ALCAT Food Additives + Environmental Chemicals+ Antibiotics- CHEM50

Description

NOTE:  This test is ONLY AVAILABLE TO AUSTRALIAN RESIDENTS.

Intolerances/Sensitivities to foods + food additives + food chemicals + environmental chemicals + herbs/dietary supplements + moulds can cause a wide range of symptoms and disorders. The ALCAT® diagnostic system detects changes in the size and number of leucocytes (i.e. immune cells) in response to exposure to the offending foods, chemicals, additives, herbs and moulds.

The ALCAT® diagnostic system is a useful test which can be used to screen for intolerance and sensitivities to:

• Foods
• Food Additives
• Food Chemicals
• Environmental Chemicals
• Herbs/Dietary Supplements
• Antibiotics and Anti-inflammatories
• Moulds

This diagnostic system detects changes in the size and number of leucocytes (i.e. immune cells) in response to exposure to these analytes.

A significant advantage of this system is that it uses whole blood which contains all of the immune factors, cells and serum proteins that might be involved in an adverse reaction to a foods, chemicals and moulds. Regardless of the pathways that may underlie an adverse reaction to an analyte, i.e. immune or non-immune, the final common pathway may involve release of chemical mediators. These substances such as histamine and cytokines will alter the activity of the white blood cells which is detectable using the ALCAT® technique. In addition, the ALCAT® test will theoretically detect changes in the innate immune system (phagocytic white blood cells) and any cytotoxic effects of a tested analyte.

Test Method

The ALCAT Intolerance Test (Food Additives/Chemicals & Environmental Chemicals & Antibiotics/Anti-inflammatories)

See all of the ALCAT Tests available here.

The ALCAT Intolerance Test is the most comprehensive personalised intolerance test available and was developed to measure personalised nutrition at the cellular level.  The core technology is a blood test that measures the body’s cellular response to challenges from a wide array of substances including various foods, additives, colouring, chemicals, functional foods and medicinal herbs.  This ALCAT test includes testing for the following intolerance’s:

• 20 food additives/chemicals
• 10 environmental chemicals
• 20 antibiotics & inflammatories

What is the ALCAT Test?

The ALCAT test is a simple blood test that can be used to identify food and other factors that induce innate immune system activation. It measures changes in size and volume of white blood cells in response to ex vivo challenges with foods, chemicals and other environmental stimuli.  The ALCAT test is NOT an allergy or IgE test. The ALCAT is the most effective and comprehensive sensitivity/intolerance test available.

The advantage of the ALCAT involves the identification of specific foods that are triggering an inflammatory cascade. The identification of these specific foods works synergistically with the thesis that gut health is one of the primary and crucial organs responsible for chronic inflammatory states, whereby the etiology of the vast majority of chronic inflammatory or autoimmune conditions can be traced back through a series of mechanisms to delayed food hypersensitivity via impaired intestinal permeability (so called ‘leaky gut’).

The ALCAT test method, which has been utilized successfully for over twenty years for food intolerance, also offers significant promise as an integrated functional assessment tool of specific micronutrient deficiencies.  A tremendous amount of health problems have been linked to food sensitivity and chronic inflammation – common everyday problems like migraines, aching joints, fatigue, gastrointestinal disorders, eczema, hyperactivity/ADD, asthma and even obesity.  It has been found that overweight subjects following an eating plan eliminating foods suspected of activating innate immunity, based on laboratory analysis of whole blood samples, experienced a significant improvement in body composition and scale weight.

How The ALCAT Test Works

The basic principle of The ALCAT test is measurement changes in white-cell diameter after exposure with foods, moulds, food additives, environmental chemicals, dyes and pharmacoactive agents.  The system has proved to be extremely reproducible and sensitive with amazing clinical outcomes.  Analysis of whole blood offers a significant advantage in that it contains all of the immune factors, cellular elements and serum proteins that might be involved in an adverse reaction of this type regardless of the underlying biological mechanism.

Once test results come back you have a clear picture of what your personal intolerance’s are which gives you a clear road map of how to improve your health right from day one.

Whats Included In the ALCAT Intolerance Food Additives/Chemicals & Environmental Chemicals & Antibiotics/Anti-inflammatories Test?

20 Food additives

Aspartame (951), Benzoic acid (210), BHA (320), BHT (321), Blue 1 (132), Blue 2 (133), Erythritol (968), Green 3 (143), MSG (621), Polysorbate 80 (433), Potassium nitrite (249), Red 1, Red 40 (129), Saccharine (954), Sodium sulphite (221), Sorbic acid (200), Sucralose (955), Xylitol (967), Yellow 5 (Tartrazine 102), Yellow 6 (110).

10 Environment chemicals

Ammonium chloride, Benzene, Chlorine, Glycophosphate, Fluoride, Formaldehyde, Deltamethrin, Orris root, Phenol,Toluene.

20 Antibiotics/Anti-inflammatories

Amoxicillin, Ampicillin, Acetaminophen, Naproxen, Cephalosporin C, Gentamicin, Asprin, Clinorol, Neomycin, Nystatin, Diflunisal, Ibuprofen, Penicillin, Steptomycin, Penicillamine, Piroxicam, Sulfamethoxazole, Tetracycline, Indocin and Voltaren.

Intolerance, Sensitives and Inflammation

We know that inflammation of the gut impairs nutrient absorption and food allergy and intolerance is the major cause of inflamed gut syndromes. When inflammation develops as a result of an abnormal trigger and/or becomes chronic that normal tissues can be damaged.  Food intolerance provokes immune mediated vasculitis (inflammation), which causes fluid to leak from your capillaries into surrounding connective tissues and results in water retention.  For example, with ‘leaky gut’:

• Increased permeability of stomach and intestinal lining causing large undigested food molecules to be released into blood stream.
• Immune system sees food molecules as ‘foreign invader’ and mounts cellular response. Sends white cells to destroy undigested food proteins which are now lodged into vascular tissue.
• Cells destroy not only food molecules but surrounding tissue as well.
• This process is your body’s inflammatory response. The body is spending time neutralizing toxins, resulting in slowed metabolism.

Food sensitivity or intolerance may alter your biochemical balance, influencing appetite-controlling hormones like serotonin. This results in abnormal cravings for simple sugars and carbohydrates. Your metabolism is disrupted, resulting in less efficient energy production and increased fat storage.  Dietary lectins which may be resistant to degradation through cooking and digestion occur in numerous vegetables, fruits, grains and some meats. Some lectins can even bind to receptors on mast cells which trigger histamine release similar to that which is seen in classical allergic reactions. This lectin activity is not blood type specific. There is no convincing scientific evidence that blood type is associated with specific food induced pathologies.  Other immune conditions have been associated with food intolerance’s.

The ALCAT Intolerance Test provides a major advantage in understanding what your body needs and doesn’t need to heal itself, it provides a clear road map for anyone to follow to restore good health.

See all of the ALCAT Tests available here.

Have any questions about this test?  Ask one of our qualified health practitioners here.