If you’ve ever eaten something that made you feel ill but didn’t quite cause a classic allergic reaction, then you may have felt compelled to take a food sensitivity test. After all, finding out what’s causing you to feel crappy could help improve your quality of life and make enjoying your meals much simpler, right? Well, sure. But there’s a catch.
The problem is that food sensitivity kits might not be worth your time, money, and the potential risks to your health they may pose through misdiagnosis. There’s no solid proof that food sensitivity tests work just as there is no clear definition of food sensitivity in the first place. So why aren’t food sensitivity kits your best option, and what should you do instead?
The Age of Self-Diagnosis
Historically, doctors have been treated with reverence and deferred to for their authority, being the only people with in-depth knowledge of complicated illnesses, allergies, and the workings of the human body. As the average citizen has become more informed and health information has appeared online, however, people have become less reliant on healthcare professionals to manage their health concerns, causing a worrying trend of self-diagnosis.
In a world where people can find out their genetic background using a self-service test, people are becoming more confident in assessing their own health. Unfortunately, this means that lots of people with no training are comfortable with developing their own diagnoses after a few minutes or hours of web browsing whereas a doctor spends over a decade in school learning about human health.
The internet offers a wealth of information, but sometimes too much of a good thing can be bad. There’s no filter or quality control online, and anyone can post health facts, even people who have never spent a day in medical school.
This means that there’s a lot of misleading or purely incorrect information out there that’s presented as the truth. It’s far too easy to misdiagnose your own or your children’s ailments and reactions, which can lead to serious health consequences. Food sensitivity kits can easily lead to misdiagnosis simply because they aren’t all that accurate.
Realize Your Family’s Health Is at Risk
If you’re tempted to use food sensitivity kits for your family, it’s important to understand the dangers of self-diagnosis when it comes to food reactions. Allergies can be extremely complex and some can be life-threatening. When you rely on methods like home testing, you could be putting yourself or your family at risk.
Diagnosing a food allergy involves a visit to an allergist and may or may not involve a skin or blood test. During the appointment, you will go over you or your child’s health history and explain any symptoms you’ve noticed after eating. The allergist will take that information and perform any necessary tests before providing a diagnosis. The process is safe and may save you from a great deal of discomfort and risk.
Better Safe Than Sorry
Food allergies are not unusual. Around 7.6% of children are affected by them to varying degrees of severity. Diagnosing food allergies early is important for preventing problems later on and for avoiding exposure that could cause life-threatening allergic reactions. It’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to diagnosis.
If you or your child notice that something is off after you eat a meal, then it may be time to see your healthcare provider instead of ordering a food sensitivity kit. Your family doctor will be able to refer you to an allergist if necessary after making sure nothing else is wrong. It also could be a case of minor food poisoning, but again, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Leave Diagnoses to the Professionals
While it might not seem necessary to visit a doctor if you’re not showing classic signs of an allergic reaction, it really is best to leave the job of diagnosing your problem to the experts. A food sensitivity kit may be convenient, but it’s simply not a reliable way of getting a diagnosis.
After you’ve visited with a healthcare professional and gotten the necessary testing done, you should have all the information you need to change your habits in order to improve your health. Working with a dietician to work around certain foods that cause problems for you and your children is a great way to ensure that you’re eating a healthy, balanced diet that makes you feel great.
Food issues can be complex and affect your life in many ways. Don’t leave anything up to chance!