Antibodies that are not an allergy panel
Allergy testing looks for IgE and for reactions that can be immediate and dangerous. This panel looks at IgG and IgA, which are different antibodies and a different conversation. A positive line here does not mean you will have anaphylaxis, and a negative line does not prove a food is safe if you already know it swells your throat. Emergency reactions belong with an allergist, not with this report.
Food sensitivity testing is a hypothesis generator. Dr. Tara Kohen treats a high antibody as a food to trial, not as a sentence. Food sensitivities people can feel as headache, bloating, skin changes, or a next-day slump are delayed and muddy. The lab tries to shorten the guesswork. It does not replace noticing what your body does when the food returns.
A list is a hypothesis
The report can light up foods you eat every day. That is common, and it is also why the list cannot be obeyed as a lifestyle magazine. Daily foods are the ones your immune system has seen most. Some of those lines matter. Some are noise from exposure. The only way to sort them is to remove a short list and watch symptoms, then bring foods back one at a time.
Headache that seems tied to meals is one reason to consider the panel. Gut health complaints are another. A panel ordered because a friend had one, with no symptom that food might explain, is a weak reason. The history picks the question. The kit does not pick the patient.
Elimination beside the lab, then foods come back
FRI uses the report next to an elimination trial, not instead of one. A few foods come out for a defined stretch. The stretch has an end. During it, the rest of the diet should stay fed and boring enough that you can tell what changed. Removing twenty foods at once makes the trial unreadable and hard to live with. Dr. Sani Kohen would rather test three honest removals than a heroic menu nobody keeps.
Reintroduction is the part that makes the trial clinical. One food returns, in a normal portion, with a couple of quiet days to watch. A clear symptom return supports leaving it out for a while longer. No symptom means it can stay, even if the antibody was high. Antibodies can fall as exposure falls. They are not a tattoo. Nutrition and supplementation may help the trial stay nutritionally sane, without a product pitch.
What the panel will not ban forever
A permanent ban list is how people end up afraid of food and short on nutrients. The goal is the smallest set of limits that actually changes symptoms, reviewed later. Many foods return. A few may stay out longer if every reintroduction repeats the symptom. That is a practical limit, not an identity.
The sample is often a small blood collection, arranged with the kit instructions. The lab fee is additional and is named as such before you order. Review visits often run 30 to 60 minutes depending on the plan. A free 20-minute consultation can decide if antibodies are worth drawing. The office is out of network, accepts HSA and FSA cards, and provides a superbill for the clinical visit.
What a Food Sensitivity Testing visit is like
Expect the report to be translated into a short removal list and a calendar for bringing foods back. You will not be asked to memorize dozens of red bars. You will be asked to track a few symptoms you already have, in plain language, so the trial has an outcome besides the lab.
If you have had a true allergic reaction, wheezing, throat tightness, or a prior anaphylaxis, say so before any reintroduction. Those foods are not experimented with here. The trial is for delayed, non-emergency symptoms. Anything that sounds like an emergency is an emergency, not a line on an IgG report.
Lake loops, youth sports, and the Oso corridor
Mission Viejo's body load is local. The Lake Mission Viejo path is flat and popular, which makes it a useful test: pain that shows up on that loop is not a hill problem. Marguerite Parkway and Olympiad Road are where a lot of the driving and the school traffic actually happen. Saddleback College and the commercial strips along Crown Valley add standing and sitting in the same afternoon. Florence Joyner Olympiad and the sports parks mean a city full of youth sports parents who also sit for work. We ask which of those you did this week.
Because you live here, follow-up is easy to schedule and easy to waste. A plan that depends on you coming in forever is a weak plan. We would rather teach you the movement or the drill that belongs to your actual week, whether that is a lake walk, a desk on La Paz, or a weekend tournament at one of the parks. Lower back pain and neck pain are the complaints we hear most from this pattern.
Finding the suite if you already live in town
26400 La Alameda is on the La Alameda corridor in Mission Viejo, Suite 100. If you are coming from the lake, it is a short cross-town drive, not a freeway project. Parking is at the building. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6. People who work in Irvine or Santa Ana and live here often want the first appointment or the last. Say which commute you are protecting. Call (949) 312-1754.
The complimentary 20-minute consultation is available even if you can see the building from your errands. It is a conversation about fit. It is not a treatment and it is not a membership pitch. If you already know you want an evaluation, book that instead so we have time to test movement rather than only talk about it.
Using all three pillars without leaving the city
Chiropractic Sports Medicine in this office means assessment plus the tool that fits: adjustment, joint mobilization, Active Release, McKenzie Method, or tape and cups when they serve the plan. Neuromuscular Rehabilitation means DNS, neurodynamics, and corrective exercise after the exam, not a random circuit.
Functional Medicine is for the problems that do not yield to a joint exam alone: thyroid questions, gut symptoms, perimenopause, sleep, and energy. Labs such as DUTCH and GI-MAP are selected from the history. The Mission Viejo chiropractor page is the local hub, and the office page shows the rooms.
Questions patients ask
Is this the same as an allergy test?
No. Allergy tests involve IgE and immediate reactions. This panel is IgG and IgA. A dangerous food reaction still belongs with an allergist, regardless of this report.
Do I avoid every positive food forever?
No. Positives are a short trial list. Foods come back unless reintroduction clearly repeats a symptom. The report is not a permanent ban.
Why remove only a few foods?
A huge elimination is impossible to interpret and hard to nourish. A few foods, watched carefully, tell you more than a month of guessing.
Can a high antibody be wrong?
It can be noise from frequent exposure. That is why the trial exists. A number that does not match a symptom change does not earn a lifelong rule.
Related methods and problems for Mission Viejo
Food Sensitivity Testing is one tool inside Functional Medicine. It is not booked as a standalone trick disconnected from the exam. These links are the neighboring methods and the problems that most often lead someone from Mission Viejo to ask about it.
- Food Sensitivity Testing overview
The clinic-wide technique page, without a city attached.
- Mission Viejo chiropractor
Drive, neighborhoods, and the rest of the care offered to Mission Viejo patients.
- Functional Medicine
The pillar this method belongs to.
- GI-MAP Stool Testing
GI-MAP is a stool test that uses a PCR-style method to ask about microbes, including possible pathogens, and about selected markers of.
- Nutrition & Supplementation
Nutrition at Functional Restoration Institute starts with food. A supplement is added only when a lab or a clear clinical question calls.
- SIBO Breath Testing
A SIBO breath test measures hydrogen and methane in the breath after you drink a substrate, either lactulose or glucose. A rise.
- Functional Lab Testing
Functional lab testing is the visit where the history chooses a lab, instead of a cart of kits. DUTCH, a GI-MAP stool.
- Food Sensitivities in this city
A food sensitivity panel that looks at IgG or IgA is not an allergy test. Allergy, the IgE kind, is a different.
