Selling Immune Tolerance as Disease

Andrea Love argues that direct-to-consumer "food sensitivity" tests are a lucrative form of pseudoscience that misrepresents IgG antibodies—markers of exposure and immune tolerance—as evidence of disease. She explains how these unvalidated tests can lead to unnecessary dietary restrictions, health anxiety, and delayed medical care, and argues that the broader lesson is how wellness marketing can strip legitimate science of its context to create and sell solutions to problems consumers don't actually have. Read this article and find accompanying references at: https://skepticalinquirer.org/2026/08/selling-immune-tolerance-as-disease/ About the Author: Andrea Love, PhD, is an immunologist and microbiologist and works full-time in life sciences biotechnology. She is an award-winning science communicator and the founder of ImmunoLogic, a science education and consulting organization. Love is also the executive director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation and teaches CME courses for medical professionals. Find her on social at @dr.andrealove (YouTube/Meta) | @dr_andrealove (X/Twitter) or at www.immunologic.org. Subscribe to Skeptical Inquirer: https://skepticalinquirer.org/subscribe/