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Comment by ferros | Hacker News Reader

For something that is so central to our day to day lives and our health and well-being, it doesn’t feel like there is enough focus on what goes into our gut.

By that I mean the number of people that test for allergies and intolerance feels low when you consider the potential payoff.

Just knowing that avoiding certain foods your body doesn’t tolerate can massively improve your quality of life if you are indeed intolerant.

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Very true, my wife discovered by accident 10 years ago she is fructose intolerant, didn't know before about it, and was basically always in pain as her family was focused on eating healthy by eating lots of fruit...

One of the most under-diagnosed conditions, very hard to figure out by yourself as fructose is everywhere. Staying down below maybe 5g/day for a few days to see the difference requires research. Doing a challenge at the doctor takes a day time and doctors have little awareness to push patients in that direction. Likely as they have little experience due to the treatment being purely nutritional awareness and discipline.

I'm fructose intolerant too, and when I discovered it, and I adjusted my diet accordingly, my life changed for the better.

Probably your wife knows about it but just in case, I've found a great relief in the low fodmap diet by Monash University.

I can not digest fructose, but what helps me is having glucose with every meal eating out, Being intolerant to fructose can also lead to depression if undiagnosed.

As someone who discovered their celiac disease late in life despite having onerous symptoms I wholeheartedly agree.

How long did it take for you to get rid of the symptoms completely (if ever)?

Asking cause similar case here, however, my symptoms have not gone completely despite being strictly GF for 2+ years now (my ttg iga levels are consistently below 4 units/ml).

Not the person you replied to, but took about 6 months for me the first time. After being "poisoned" by gluten a couple of times over the years, I tend to have symptoms for a month and then all gone within two. I am in the group who gets dermatitis rather than digestive symptoms though (though I also discovered in the process that onions give me the latter so I cut them out too!)

Maybe you should test if you have any other fodmap intolerance.

Monash University is doing a terrific job about it, and their 'Low FODMAP Diet' is the first approach working for me in almost a decade.

Yeah, just read about this recently. But man is following a low FODMAP diet hard!

Absolutely but the Monash app helps with the process, at least in my case.

I'm curious about what testing technology you trust. To diagnose celiac my doctor used TTG IGA values followed by an endoscopy to confirm villous atrophy.

I also recently got a Food intolerance IGG test and a LOT of things were marked red, however, I'm not sure I trust all food intolerance test technologies. Have to read up on this more before I start taking it super seriously (like I do with gluten).

You're right, not all food intolerance tests are the same. For example lactose intolerance tests are pretty accurate but fructose intolerance tests are not as reliable, and need more studies.

I got the full experience: endoscopy, colonoscopy, allergies (skin tests), celiac test, lactose test, fructose test, etc.

It feels a bit like the sea in that respect. Forms a massive part of the world, both in area, depth, biodiversity and climate and we know relatively vert little.

Speaking on this topic, is there any efficient way to figure out which foods bother you? Because sometimes I get headaches/digestive issues, but meals are typically so complicated and vary so much that its uncertain what caused the problem. I wish there was like a documented "top 10" or even a "top 100" common bad food reactions. Testing ingredients one by one seems ... tedious.

Cooking for yourself exclusively is a challenging but good start, as you will know exactly what went into it.

"top 10" might be the big 8 allergens plus celiac and the concepts of fodmap and glycemic index & load.

I'm also wondering this. I got sick with a stomach bug a few months ago (not covid) and since then i have a tremendous amount of gas (from both ends). It starts about 5min after i start eating and gradually gets less as the hours go on until i eat again, although it picks up again when i haven't eaten anything in a while too. I can't figure it out. I haven't changed my diet at all from before and after i got stick to start it. I've tried cutting out dairy and also just going straight fruits and veggies with at least a week between each change but no luck. I also tried going on a probiotic diet for a while to try and cycle through and replenish good bacteria. I'm noticeably tired too which is probably because i'm not properly digesting the food to get the required energy from it.

Look up SIBO. Talk to your doctor. Get the breath test.

Hmmm interesting, thanks for the lead! Although i don't have any pain or any of the other symptoms, just the gas.

It can be a good idea to start with a low "FODMAP" and then gradually add stuff to your diet again.

What's a good array of tests to get? I feel like I need something more if I have to go to my family doctor and just ask them to "test my gut" ...

If you ask your doctor about testing for potential "food intolerance", I imagine they'll know what you're interested in. Many (most?)tests will cover an array of foods and/or food groups with a single blood test.

Are allergy tests actually a effective? I read they were a scam

Prick testing works pretty well right, I mean you can see if your immune system reacts to the different things. Where did you read it was a scam?

Some direct-to-consumer tests are a scam

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/everlywell-at-home-lab-test...

That really depends. My understanding is that ones where they take some of your blood to do a sensitivity test aren’t real science, but the ones where they prick your skin with a bunch of allergens are. I’ve had the latter done by a real doctor in a real hospital and had real medical treatment done as a result of it.

I've been for skin prick allergy testing.

It accurately identified an allergy I knew I had.

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