Allergy and intolerance are often confused, or thought of as similar conditions, when in reality they are very different. Allergy is an immediate, sometimes dangerous or life-threatening reaction to a food or drink. This is often present from a young age and always involves the antibody type IgE. Intolerance can be developed later in life and takes longer for symptoms to present themselves, making it more difficult to pinpoint the culprit food(s). Testing can be beneficial to discover the trigger foods and drinks quicker. With suspected food allergy, always seek profesional medical help.

Some Health Insurance Providers will cover the costs. Contact your provider for more info.

We test for over 350 types of food, including wheat, eggs, nuts, etc. We also test for over 350 non-food items, like pet hair pollen and detergents. If you need a full list, get in touch and we can get you one.

We dont test anybody under the age of six.

Optimum nutrition during pregnancy and breastfeeding is vital for mother and child. To reduce any possible risk to the mother or baby, it’s Intolerance Lab’s protocol not to offer tests, advice or lifestyle changes during pregnancy and/or breastfeeding.

The tests are as painful as plucking a hair from your body..

Your hair does not have to come from your head. It can come from your leg, arm, or even chest.

This will not have any effect on the results.

No. Our tests examine your hair at the cellular level, so there’s no need for you to have been eating your trigger foods recently. They will still be found by our testing equipment.

These two tests are very different in what is tested, the process and the results. A blood test checks for IgE-mediated allergies and will only produce results listing reactions in the immunoglobulin system (these are estimated at only 2% of all allergies). Our hair sample test examines changes at the cellular level because the latest science shows that up to 43% of allergies are in fact a reaction in T cells. The two tests measure totally different reactions and will produce totally different results.

We only offer hair sampling here at Intolerance Lab. Currently, the main way to identify the two types of allergies (IgE and Non-IgE) is on the reaction time from consuming or being in contact with the item. If you notice a reaction that is almost instant or within two hours (max), you would normally consult with your GP and he or she might consider a blood test. These are normally essential for more serious allergies—which, fortunately, only account for 2% of all allergies. If your reaction time is slower or you are unable to identify the link between your symptoms then it is more than likely you have a non IgE mediated allergy. In this instance, we would recommend our hair based non IgE mediated allergy test.