UNDERSTANDING MY RESULTS

Maybe your goal for taking this test was to learn more about your general vitality. Maybe your goal was to reduce & remove unwanted discomforts.The Deluxe Package provides a complete overview of how your body is responding to your current dietary intake and lifestyle decisions. These 4 individual reports should either provide you confirmations of what you thought might be an issue or  point you in a direction to assist you in accomplishing your desired transformation. Because this is our most inclusive package, there is a lot of information to take in.  Take a step back, be sure to read all the provided information, watch the FAQ videos available, and know that we are here to help ensure your success. We encourage you to use these results as a guide to become more conscious of your food and lifestyle choices.  Putting in the work now will help you achieve your desired results.

Maybe your goal for taking this test was to learn more about your general vitality. Maybe your goal was to reduce & remove unwanted discomforts.The Standard Package provides a complete overview of how your body is responding to your current dietary intake and lifestyle decisions. These 3 individual reports should either provide you confirmations of what you thought might be an issue or point you in a direction to assist you in accomplishing your desired transformation. Because this is one of our most inclusive packages, there is a lot of information to take in.  Take a step back, be sure to read all the provided information, watch the FAQ videos available, and know that we are here to help ensure your success. We encourage you to use these results as a guide to become more conscious of your food and lifestyle choices.  Putting in the work now will help you achieve your desired results.

Food provides fuel for our bodies. The 5Strands Food Intolerance results provide a snapshot of how your body is responding to your current dietary decisions. A few years ago, I was eating unconsciously. I believed everything was good for me and my body could process anything. However, I was experiencing discomforts at such a young age to where I recognized this could potentially cause long term health issues. After I received my Food Intolerance results, I took a step back from what I thought I knew about myself and general nutrition. I recognized that I am unique and there is no one size fits all diet. My 5Strands results provided me with a custom elimination guideline to optimize my health. Foods that I believed to be generally healthy, were not healthy for me. Foods that were staples in my diet, were causing my body noticeable symptoms. I learned that rotation and moderation is key. At the end of the day we all have the decision to make on what food we put into our body. The results are not a magic pill. You will only achieve results if you decide to put the work in. Many of our customers have tried traditional testing, done research, and still have not found solutions to their everyday discomforts. I ask you to look at these results with an open mind and give it your all for 6-8 weeks. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us. We want you to be our next big success story!

Have you ever heard the saying that we are products of our environment? Sometimes it is easy to play victim to our environment.  There are subtle symptoms or issues that we start experiencing everyday that we eventually consider to be normal.  But they are not!  Headaches, skin irritations, runny noses are just a few examples as to how our body tries to communicate that an item in our environment can potentially be causing an intolerance resulting in unwanted symptoms. The 5Strands Environmental report will allow you to discover the items that you may be encountering everyday that could be causing those unwanted symptoms that you have just accepted as normal. I encourage you to look at this report with an open mind. Think about the fabrics you wear, the cleaning solutions you use, the shampoos or soaps you wash with, the trees and grasses in your yard. You might be surprised to see how many of these items are listed on your results. While it is impossible to eliminate all of your environmental triggers, use these results to be more aware and try to reduce your exposure as best as you can.

We are constantly being exposed to metals and minerals in everyday life. These items can be found within the food we consume, water we drink, and even the air we breathe. In a world where we constantly use electronics and expose ourselves to materials hard for the body to process, we tend to accept the harmful effects that come with it. The lotions, shampoos, and makeup we use everyday can trigger adverse reactions such as skin problems or headaches.The Metals & Minerals results provided by 5Strands is meant to raise your level of awareness on how your body could be exposed to the items tested. Use these results as a screening tool or guide to understand your body’s ability to process and eliminate each item if or when you come into contact with it. Our website has an items tested tab with definitions and sources of where you could come into contact with these items.  Use this information to help alter your diet and lifestyle so you can reduce your chances of exposing yourself to these items.

E-items are additives, other than the basic raw ingredients, used in processed or pre-packaged foods that affect the food's characteristics.
Here is the breakdown of what an E-item number refers to:
- 100-199 Food Coloring
- 200-299 Preservatives
- 300-399 Antioxidants
- 400-499 Thickeners, Emulsifiers, Stabilizers
- 500-599 Acidity Regulators, Anti-caking Agents
- 600-699 Flavor Enhancers
- 700-999 Sweeteners, Foaming Agents, Gases

For the full description of each E-Item please visit our Items Tested tab

The terms gluten-free and wheat-free are often used interchangeably when they aren’t the same thing at all. Gluten is a protein found in many grains, including wheat,  while wheat is simply a grain that contains gluten. A gluten-free diet will be free from wheat and all grains and processed foods that contain gluten, but a wheat-free diet will not necessarily be free of gluten. So just because you have an intolerance to wheat does not mean you are gluten intolerant.

Fruits are considered to be generally "healthy foods"! Just because fruit is considered a healthy food, does not always mean it's healthy for you. If you are lacking the digestive enzymes that will break that food down, it may take only 1 or 2 items on your Level 3 list to disrupt or disturb your gut health or microbiome. Once this is damaged, generally healthy foods can start to cause you those unwanted discomforts. In order to restore your gut health, you may have to say goodbye to a few of your favorite fruits, but just for a while!  Also don't forget that over consumption of an item can cause stress on your body. Daily intake of a specific fruit could prevent  your body's ability to process and break it down. This is where we suggest removing, replacing, allowing the body time to restore balance, and then consume in rotation and moderation.  

Try focusing on what you CAN eat. Look at your test results and see all of the items that are listed as insignificant responses.These are the food items that you can consume during the  6-8 week elimination period. You do not want to consume the level 3 items. If you choose to consume level 2 and level 1 items, try not to consume them more than 2 times a week. Our testing results format makes it much easier to identify the foods that you should be consuming.

We are excited that you are feeling better and congratulations on sticking to the plan. Digestive enzymes may help with breaking down different parts of food such as fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. They may help aid your digestion. Since some intolerances may be due to a lack of good gut bacteria, aiding them may be beneficial. Probiotics help add good gut bacteria to your body and prebiotics feed them. At this point you should have become more aware of your body and the issues that may begin to present themselves. Try to keep eating a variety of foods and listen to when you may to need to temporarily cut some something out. For more information go to our helpful links page on our website.

Rotation and moderation is key. What we mean by this is that your diet needs variety. You should not consume the same foods every day. If you eat a food that you have an intolerance to every day, you will experience noticeable symptoms.  Once you have completed your elimination plan and let your body rebalance, you can reintroduce the food item. On average, most people may be able to consume a food item 2-3 times per week without experiencing any symptoms.  You will have to figure out what is your normal. Just remember not to go back to eating the same item every day.

Your 5Strands Food Intolerance test results are not your forever diet. This report is an elimination guideline.  After you conduct the elimination plan, if your symptoms have lessened or disappeared, you can reintroduce one offending food item at a time back into your nutrition plan. If you do not experience any noticeable symptoms, it means you will be able to consume the once offending food item in moderation again! As we always say, rotation and moderation is key.

At 5Strands, we utilize bioresonance technology which means it is energetic in nature. The results will show the body's inability to absorb the needed nutrients from your food or supplements. It will indicate what nutrients you need more of.  Unlike blood testing, it is not measuring the physical presence of the nutrients in your body. Blood testing can show that your system may have the adequate range of nutrients but it will not tell you if your body is utilizing it the way it needs to.

Whether you need to detox or not is entirely up to you! At 5Strands, we believe that everyone should consider developing a natural detox routine on a daily basis.  Doing a daily detox could aid in eliminating heavy metals or other harmful toxins from the body. We recommend starting with the elimination of processed foods and substituting them with more green leafy vegetables, fruit, whole-grains, beans, nuts and seeds and drinking plenty of filtered water. If you are considering any further detox protocols, you should consult with a health care practitioner or nutritionist for additional assistance.

It's easy to come into contact with any of the metals and minerals that show up on your results. It can be in the air that we breathe, water we drink, food that we eat, as well as the appliances that we use to cook the food, and don't forget about the containers that foods are stored in!  It's hard to completely avoid these items since they are literally everywhere. Utilize your test results to become aware of what you come into contact with on a daily basis. Then you can make adjustments to your diet and lifestyle such as using a water filter, purchasing foods stored in glass containers or changing your cookware as a start.

We want to emphasize that purchasing a cheap bottle of supplements will probably NOT fix your nutritional deficiencies. Your body has a hard time recognizing supplements in this form. When you think about it, from the beginning of time, how did people receive their nutrients? Through whole foods! Nutrients don’t become bioavailable when you take them as supplements. If you eat the nutrients as they naturally occur in foods, the body can more easily recognize them. 

The testing parameters are determined by the lab that conducts the testing.  The lab will set the parameters in the machine as to where they consider an imbalance to occur. These parameters are proprietary to the lab and can not be compared to any other blood or saliva testing conducted at another lab. So if you take your results to your doctor and they decide to run a blood test, the results will likely not correlate with your 5Strands Nutrition Test.

While some of the items on both your Nutrition report and your Metals/Minerals report may overlap, they do not indicate the same information. The Nutrition report indicates your body’s inability to properly absorb and process the particular nutrient tested. It does not mean you are intolerant to the nutrient but that your body is not properly utilizing it and you may need more of it. The Metals/ Minerals test results, on the other hand, indicate a severity of response report of your body’s ability to process and eliminate each item tested or you may have too much of it in your body.

Our testing process will indicate results for food and environmental intolerances, nutritional and metal/mineral imbalances. As most of these results will indicate temporary imbalances, it is difficult to say that they can be correlated to an actual disease. For example, people who are diagnosed with Celiac's disease ask why gluten does not show up on their results. This disease actually involves the immune system. Since our testing does not look at immune system responses, gluten may not show up. Just because you have an allergy to a food item does not mean that you will also be intolerant to it. So to answer the question: maybe. If you are eating foods that are causing inflammation, or not eating the nutrients your body needs, it can create a domino effect and cause further illness. Rather than trying to piece together what caused what, focus on doing what you can do to become a more healthier you. 

If you were currently feeding your pet commercially prepared pet food, we are unable to endorse a specific brand of commercial/processed pet food. Sometimes it is not as simple as changing the protein source of the pet food. They may have intolerances to all the other fillers and additives in the pet food that can be causing their issues.  You may have to consider taking your pet off of kibble and cook for them or even consider feeding raw.  Our helpful link section on the website has several DIY dog food recipes. During the elimination period you really need to find one or two protein sources and a vegetable.  You will feed this to your pet for the next 6-8 weeks and see if their symptoms lessen.  If so, you can then begin the reintroduction process.  That is how you will determine their forever diet. If you are still having difficulty understanding how to do this or do not want to cook for your pet, we do have a pet nutritionist that we can refer you to that will help you figure out what to feed your pet.  Just call or email our customer support team and we will be happy to send you her information.

At 5Strands, we currently cannot make recommendations for particular pet foods that your pet can have based on their test results. However, on our website, we do provide several helpful links that can aid you in creating the best elimination plan for your pet. If you need additional help, we have a pet nutritionist that we can refer you to who can consult with you and help  you find the right food for your pet.

Customers that decide to cook for their pet are always asking about supplements.  During the elimination plan, your focus should be on determining what foods are triggering your pet's issues.When creating their forever diet, you should be feeding them a variety of proteins, veggies, and fruits.When you feed your pet a rotation diet, they should be getting all of the nutrients that they need from their food. If you are still concerned and want to supplement, it is suggested that you find a supplement that is as close to natural as possible. Look for ones that are made from herbs and plants and not synthetic chemicals. Pre and probiotics are good to add to their nutrition plan especially if they have been on medications such as antibiotics as these drugs will destroy their natural gut microbiome.

Our testing is very item specific. Each item listed is processed differently. If you are feeding your pet kibble, you may see these listed as ingredients on the bag.  Chicken- meat from a chicken (this will be in kibble or it will be what you can buy at a store)
Chicken by product- is used as a major component only in processed pet foods. It will consist of chicken carcasses, bones, feathers, and possible even road kill! Chicken Meal- This will also only be found in processed pet foods.  It consists of chicken tissues that are not edible for humans.  Since we are testing for Intolerances, each item will affect your pet differently.  Whereas if your pet has a true allergy, they will likely have an issue will all of these items.

Metals and minerals are everywhere including the air that they breathe, water that they drink, food that they eat and the ground they walk on. But it doesn't stop there, it's in the grass from the pesticides and fungicides that are sprayed on yards, it could be a cleaner that you use in your home each day. Let's not forget that it could even be in their toys and bowls. They are hard to avoid since they are literally everywhere! But you can make adjustments such as filtering your pet's water, reading the ingredient list on your pet's kibble, and wiping down their paws before they come inside, or changing your household cleaning materials.