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Functional Medicine · Fullerton, CA

Food Sensitivities Treatment in Fullerton, CA

A food sensitivity panel that looks at IgG or IgA is not an allergy test. Allergy, the IgE kind, is a different medical issue, with different risks. This page explains how those antibodies are discussed, and why an elimination trial is a time-limited experiment you help design, not a lifelong ban from one printout. For patients coming from Fullerton, the office is about 30 miles away, 40–60 minutes, by the 57 south to I-5, or the 57 to the 91 to the 55.

IgG and IgA are not an IgE allergy

IgE allergy can involve hives, swelling, wheezing, or anaphylaxis. That is a medical emergency pattern and belongs with a physician or allergist. IgG and IgA panels ask a quieter question about immune reactivity on a blood test. FRI will not call a high IgG result an allergy.

You might feel bloated, foggy, or achy hours after a meal, with no dramatic swelling. That history can justify a conversation. It does not prove a food is unsafe. Dr. Sani Kohen, D.C. and Dr. Tara Kohen, D.C. start with what you actually eat, not with a ban list.

A panel beside the food you already eat

Food sensitivity testing reports IgG or IgA reactivity to specific foods. A high bar next to a food you never eat is easy to overread. A high bar next to a food you eat daily, followed by symptoms you can time, is more interesting. The panel is a prompt, not a verdict.

Celiac disease, true food allergy, and eosinophilic disease are physician diagnoses. Functional Medicine does not replace that workup. If wheat makes you acutely ill, you need medical evaluation before anyone talks about a sensitivity chart. Bring those records if they exist.

Elimination trials are experiments, not life sentences

If a food is removed, the trial has a start, a length, and a planned return. You track symptoms you named in advance, such as bloating or a rash, rather than every mood of the day. One test does not create a permanent forbidden list.

The gut health page explains when a stool test or a breath test should come before another food list. Pulling foods out while an overgrowth or an inflammatory bowel diagnosis goes unaddressed can make you smaller-plated and no clearer. GI-MAP stool testing is one of those earlier questions when the history fits.

How nutrition follows the experiment

Nutrition and supplementation replaces what you removed so the trial does not become a low-protein, low-fiber accident. There is no brand protocol and no supplement dose here. Foods come back unless a physician has told you they cannot.

Functional medicine at FRI does not replace a primary physician, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, or mental health clinician. Chiropractic Sports Medicine and Neuromuscular Rehabilitation stay available if joint pain, not food, is the reason you came in. A food panel will not be used to explain that pain by default.

What to expect when you are seen for Food Sensitivities

A complimentary 20-minute consultation can decide whether a panel is even useful. FRI is out of network, offers a superbill, and accepts HSA and FSA funds. The schedule is Monday–Thursday, 9–6.

If you test, you review the chart next to a food log. Any elimination is short and planned with a reintroduction. You should not expect a lifelong menu from a single draw.

Fees for a north-county patient

Out of network, superbill, HSA/FSA. The drive is unpaid. We try to earn it by not requiring you to repeat it on a blind weekly schedule. If you are improving, visits thin out. If you are not, we change the plan.

Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen are the clinicians. Use the about page and the office page before the first long drive if seeing the room helps.

Downtown Fullerton, Sunny Hills, and the university

Downtown Fullerton is walkable and social. Sunny Hills and the north streets climb. Cal State Fullerton adds a campus of walking, sitting, and backpacks. The 57 and the 91 decide how the day feels before anyone is injured. Neck pain after that freeway pattern is a common reason to look south. Knee pain in Sunny Hills is often the grade. Headaches get a neck exam and a screen for symptoms that should skip the clinic and go to emergency care.

Students and faculty sometimes want care that understands training, not only pain. Shoulder pain and a movement screen fit that request. We are not the campus health center, and we do not replace it for primary care.

A drive you should only make on purpose

From downtown and the campus, the 57 south to I-5 south is a typical path. From the east side, the 91 west to the 55 south can be cleaner. About 30 miles and 40 to 60 minutes to 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo, CA 92691. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6. If you leave Fullerton at 4, you will sit. Book the earliest slot you can use.

Call (949) 312-1754 before you assume we are the right office. If your problem is urgent primary care, a closer physician is the better hour. If your problem is a stuck spine, a nerve, or a functional medicine question you have not gotten answered, the drive is something patients from Fullerton do make. The free 20-minute consultation can happen before a full workup.

Making fewer trips count

The home plan is the product. McKenzie self-treatment, DNS drills, and a written limit on what to do this week should travel back up the 57 with you. Hands-on care is for the parts you cannot do alone. Disc herniation and sciatica pages explain how we think about those specifically.

Thyroid and fatigue visits are scheduled so the history is not rushed, which matters more when you will not be back tomorrow. The Fullerton chiropractor page gathers the links.

Extra context on Food Sensitivities

Keep a three-day food log with times and the symptom you care about, written before you see any panel. Memory after a positive result is unreliable. You will suddenly remember that a food bothered you because the paper says so. A log made first keeps the experiment honest. Note portions, not just food names, and note alcohol, because a drink can mimic a sensitivity. If you already avoid a long list, bring that list and the reason each food left. Some of those reasons may be ready to retire. Bring the log with you.

Reintroduction is the part people skip, and it is the part that teaches you. Add one food back, in a normal portion, and watch the symptom you named. If nothing happens, the food returns. If a clear symptom returns, you and your physician decide what that means. FRI will not turn a single bad day into a permanent rule. Supplements are not required to make a food trial valid. The point is information you can live with, not a smaller and smaller diet. One clear symptom is enough to track.

Questions patients ask

Is a high IgG result a food allergy?

No. IgE allergy is a different medical issue and can be dangerous. IgG and IgA results are not that diagnosis, and FRI will not treat them as one. Hives, swelling, or trouble breathing need urgent medical care, not a sensitivity panel. Bring any allergist records so the two conversations stay separate.

Do I have to avoid every food that flags?

No. A long ban list from one panel is not the plan. FRI looks at what you eat, which symptoms you can time, and which results are noise. An elimination trial, if you choose one, is discussed with you and has an end. Foods are reintroduced unless your physician has a medical reason to keep one out.

Should I do a stool test first?

Sometimes. If bloating, diarrhea, or constipation dominates, a GI-MAP or a breath test may answer a clearer question than another food list. The gut health page lays out that choice. A sensitivity panel is not the default first kit. You should hear why this test was picked over the others.

Can food sensitivity testing explain joint pain?

Maybe as a hypothesis, not as a conclusion. Joint pain has mechanical causes that Chiropractic Sports Medicine and Neuromuscular Rehabilitation are built to examine. A food panel does not replace that exam, and it does not replace rheumatology if you have an autoimmune diagnosis. Functional medicine at FRI does not replace those clinicians.

Related care for Fullerton

Food Sensitivities is handled at the Mission Viejo clinic, not in a satellite office in Fullerton. The related pages below stay on that same visit and add the methods or neighboring problems that usually come up in the history.

  • Fullerton chiropractor

    How people from Fullerton reach 26400 La Alameda and what the three pillars cover.

  • Food Sensitivities clinical overview

    The non-geographic condition page, if you want the clinic-wide explanation without the drive.

  • Functional Medicine

    The pillar this problem sits in at Functional Restoration Institute.

  • Gut Health in this city

    Digestion problems rarely arrive as one tidy symptom. Bloating, stool changes, and food reactions can travel together or take turns. This page.

  • Leaky Gut in this city

    People say leaky gut when they mean the gut barrier might be letting more through than it should. The plainer name is.

  • SIBO in this city

    Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth means microbes are fermenting food higher up than they should, which can bring bloating, gas, and stool changes..

  • Chronic Inflammation in this city

    Inflammation is a process your body uses, not a personality and not a mood. It can be useful while you heal and.

  • Food Sensitivity Testing

    Food sensitivity testing at Functional Restoration Institute looks at IgG and IgA antibodies to foods. It is not an allergy test, and.

Talk with the doctors before you commit to care

The complimentary 20-minute consultation is at 26400 La Alameda, Suite 100, Mission Viejo. Call (949) 312-1754.

Functional Restoration Institute serves patients across Orange County from our Mission Viejo clinic, including Fullerton and surrounding Orange County communities.