David, You mentioned that both skin and blood tests for allergies (just foods allergies, or even environmental?) are highly inaccurate. Could you say a bit more about this? I think about this a lot as I have had many tests and supposedly am allergic to various things (e.g., egg white and egg yolk) but have taken it out for periods and added it back in and never noticed a difference. But in the back of my mind is a concern that I shouldn't eat them b/c perhaps they are contributing to an inflammation that I simply can't perceive, or are taxing my immune system. I have autoimmune disease, hence wanting to be as careful as I can, but not more careful than I necessarily need to be. Thanks for helping me better understand the issues with allergy tests. Thank you!

Simply, the skin and blood test are not very accurate especially for foods (see below), I cannot say whether you have an allergy for eggs or not, but if you eat them for a while and have no increase of symptoms, and then don’t eat for for 2 months and have no change, it seems unlikely that are much of an issue for you. Accuracy of Skin Prick Tests SPTs seldom produce “false negatives” (erroneous results indicating that you are not allergic to a food, even though you really are). Negative results almost always mean that you are not allergic to a food. Positive tests, however, are not always accurate. About 50-60 percent of all SPTs yield “false positive” results, meaning that the test shows positive even though you are not really allergic to the food being tested. These results occur for two reasons: When you eat, your digestive system gradually breaks down food proteins into very small pieces. As a result, the allergenic proteins may be so small that the IgE antibodies are unable to detect them, so the food is actually safe for you to eat. But SPTs and blood tests can’t mimic the digestive process. Since food proteins are bigger when they interact with your skin or blood, it is easier for the IgE antibodies to “see” the allergens and attack them. This is why your tests may show that you are more sensitive to a suspect food than you really are. Members of a food “family” often share similar proteins. For example, if you are allergic to peanuts, your tests may show a positive response to other members of the legume family, such as green beans, even if eating green beans has never been a problem for you. This is known as cross-reactivity. The test is positive because it recognizes a similar protein in peanuts and green beans. But the test hasn’t detected the real culprit—another, different protein that is found only in peanuts. Disadvantages of allergy blood tests include: More expensive than skin testing; many health insurers do not cover allergy blood tests. May be less sensitive than skin tests

thank you!