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As you know if you’ve followed me for a while, I’ve had chronic illnesses and chronic pain since 2001, but I didn’t get a diagnosis of autoimmune arthritis until 2010. For 9 years, my autoimmune disease had the chance to run wild while my family and I fought to find a diagnosis and treatment. 

But what if I could have gotten a blood test to check for common autoimmune diseases without waiting for a doctor to believe me? What if it didn’t take waking up unable to open my jaw more than 8 mm to get diagnosed? 

Last year, I learned about a great company that could have helped me do just that: ID30. Specifically, I got to try their ID30-GI Complete test, which checks for autoimmune diseases, food sensitivities, and Leaky Gut. And if you want to try it yourself, I have a discount code for you. Use KATE25 for $25 off of your order.

This test is unfortunately not available in every state (all except New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Massachusetts). 

What Is ID30-GI Complete?

This is “the only test on the market that offers a full report detailing over 30 different autoimmune antibodies, 96 potential food sensitivities, and a quantitative test measuring the potential for Leaky Gut Syndrome” (x). 

That’s right: with one blood test, you can look at the possibility of having an autoimmune disease, food sensitivities, and/or Leaky Gut Syndrome. 

All of these things are good to review on their own, but to get them all in one test (that you can request for yourself!) is outrageously beneficial. It is, however, important that we cover a few things that you need to know before you try this test for yourself.

Let’s talk about the ID30 portion of the test first.

This test checks for antibodies in your blood that can be indicators of autoimmune diseases, but it’s NOT necessarily a diagnostic test. This is for a few reasons. 

One, while it covers over 30 autoimmune antibodies, it doesn’t cover every single autoimmune disease. 

Two, diagnostic tests include more than blood work, such as a physical examination or imaging. 

Three, you can have an autoimmune disease and test negative, such as if you have seronegative rheumatoid arthritis like me. (For example, my rheumatoid factor tests have always been negative.) 

You will get the most out of this test if you have a doctor lined up to who you can bring your results, like a functional medicine doctor. The reason for this is that “autoimmune disease” is a HUGE category; it includes everything from multiple sclerosis to rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease to type 1 diabetes, and more. Those all require very different specialists, which it’s one of the reasons why it’s hard to get an autoimmune diagnosis. Bringing your test results to a doctor who can interpret them and/or refer you to the right specialist(s) will be the most helpful.

The GI Complete portion includes a food sensitivity and Leaky Gut panel. This is helpful because Leaky Gut is hard to pin down. In fact, “the most common symptoms associated with this illness include inflammatory and allergic reactions, migraines, irritable bowel, eczema, chronic fatigue, food allergies, rheumatoid arthritis and more” (x). 

The food sensitivity portion covers 96 possible food sensitivities! I found my food sensitivities the old-fashioned way (cutting them out and testing them one at a time) but you don’t have to. You could, instead, have scientists figure it out for you. This takes less time and doesn’t involve the experience of testing foods that make you feel bad by eating them.

I think that using ID30-GI Complete will give you some control over your health, as it’s one test that checks for many, many things.

How It Works

Of course, I wanted to try this for myself before I shared it with you guys. This was for two reasons. One, I never promote something that I haven’t tried or wouldn’t recommend. Two, I was curious to see how accurate it was. After all, we already know what my deal is. Why not check my personal health records and experiences against it?

As mentioned, the test is unfortunately not available in every state. But assuming it is available in your state when you order your test, they will give you a list of possible labs to go to in your area.

Once you have your box, you go get blood drawn, and then ship off your sample. Within a few weeks, you’ll get your results back via email.

When I was home in Maine over Christmas, my dad and I made appointments to get our blood work done at the local hospital. We brought our ID30 boxes with us, which included the test tube, the blood work instructions for the lab, and the UPS bag and label. 

We got our blood taken and then went to get coffee and run some other errands while we waited for the lab to finish the protocol needed. (Don’t worry! The instructions included in the package tell the lab what they need to do.) 

Once the time was up, we went back to get our blood. Then, we placed it in the included UPS bags and went to the UPS store. I waited in line for a while – deciding to go to the UPS store a few days after Christmas might have been the hardest part – and then sent our blood out. 

Getting the Test Results

A few weeks later, we received our results via email. 

Both of our results came back negative. While this may seem surprising given my health history, it wasn’t totally surprising: I’m on a boatload of immunosuppressants, which can impact the results, and I’ve never tested positive for rheumatoid factor. 

But since I’ve gotten a lot of blood work done in my lifetime, I compared my test results from ID30 to the ones from my hospital. My results from ID30 lined up with my hospital results, which gave me extra peace of mind.

After those results, the folks at Aurora Life Sciences checked out my food sensitivity results. 

The food test report is really easy to read, especially because it’s broken into 4 color-coded categories: no sensitivity, low sensitivity, moderate sensitivity, and high sensitivity. Because I don’t eat any of my known intolerances, I didn’t have anything rated as moderate or high. 

But you know what rated as low? 20 different foods, including 3 of the 6 foods we know that I react badly to: milk, gluten, and wheat. I mean, if I eat gluten, I’m in bed for 3+ days, and I’m in agony the whole time. For that to still show up as a sensitivity when I haven’t intentionally eaten it since 2010 means it’s INTENSE. 

What we found exceptionally interesting, though, is my dad’s results: he is highly sensitive to eggs.

A few weeks previously, my dad had his annual physical, and he was told that he should cut back on his cholesterol. As he already lived a pretty low-cholesterol life, he cut back on eggs specifically.

He was feeling pretty good overall as a result of cutting back on eggs, but he never considered that maybe he was reacting to eggs until his ID30-GI Complete test results came back. 

My dad is very healthy, and he doesn’t have an autoimmune disease. But he is, in general, really sensitive to eggs. It wasn’t a thing he was aware of until his test results came back, but it suddenly made a lot of sense, and it does track with his personal experience.

Want to try ID30-GI Complete for yourself?

Okay, so you’re sold on the ID30-GI Complete test. Now what? 

If you are over the age of 18 – and you don’t live in the states of New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Massachusetts – go here and order your kit. As a note, this test is not covered by insurance companies. In my opinion, though, you will save money by paying the price for your ID30-GI Complete test and then going to the specialists you likely need instead of going to a bunch of different specialists who can’t help you.

Within a few days of placing your order, the staff will email you a list of blood draw locations in your area, and you will make your appointment on your own. You will, of course, need to follow that lab’s protocols for getting blood drawn. The lab my dad and I went to, for example, required us to be registered with them.

After you get your blood draw, follow the instructions sheet in your package, and send it back to the lab via UPS with the enclosed pre-paid UPS envelope. Within a few weeks, the test results will be in your inbox.

Get it here, and don’t forget to use KATE25!

Some of the images in this post were provided by Aurora Life Sciences.