I’ve been killing myself trying to figure out what’s going on with my gut. I have a sensitivity to SOMETHING but elimination diets aren’t pinpointing the source. Has anyone used one of these type of tests? My doctor said it’s a scam but I figured the internet wouldn’t, no… COULDN’T lie to me. Thanks Lemmings!
Because my throat is inflamed and food is getting stuck and the allergist I spoke to as well as the gastroenterologist told me the skin tests wouldn’t do anything. The allergist I spoke to didn’t mention these blood tests I’m now referring to so I wasn’t sure if it was legit or not or if others have had similar experiences.
What you’re describing sounds a lot like eosinophilic esophagitis which indeed generally cannot be tested with the skin prick test (though the skin prick test can sometimes work, lack of allergens found in a skin prick test does not guarantee that your esophagus will not react to those allergens).
The best option is changing your diet to experimentally narrow down allergens. You can do it somewhat like a binary search though I don’t think medical professionals will recommend that since it can lead to malnutrition. I’ve been recommended to sequentially eliminate common allergens by doctors, which is a safer option.
To address the original question, blood tests for allergens (assuming they work) would have the same limitations as a skin prick test (the flaw of any general test for a localised problem). Though I suspect a blood test would work a lot less well because it’s no longer connected to your immune system, which is responsible for allergy response.