Diet Wise Academy

Testing For Allergies 229

Since then, methods have slowly improved. The technique is simple
but depends for accuracy upon a high standard of laboratory technique and
even then could not be said to be accurate.
White blood cells are separated by centrifuging, placed on a
microscope slide chamber and mixed with about 10 mg of food extract.
The sample is then observed at intervals over the next two hours and the
effect of the food extract on the white cells is noted.
Healthy white cells are mobile and exhibit amoeba-like behavior.
On contact with an allergen however the cells lose their mobility and
become rounded in shape. Cytoplasmic granules become sluggish and cease
to stream. Eventually, damaged cells rupture and die. Hence the name for
this procedure which is cyto (cell)... toxic (damaging).
Results are typically reported as red foods (do not eat); orange
foods (eat only occasionally); and green foods (safe to eat).

Scaling

It is customary to grade reactions from 0 to 4, depending on
severity of damage, observing the following changes:
0 reduction or loss of amoeboid movement
1 intracellular stasis (slow-down or stop-page)
2 rounding and distortion of cell contour
3 vacuolation (the appearance of tiny vacuoles, or cavities)
4 cell lysis (bursting open)
Dr. Damien Downing, who first introduced this method into
the UK, claims that it has an 80 per cent accuracy. There are many critics
however, even among clinical ecologists, who do not take these claims
seriously and who point to many well-conducted trials which show that the
method is virtually useless. Cytotoxic testing appeared to suffer a mortal
blow to its credibility when, for a stunt, journalists sent blood from the
same person on the same day and received two widely different reports on
the fake patient’s sensitivities.
The real difficulty with the test, in common with many other
methods, is that it rests in the final analysis on human interpretation rather
than objective measurement. This isn’t so bad as long as each laboratory is
at least consistent with its own standards. But it may, on occasion, lead to
patchy quality in results, which can be very misleading for the patient.