Nikol Margiotta N.D.

Are you suffering from a stubborn health problem that won’t go away no matter what you try? Or perhaps you feel like the medications and treatments you’re taking aren’t actually getting at the root cause of your illness – but you want something that will? If you feel this way, or know someone that does, here are some important facts to consider:

1. Medical Research has shown that foods and food additives can be involved in a wide array of painful symptoms and chronic health problems.

2. If your diet is causing your illness, whatever medications you take will ultimately fail because they only mask the symptoms. They don’t affect the underlying cause of the symptoms. And as is too often the case, many medications have side effects that can lead to other health problems.

3. If diet is causing your illness and you don’t address it, you could easily end up suffering for many years, spending thousands of dollars for treatments that will never work the way you want them to.

Why we feel sick frequently

Food sensitivities are a common cause of many chronic conditions and affect an estimated 15-20% of the population. Symptoms provoked by food sensitivities occur when our immune system begins perceiving foods in the same way it perceives things which are truly harmful — bacteria, viruses, parasites, etc. There are many reasons why this happens, but this mistaken identity leads to the release of toxic chemicals called ‘mediators’ (such as histamine, cytokines, and prostaglandins) from our immune cells. It’s the inflammatory and pain-inducing effects of the mediators that give rise to symptoms, which ends up making us feel sick.

Research has shown that patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), migraine headaches, fibromyalgia, chronic depression and many other conditions have higher than normal levels of these mediators circulating throughout their bodies. For many, the “trigger” that causes the mediators to be released can be linked to foods or chemicals in their diet. Food sensitivity symptoms are often chronic because the mediators that make us feel sick are released every time you eat your reactive foods. And it doesn’t matter what drugs we take to try and get better; if we have food sensitivities and don’t figure out which foods we SHOULD be eating (and of course, which foods we should stay away from), getting better and staying better becomes a long-term losing struggle.

Identify a healthy diet and feel better

LEAP© Testing (Lifestyle, Eating and Performance) can help you overcome any food sensitivity problems you might have. LEAP will allow you to quickly identify what foods, additives and chemicals are provoking your symptoms, and, more importantly, which foods have the highest probability of being safe.

LEAP uses a patented blood test termed MRT© (Mediator Release Test©) to isolate a safe foods diet for each patient. MRT eliminates the guesswork to give you definitive answers. Once the test is performed, an eating plan is developed and tailored to the needs of each individual patient with assistance in implementing your new, healthy eating plan.

Some Conditions and Symptoms Attributed to Food Sensitivities:

• Irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, functional dyspepsia (heartburn), diarrhea, abdominal pain, cramping, bloating
• Migraine and other chronic headaches, fibromyalgia, joint pain, muscle pain, muscle weakness
• Autism, ADD/ADHD, fatigue, tiredness, insomnia, general malaise, restlessness, “brain fog”
• Hives, eczema, psoriasis
• Excess mucous production, chronic post nasal drip, chronic congestion

Page modified on 5/15/2011