Hi Dave,
Count me as one who believes you pretty much "are what you eat" or at least I'm positive that at least *I* are what *I* eat...or what I ingest in some way, and all of it affects my symptoms, my mood, my entire life. I'm sensitive to ALL meds, many foods, insects, you name it.
I've been charting 30+ symptoms for 5 years and also making a list of everything I eat for about 1-1/2 years (big monthly chart of checkmarks that shows trends, unusual incidents, NO journaling). It's not quite as obsessive as it may seem, since so many of my symptoms stay the same day-to-day that I only have to write "the usual" at the bottom of the page. Over my 30+ years of weird physical episodes I've learned to pay strict attention to what my body's trying to tell me.
And it tells me that giving up sugar & flour completely eliminated the weird, daily, geometrically shaped hives and nightly restless leg. I then experimented and found that I don't react to ALL sugar & flour, but just junk food, which means it's mainly the chemicals. I keep bowel/bladder problems to a minimum by watching what/when/where and how much I eat and drink (and by giving up most vitamins
). Since I don't drink coffee (it makes me deathly ill), I can outlast a whole meeting full of coffee swiggers. I never eat lunch at all or else I'll doze off at work. Lots of foods make me tired & foggy, while exercise will perk me back up, even when I'm tired.
But testing may not help you. Shellfish and bee stings have sent me to the emergency room in the past, but...I finally got official allergy testing and didn't react to a single test - not even 4 kinds of venom. It seems I have severe localized reactions, but no anaphylactic shock. And the allergy doc said that you can't test for foods.
So, my PCP was right all along - allergy testing won't help me and it was a waste of time. And it might not help you. Like you, I don't have classic hay fever type reactions, so I wasn't surprised when I didn't react to a single of those "environmental" allergens.
I think many would be surprised at how much of the misery of our lives can be brought on by such common triggers and how easy it would be to improve our lives if we figured them out. So, if your insurance covers it (it's outrageously expensive!) get allergy testing, but you might also try keeping track of what you eat. It really worked for me!
Good luck & good health.