The ImuPro Concept

Food is essential for life, but food can also lead to many health issues. Best known are classic food allergies, which may become life threatening or enzyme deficiencies like lactose intolerance, causing abdominal pain and diarrhea. They all cause very distinct and well-known symptoms.

But when your patients are suffering from a chronic complaint like IBS, migraines, obesity that just will not go away, the cause may be a delayed IgG food allergy (also called type III allergy and commonly called food intolerances). IgG food allergies often remain undetected because the symptoms only occur a few hours or even days after the consumption of a trigger food, making them extremely difficult to identify. The ImuPro test used exclusively in Canada by FITLabs will help to find the foods that are good for your patients and pinpoint their individual trigger foods. ImuPro combines a reliable ELISA test which identifies specific IgG to up to 270 different foods (see detailed test lists at Our Tests) with a comprehensive solution enabling personalized guidance.

The main pillars of the ImuPro concept are: elimination, rotation and reintroduction.

They are the foundation of the following three phases:

1. Elimination phase
2. Provocation phase
3. Stabilisation phase

Elimination phase

The first key to success is to identify and avoid foods causing inflammation. The second key to success is to rotate foodstuffs in the diet. The ImuPro test determines the presence and concentration of specific IgG antibodies to a broad variety of foodstuffs. Based on the results of the antibody titre, the foodstuffs are then categorised into three groups:

• Not elevated:  no IgG antibodies detected or level is below cut-off value, food is allowed for consumption, respecting the rotation principle
• Elevated: elevated levels of IgG antibodies detected, foods must be avoided strictly for 5-8 weeks
• Highly elevated: highly elevated levels of IgG antibodies detected, foods must be avoided strictly for 5-8 weeks

No difference is made between the concentration of IgG in respect to time and the strictness of avoidance. All positive foods should be treated equally. The goal of this phase is to prepare the body for the following provocation phase by helping the body to recover from the IgG mediated inflammations and determine the foods causing symptoms.

Provocation phase

The provocation phase helps the patient to pinpoint the individual trigger foods which induce specific symptoms like migraine, IBS, hypertension, obesity, chronic pain or sleep disorders and to facilitate the following stabilisation phase by reducing the number of foods to be avoided and increasing the compliance.

After 5-8 weeks of complete avoidance of all IgG positive food, the patient may now consume these foods one by one in order to determine the effect a particular food has on his health. Only one new food at a time should be reintroduced in order to find out whether it might be responsible for the patient’s complaints or not.

Practically, reintroduction is generally done during one day. It is important that the patient consumes this product on multiple occasions over the day to guarantee that the amount ingested is enough to induce a response. Then the food is avoided again for the rest of the provocation phase. During the following three days, the patient must observe if any symptoms reappear or if an increase in body weight of approximately one kilogram or more occurs. An increase in body weight indicates an inflammatory reaction even in the absence of symptoms. The increase in body weight is normally seen the day after the provocation. Because of additional water within the tissue accumulated due to inflammatory processes. A diary provided by FITLabs helps to monitor the outcome of the provocation phase.

Note: In any case, it is important to observe reappearance of symptoms for three days because IgG mediated symptoms are delayed and may only reappear within three days after consumption. Not every food with elevated or highly elevated IgG will mandatory cause a symptom.

Stabilisation phase

After having identified their personal triggers, the patient now knows which food causes them health problems. The stabilisation phase aims are to substantially improve the patient’s health, eliminate IgG to food, widen the variety of food consumed and thus the enjoyment of eating and to enable the patient to reintroduce the food again after all specific IgGs titres are decreased.

During the stabilisation phase the patient avoids the trigger foods for at least one year. The foods that did not cause any symptoms and/or gain in body weight overnight during the provocation phase may be reintroduced into the diet. It is advisable to eat these foods only once a week.

In particular cases, when the focus is the relief of chronic specific symptoms, foods that caused only an increase in body weight but no symptoms, may be reintroduced in the diet once a week. But particular care should be taken, as these foods can become a trigger food in the future. In most chronic ailments, avoidance of IgG-positive food can lead to partial or complete remission of symptoms.

Using the ImuPro Concept, FITLabs helps patients achieve their goals by providing them via their Health Care Practitioner guidance and personalised suggestions of recipes and substitutes for the food that tested positive.