Anyone know anything about Celiac disease? nt

[pnwmom]

22. And I have a different point of view.

The tests for classic Celiac won't work if you haven't been eating gluten in the months and weeks before the test.

So keep eating gluten till you have the blood tests (which should include both the test that is most specific for Celiac AND the older tests for anti-gliadin antibodies.)

If you test positive for the blood tests, then you almost certainly have Celiac and should go on the diet, with that diagnosis.

If you test negative, you're not in the clear, unfortunately. Some people with non-Celiac gluten sensitivity don't get positive results on any of the blood tests. But you can still eliminate gluten from your diet and see if your symptoms improve. But you have to be just as scrupulous eliminating gluten as someone with officially diagnosed Celiac would be, or you're really not giving the diet a chance.

I tested positive on two of the three blood tests. Some doctors would have followed that up with an endoscopic biopsy to look for signs of Celiac. My doctor said I should save the money and try the diet. Since an endoscopy wouldn't reveal anything about my worst symptom (lower intestinal bleeding), he was right. If I had had a negative biopsy, all that would have shown is I didn't have classic celiac -- but it wouldn't have explained anything about the bleeding.

So I went on the diet and within a few days the bleeding, other GI symptoms, and even non-GI symptoms (like fibromyalgia) disappeared.

Good luck on your own path to health!