Celiac Disease?

Question

I've had stomach problems for a couple years now and started seeing a gastroentamologist. He said I have irritable bowel, but it has become so severe all the time that I can't handle it. I recently read an article on celiac disease that completely explains my symptoms, but I've had blood tests before and all came back normal.

I removed all things with gluten from my diet and have started to slowly feel better.

This may sound stupid, but all the blood tests I've had have been early in the morning before I ate anything. Could any traces of gluten be completely gone from my blood early in the morning? Help! I really want to get this figured out.

Answer 1

No its not stupid. Celiacs have negative blood work all the time. Its part of the reason its so hard to get diagnosed.

reasons for neg blood work:
not sufficient gluten in system
You are IGG or IGA deficient so if u dont make those antibodies the test will always be neg
Lab or doctor error
Not enough or wrong test ordered

Or you are not Celiac and are gluten sensitive instead.

The true test for Celiac DIsease is an endoscopy with biopsy but you must be eating the gluten FILLED diet for it to be accurate, just as weith blood work.

Feel free to email me with more questions if these sites and books arent helpful enough:
www.csaceliacs.org
www.celiac.com
www.celiac.org
www.celiaccentral.org

"Celiac Disease A Hidden Epidemic" By Dr Peter Green
"Living Wheat and Gluten Free for Dummies" by Danna Korn.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Recently I read in the glutenfree.com newsletter that a person can be gluten intolerant without having celiac disease. I am not sure what the blood test results would be for someone who is only intolerant. My advice is that if the diet works for you to stay with it. I was not diagnosed for 25 years. I kept going to the doctor when the symptoms were bad and they would tell me nothing was wrong. Of course I don't think my doctor knew about celiac disease back then. The symptoms became worse over time and eventually involved more of my body. I was told later that I had Irritable Bowel. But it became so bad that it was hard to function normally. If I had known about the diet 20 years ago, maybe I wouldn't have developed celiac disease. Fortunately I healed and am feeling like a new person on this diet. My daughter had some blood tests that came back negative. She has quite a few symptoms similar to mine when I was in my twenties.
Good luck on the diet!

Answer 3

You may be gluten intollerant without having celiac disease.

In many cases only bowel biopsy can confirm the diagnosis.

If the diet is working for you, stick with it!

Answer 4

For Gluten sensitivity, you would also need a stool sample. That is how its best detected, through that and the level of histamine in your system after a gluten filled diet.