Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Trying To Eat gluten-free, Had Blood Test, Negative


nom

Recommended Posts

nom Newbie

Hi Guys,

 

I'm trying to decide what to do here, so perhaps thought I'd ask if anyone had been in a similar situation.

 

Through process of elimination, I worked out on my own that I was having a reaction (typically GI symptoms) whenever I ate products containing wheat.  I put myself on a Gluten Free diet, and inside of a week found significant changes in sleep patterns, energy and a complete absence of athsma symptoms I had suffered from for years.  After a particularly bad couple of weeks of what I thought was gluten cross contamination (I eat out a lot), I decided to get a blood test done, just to see if anything showed up.  I just got the results today, and it came back as a "1", which is within normal.

 

Now, given I had been trying to eat gluten-free for ~ 2 months prior, this could be a meaningless number.  On the one-hand, a non-zero number makes me think it's a positive although week.  On the other hand, I thought it'd be much higher since, based on my symptoms, I'd had a pretty bad couple of weeks.

 

As my doctor said, getting some numbers on a piece of paper, or a biopsy isn't going to tell me anything I don't already know -- gluten, or at least wheat, makes me sick.  What I don't know, however, is what value there is in actually having that number in the first place.

 

Should I make myself sick to get a positive diagnosis?

Should I just concede that I likely am coeliac and just continue doing what I'm doing, knowing I won't ever get a positive diagnosis?

 

Really not sure what to do here... 

 


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



w8in4dave Community Regular

Well you don't know that you weill never get a positive Dx. But I say if what your doing works for you!! Then do it!! Like your Dr. Said "You already know" So really if it was me? Why put your self thru it? When I first got my DX that said I was negative, I just decided to go on a non processed food diet!! Lil did I know the Dr.s office would call and say I did have Celiac. So yea I'd stick with the celiac diet and go for making your self healthy!! 

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      130,113
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    Ang99
    Newest Member
    Ang99
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.3k
    • Total Posts
      1m

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Zuma888
      Hello, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis about 3 years ago. At that time I quit gluten and it really helped my symptoms. I hadn't known that I should've tested for celiac before doing so.  Up till recently, gluten would cause my symptoms to flare up, although I never noticed anything with cross contamination, so I wasn't strict about that. But recently, I noticed I could get away with more gluten, and so I decided to do a gluten challenge to see if I had celiac and if I had to be strict. Note that my thyroid antibodies had been decreasing steadily up to this point. My anti-TPO had reached 50 IU/ml from 250 IU/ml (reference range 0-5.6) when I had first been diagnosed. After just a week of the gluten challenge, I measured my thyroid antibodies and they were at 799 IU/ml! I felt fine, but a few days after I started to feel the symptoms. Extreme brain fog, insomnia, diarheaa, fatigue, sleepiness yet cannot sleep, stomachache after eating gluten, nausea, swollen throat (probably due to my thyroid), burping, and gas. I cannot function properly. I'm also worried that I'm killing my thyroid. Should I just quit the challenge? It's been almost two weeks, but the first week I wasn't tracking well, so that's why I didn't want to count it. I can't eat gluten anyway because of my thyroid, but I wanted the diagnosis to know if I should be strict about cross contamination or not.  
    • Zuma888
      You really saved me as I was on day 4 of 3 g per day for 6 weeks. Thank you very much!
    • trents
      Two weeks is the minimum according to the guideline. I would go for four weeks if you can endure it, just to make sure.
    • Zuma888
      Thank you so much! So I can do 10 g worth of gluten in the form of gluten powder per day for two weeks and that should be enough?
    • trents
      It applies to both blood tests and biopsies. Guidelines for the gluten challenge have been revised for the very issue your question raises. It was felt by medical professionals that the longer term but less intense consumption of gluten approach was not proving to be reliable for testing purposes and was resulting in too many false negatives. But do keep in mind that the gluten consumption doesn't have to be in the form of bread slices. It can come in any form: pasta, cake, wraps, etc. Another approach would be to buy gluten powder at a health food store and mix it in a shake. The idea is to get at least 10g of gluten daily, whatever form it comes in.
×
×
  • Create New...