MRT is Your BEST Option for Food Sensitivity Testing

For More Information Contact:
Jill Arsenault, DNH
772-359-8595

Advanced & Comprehensive
State of the art technology
Awarded multiple international patents
Accounts for the most mediator releasing pathways
Identifies reactions to both foods and food-chemicals

Accurate & Reliable
The highest reported accuracy of any food sensitivity blood test Sensitivity: 94.5%
Specificity: 92.7%
Consistently > 90% split sample reproducibility

Functional & Physiologic
Correlates with proinflammatory and proalgesic mediator release better than any other food sensitivity blood test

How does the MRT compare with Viome?

People often ask me how MRT is different from Viome. Viome is a microbiome test — it looks at gene expression of bacteria in your gut using a stool sample.

MRT is completely different. It’s a blood test that measures how your white blood cells respond when exposed to specific foods and food chemicals. So instead of looking at bacteria, MRT is evaluating your immune system’s inflammatory response.

They’re answering two different questions.

If you are curious about your microbiome activity, Viome focuses there. If you want to understand how your immune system reacts to specific foods, that’s what MRT is designed to measure. Both tests provide valuable information, but changing your diet to reflect healthy food choices will give the bacteria in your microbiome a reset, too.

What Are Food Sensitivities?
Food sensitivities make a person feel sick because the immune system reacts to foods and causes the release of chemicals called mediators (such as histamine, prostaglandins, cytokines, etc. – there are 100s of them) from white blood cells. Mediators cause the inflammation, pain, and other symptoms associated with food sensitivities. In fact, food sensitivity is a very complex reaction by the immune system. There are many different cells that have different profiles of mediators, many mechanisms that cause mediators to be released, and of course, many different mediators. Food sensitivities are very complicated because there are various ways the immune system can respond in hypersensitivity. Because there are different ways the immune system can respond, there are different approaches researchers have tried to identify reactive foods and chemicals.

ELISA IgG:
This test quantifies how much IgG one is producing to a specific food, with the assumption that high levels of IgG have a negative effect on the body. There is a specific type of immune reaction called Type 3 Hypersensitivity that can involve IgG or another antibody called IgM. When IgG is involved in triggering mediator release, this testing will be very helpful. Unfortunately, there are three very serious limitations of IgG testing: 1. High levels of IgG can be either beneficial (suppressing an immune response) or detrimental(causing an immune response). But one cannot tell which is beneficial IgG or which is detrimental IgG through IgG testing. So just because a patient has a high level to a particular food, this may actually be beneficial not detrimental. 2. IgG only plays a minor role in IBS, migraine, and fibromyalgia. Instead, research shows that Type 4 Hypersensitivity is the primary type of reaction involved in these conditions. Type 4 Hypersensitivity doesn’t involve IgG or any other antibodies. It only involves the release of mediators from white blood cells (cell-mediated hypersensitivity). 3. IgG testing cannot identify reactions to chemicals like food additives. It’s clearly documented that food chemicals play a very important role in provoking symptoms in many conditions. If one cannot identify these reactions, a test may be missing very important information that can impact patients’ health.

How MRT Compares to IgG:
There are a number of advantages of MRT over any form of IgG testing. MRT is an endpoint test, meaning that all the immune based adverse reactions end up causing mediator release. So MRT measures this without regard to the mechanism. In fact MRT takes into account the actions of all mechanisms, whether they are antibodies or other, because all of them ultimately cause white blood cells to release mediators. MRT is able to account for a much wider array of reactions than the relatively simple IgG testing. In addition, MRT is able to identify reactions to chemicals. Overall, MRT is more accurate and useful clinically.