red from the tape.
• Here is DD about 5-6 hours after removal.  It's getting much easier to see the spots that she's reacting to (which is almost all of them!)  Negatives should be skin colored, positives will be red and possibly blistered or have hives.  (Our allergist made sure to do skin testing first, because applying an IgE allergen to the skin for 48 hours would result in a massive and unpleasant reaction.  So they only test foods that are negative on the SPT.) 

• 24 hours after removal, the patches are read.  You can see that by this point, many of the spots on DD's back had faded, but some are still obviously positive.  The positive spots were still red, and most were bubbly and irritated and starting to scab over.

Catching up...

March 2011

It's been a while since I've posted (or responded to comments!), and I apologize.  Life has been a little crazy...

Let's see.  I think I mentioned in the last post that DD seemed to have a minor reaction to the anesthesia.  Well, it turned out not to be so minor.  She was "off" for a couple weeks- just not herself- very hyper, stimmy, couldn't focus, bad sleep, etc.  And suddenly, she started reacting to previously safe foods.  Within 2 months after the scope, we lost more foods than we had in the entire previous year.  :(  Her body was so hyper-reactive that everything caused an immune reaction.  So at this point, she's down to eating lamb and carrots, and even those are on the fence.

I reviewed the pathology reports again from her scopes, and it looks like she actually didn't have eosinophils in her stomach (although I'm positive that the GI doc told us that she did), and I'm no longer convinced of her diagnosis of eosinophilic colitis either, since it appears that they didn't do any eosinophil counts in her colon.  So right now, we're definite about the EE diagnosis, and nothing else.  I'll have to follow up with the doc to clarify, but at the moment I'm less than impressed with the results from this $13K+ procedure.

Last month, we found a new allergist that does patch testing (will post more about that next) and works with EGID kids. The results showed positives to many of the foods that we had recently lost (zucchini, broccoli), and some others that we weren't sure about (mushrooms, beets, olives, kohlrabi, honey.)  :(  We also did some skin testing for environmental stuff, and got positives to all the trees and grasses, as well as dust.

We've decided to start trialing medical food (elemental formula) for DD since she's so close to losing all real foods, and I want to do everything possible to keep her off steroids.  I keep getting statistics thrown at me that 99.whatever% of kids tolerate these elemental formulas, even though they all have her allergens in their ingredient list (most are made from corn syrup solids.)  I haven't been convinced, and going through these trials has proved even further than the rules just don't apply to DD.  We started with Neocate Jr. unflavored, then Neocate Jr. flavored, then Elecare unflavored.  All were massive fails almost immediately.  Symptoms included: diarrhea, a rash, waking up at night repeatedly (sometimes every hour) screaming in pain, joint pain, potty accidents (which she ONLY has during certain food reactions... don't ask me why), and behavioral issues (overly sensitive, aggressive, etc.)  This past week, we've been trialing Neocate E028 Splash, grape flavor, which is one of the few that don't have corn syrup solids but does have many other allergens.  This trial has gone much better than the rest.  After 5 days, we saw no sleep or behavior issues (a little hyperactivity, but that's probably to be expected because this one has artificial flavors and sweeteners), no potty accidents, no diarrhea, nothing.  Except.... a rash.  :(  We're going to take a couple days off the formula and see if it goes away, then try it again and watch for new/more obvious symptoms.  Usually with a food trial that isn't an obvious pass or fail, when we remove the food for a few days and trial again, the symptoms will be much more obvious.  I'm hoping that's the case here as well, although I'm already pretty sure this formula is going to be a fail as well.  Which is disappointing to say the least, because she really liked it and asked for it constantly, and by the end of the trial she was definitely preferring it to real food, which is something I thought might happen- once she found a food substitute, that she would stop eating the foods that were bothering her.  For a 3 year old, she's amazing at listening to her body and what it needs.

So that's what has been going on around here.  I'm now about 9 months pregnant and trying to get ready for a new baby in the house.

For anyone who's curious, here is her updated allergen list:
- IgE to dairy (cow/goat), soy, eggs, fish/shellfish, peanuts/tree nuts, beef, chicken, pork, legumes, seeds, corn, wheat, rice, barley, buckwheat, oats, rye, green pea, green bean, white potato, sweet potato, banana, cherry, grape, raspberry, strawberry, asparagus, cabbage, rutabaga, brussel sprouts, chocolate....
- APT (patch testing) positive to broccoli, carrot, honey, kohlrabi, zucchini, mushroom, beet.
- EA (environmental allergies): dust, trees, grasses.