I would like to share my experience with having an LRA test done. I don't see it discussed here so I thought I would add my experience so others may be informed.

Recently I had a referral to a doctor for PRP therapy on my right knee. The doctor runs a "Regenerative Medicine" practice and wanted to run a series of tests before he would agree to the PRP therapy. I was fine with that as I always like having more information.

One of the tests was the "Lymphocyte Response Assay". This test revealed some interesting finds. It showed that my immune system reacted to 14 common foods and environmental factors. Two of witch I recognized as problem foods from prior experience. I have since removed the 14 items from my diet and environment and have not had a flare up.

Next week I am having blood drawn for a more comprehensive version of the LRA test to determine if there are more foods that I may react to.

Now this isn't cheap. My medical insurance does not cover "Regenerative Medicine" so I pay out of pocket. The cost of my medical tests have passed to $2K mark. However stopping flareups which have been ruining my vision and destroying my joints makes it quite worth it.

I'm not advocating you run out and run up a huge bill on medical test. I just want to share my experience with the LRA and it seems to be the only valuable medical test I have had done in decades.

Sounds interesting. Just curious what your 14 foods were.

They weren't all foods. Some of them were chemicals.

I had a strong reaction to apple, basil, cranberry, and current. A moderate reaction to lobster, apricot, lima beans, beets, honey, plum, red #40, dichloromethane, silicone, and ethylene dibromide.

The apple one is a real killer. I was practically force fed apples as a child. I believe if I had this information when I was 5 I could have changed my life substantially.

That is interesting. I was expecting you to say something like gluten, potatoes, corn - you know, starch.

Those sound very specific and easier to eliminate.

I don't think the LRA would show starch per say because it is not a direct stimulant for the immune system. Dr. Alan Ebringer theorized that Klebsiella pnemonia fed on starch and that KP's lipid shells would get into the blood stream causing an anti-body response.

I think what is going on here with the LRA is it identifies which substance stimulate an anti-body response. It shows which substances activated lymphocytes which includes B Cells. B Cells of course produce antibodies so that could trigger a flareup by dumping KP antibodies into the blood stream where they would then cause damage.

That is my novice rational for the disease model any way and should not be viewed as anything more than a poor schlub's attempt to make sense of the disease with limited hard evidence to work with.

So can you eat starches otherwise without issue as long as you avoid your specific substances?

I am not re-adding starches back into my diet. The theorized disease path for starch is different than the substances identified by the LRA test.

So starch has a disease path like this:

1) Starch enters digestive system.
2) From the digestive track bacteria consumes the starch creating growth
3) Bacterial shells enter the blood stream through the intestine walls
4) Immune system reacts to bacterial shells in blood stream, producing damaging antibodies.
5) Inflammation and cell death and damage ensues

In this model starch never enters the blood stream.

The substances in the LRA would have a disease path like this:

1) Apple enters digestive system.
2) Apple chemicals enter blood stream.
3) Immune system reacts to apple in blood stream, producing broad spectrum of antibodies including damaging antibodies.
4) Inflammation and cell death and damage ensues

So in short, I don't think the LRA can tell you if it is safe to eat starch. I think it can only tell you what food your immune system reacts to directly. Indirect retractions would now show up in the test results

So, eliminate the starches and *also the items identified by the LRA response assay and, bingo. One should have nailed it. If still any problems then look to red meat, cut down or eliminate.
Way to go. Well done. Matter cracked !

Today I got the results back from a second LRA test that I purchased to test another 100 items. To my surprise they retested about 150 of the same items in my first test and the results surprise me. My first test was done on May 11th the second test was done on July 16th so there was a two month period of me elliminating the 14 reactive items from the first test.

Latest test showed I was highly reactive to:
Cashew
Date
Milk, Raw (Cow)
Sulfite/Metabisulfite
Macadamia

Moderately reactive to:
Carrot
Cola
Lobster
Blueberry
Papaya
Cheese/Milk (Goat)
Dill
Artichoke
Gum, Acacia

Here is what is strange though. Cashew, Blueberry, Carrot, Cola, Dill, and Papaya where tested in the first test and did not react. Apple, Basil, Cranberry, Currant, Apricot, Lima Bean, and Honey where testing in both tests, but only reacted in the first test. Lobster was the only item that was consistent on both reports.

I think this shows that the LRA is a moving target. Just because your immune system reacts to one food doesn't mean that after changing your diet it won't start reacting to different foods as you body adapts.

I still haven't had any flareups after my first diet adjustments. I believe most people who use this test to aid in controlling autoimmune disease have it run on a regular basis. At this time I am considering having the comprehensive test run every 6 months so I can re-tune my diet.

It is looking like meat is the safest food group for me with only lobster reacting and almost all the other items originating from plant or dairy sources.

So take this information for what it is worth. I'm still in the process of evaluating the effectiveness of using the LRA as a disease management aid and so far my results seem to be positive even though this latest test surprises me.

Does A.S. causes peridontal disease?

It has never been associated with it but there is a research paper that implicates it is the root cause of AS.

do you have a link to the paper?