I am a GP working in Johannesburg South Africa
Unlike the people tampering with the Wikipedia web page for the ALCAT [[1]], I am not afraid to use my name when making editorial contributions
This test is controversial only because people with vested interests in other commercially available blood allergy tests continue to deny its effectiveness, and they will go to any lengths it seems to discredit ALCAT
Obviously they fear the competition it offers in this market, and correctly so
There is no proof that this test does not correctly, accurately and reproducibly identify foods and chemicals that are causing people problems. I have repeatedly tried to obtain this mythical evidence but I have been told by the co-author of anti ALCAT several articles developed in the 1990's himself that the studies just do not exist, have been discarded or lost
Unfortunately these unscrupulous individuals are well connected in the allergy community, and are obviously very motivated. I am sure I know why....
A recent reply to a letter in the South African Medical Journal that I wrote remains unpublished but I copy it below for anyone interested to read it - you will understand what I mean:
Misconceptions about the ALCAT Test
To the editor:
The ALCAT Test is under attack. Since March this year, ALCAT has been discredited in the SAMJ (1), on ALLSA’s website (27) and in a libelous article in the widely read GP journal UPDATE (26) .
The quoted South African bibliography (2,3,4,5) is made up of wrongly conceived opinions formed without clinical evidence. ALCAT has been examined in South Africa ONLY for its reproducibility (13, 14). Dr Harris Steinman admitted to me, in a recorded phone call last year, that there is no record of any trials supporting these papers.
Steinman’s name appears on all four papers (2,3,4,5) . He submitted several complaints to ASASA (19,20,21) against ALCAT in 2007, made because of “unsubstantiated” claims on our website. Steinman is the obvious architect of this comprehensive attack on ALCAT, and Dr Kling’s misguided letter. I recognize Kling’s phrases as being quoted verbatim from Steinman’s complaints against us to ASASA last year (19,20,21) .
An internet Google search on “Harris Steinman” and will show Steinman to have close and extensive ties with various companies that make and market South Africa’s allergy tests – ALCAT’s “opposition” apparently.
ALLSA too, openly promotes Phadia’s / LabSpec’s products, with convenient hyper links facilitating direct access to LabSpec from the homepage of their website. ALLSA, a public non profit medical entity (there for the greater good of all South Africans, one assumes) denigrates one test and openly advocates another.
As for Kling’s comments regarding ALCAT’s predictive value in identifying triggers for IBS (6,7,8,9,15,26) , eczema (6,17,24,26) and asthma (17,26) – ALCAT only tests for delayed allergies (7,10,11,14,16,17,18,25) , not diseases. A quick look at the “ALCAT Guidance Notes” (22) will reveal (to those who want to see) that ALCAT essentially adopts that most basic of allergic principles: “identify and avoid the allergen, and the symptoms and disease caused by the resultant allergic reaction will improve or disappear”. Any person evaluating ALCAT needs to use the test result in our dietary process to determine ALCAT’s efficacy as a diagnostic or therapeutic exercise.
Steinman’s letter (13) , written in February 2005, after all of these papers were concocted, reports “the 2 patients with gastrointestinal symptoms had a dramatic improvement in their symptoms following an elimination diet constructed with the help of ALCAT. The other subjects were not subjected to any other dietary intervention”. So Steinman admits that only 2 of the 12 patients tested in ALCAT’s 1994 reproducibility trial, actually underwent anything close to the recommended ALCAT dietary process. So how was ALCAT ever “evaluated”?
We test for so many foods Dr Kling, because you need to eat only “safe” or non reactive foods to achieve the optimum therapeutic result. Testing less than 100 foods makes food choices very difficult, and poor compliance will negate the therapeutic effect of the ALCAT dietary system.
As for our hoodwinking people into buying our expensive test - ALCAT’s cost per item tested is R25 – less than a quarter of the tariff charged for standard food allergy tests at the larger commercial laboratories in South Africa. We try to make the price of the test known to everyone verbally, and by fax and email (23), and it is displayed on our website too. Would you take a medical test these days without first determining its cost? I think not.
ALCAT has been helping people, often where “conventional” or “orthodox” allergic methods have repeatedly failed, in over 20 countries worldwide since 1986. Anyone truly dedicated to helping people with allergies (and the “purpose statement” on ALLSA’s website would have us believe that its members are) should put the carefully promoted deceptions of the past behind them, and take another good hard look at this very useful test.
Dr John Pridgeon Medical Consultant ALCAT South Africa
Correspondence to johnpridgeon@mweb.co.za
1. Allergy Society of South Africa. ALCAT and IgG allergy and intolerance tests. 2007: S Afr Med J 98: 167.
2. O’Keefe E, Steinman HA, Potter PC, O’Keefe S. Evaluation of the ALCAT test in reactions to food in the Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Poster: South African Gastroenterological Society Annual Congress, October 1993.
3. Pitt A, Bateman ED, Steinman H, Potter PC. Lack of correlation between self-reported food intolerance, food challenge testing and results of the ALCAT system in chronic adult asthmatics (abstract). Current Allergy & Clinical Immunology 1994; 7(3): 7.
4. Pitt A, Bateman ED, Steinman H, Potter PC. Lack of correlation between self-reported food intolerance, food challenge testing and results of the ALCAT system in chronic adult asthmatics. Allergy Society of South Africa Annual Congress. 1994;October
5. Potter PC, Mullineux J, Weinberg EG, et al.The ALCAT test – inappropriate in testing for food allergy in clinical practice. S Afr Med J 1992; 81(7): 384.
6. Høj L. Food Intolerance in Patients with Angiodema and Chronic Urticaria an Investigation by RAST and ALCAT Test. Eur J Aller Clin Immun 1995; 50:Supp No 26.
7. Høj L. Diagnostic value of ALCAT test in intolerance to food additives compared with double blind placebo controlled (DBPC) oral challenges. J Alleg Clin Immun 1996: No 1, part 3.
8. Sandberg DH, Gastrointestinal Complaints Related to Diet. Intl Paediatrics. 1190: Vol5: No1:23-29.
9. Sandberg DH, Beck H, Pasula MJ. ALCAT: A new blood test for food sensitivities. The Annual William Beaumont Gastrointestinal Symposium, October 1985. Published in the proceedings.
10. Pasula MJ. A Possible New Whole Blood Assay for Delayed Hypersensitivity Reaction. AMT CE Supp. July, 1988:178-179.
11. Pasula MJ. The ALCAT test: in vitro procedure for determining food sensitivities. Folia Med Cracov. 1993;34(1-4):153-7.
12. Neetling WML, Kachelhoffer AM. Reproducibility of the Antigen Leucocyte Cellular Antibody Test (ALCAT). Study conducted by the University of the Orange Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Jan – April, 1998.
13. Steinman H. Reproducibility of the ALCAT system. Letter to Dr Ian Shapkaitz. Feb 1995.
14. Evaluation of the cytotoxic food test and the ALCAT (antigen leukocyte cellular antibody test). Pol Merkuriusz Lek. 1997 Feb;2(8):154-9.
15. Sandberg DH, Gastrointestinal Complaints Related to Diet. Intl Paediatrics. 1190: Vol5: No1:23-29.
16. Solomon, B., The ALCAT Test - a Guide and Barometer in the Therapy of Environmental and Food Sensitivities, Environmental Medicine, Vol 9, No 2, pp 54-59.
17. Buczylko K, Obarzanowski T, Rosiak K, Staskiewicz G, Fiszer A, Chmielewski S, Kowalczyk J. ; Prevalence of food allergy and intolerance in children based on MAST CLA and ALCAT tests. Rocz Akad Med Bialymst. 1995;40(3):452-6.
18. Kaats GR, Pullin D, Parker LK. The Short Term Efficacy of the ALCAT Test of Food Sensitivities to Facilitate Changes in Body Composition and Self-reported Disease Symptoms: A Randomized Controlled Study. The Bariatrician – Spring 1996. 18-23.
19. Khosi S.; Advertising Standards Authority of SA letter – ALCAT Test / H A Steinman / 9143. April 2007
20. Khosi S.; Advertising Standards Authority of SA letter – ALCAT Test / H A Steinman / 9143. June 2007
21. Khosi S.; Advertising Standards Authority of SA letter – ALCAT Test / H A Steinman / 9143. November 2007
22. www.alcatsa.co.za.; Post test support / Alcat Guidance notes
23. www.alcatsa.co.za.; Test pricing
24. Cabo-Soler JR. Alcuni Particolari Della Dieta In Medicina Estetica (Comments On Diets In Esthetic Medicine). Abstract of 14th Med Day of Esthetical Medicine & Dermatological Survey. Venice, Italy, Sep. 22-23, 1995. Published in the proceedings.
25. Fell PJ, Brostoff J, Pasula M. High Correlation of the ALCAT Test Results with Double Blind Challenge (DBC) in Food Sensitivity. 45th Annual congress of the American College of Allergy and Immunology, Los Angeles, CA; November 12-16, 1988. Syllabus, pg. 213.
26. Mylek D. ALCAT Test results in the treatment of respiratory and gastrointestinal symptoms, arthritis, skin and central nervous system. Rocz Akad Med Bialymst. 1995;40(3):625-9.
27. Lewis J.; Editorial UPDATE March 2008
28. www.allergysa.org ; Position Statements