Anatomy Question On Gluten Intolerance

[Will29]

Hi, I took a celiac test (biocard) and got negative, not sure if accurate as I have been gluten free for past two weeks and only went back on gluten on Friday evening? Gonna keep eating for two weeks then take again. However have been pondering, my understanding is that celiac disease causes damage to gut, because of this malnutrition and lactose intolerance are risks (think I have both of these body not enjoying dairy just now). However intolerance which as far as I understand does not do any damage to digestive system can also have the same symptoms (lactose intolerance and malnutrition). My question is how can intolerance cause these if it is not doing the damage required to cause these? Is there any significant research into possible damage that intolerance is doing, most of what I have read is based on celiac disease. Just confused how the same symptoms can be caused but without the same damage.

Thank for any info anyone can provide.

[FruitEnthusiast]

A gluten intolerance, celiac or not, DOES cause intestinal damage until it has time to heal. I have had damage and the same symptoms as celiacs, even though my blood test was negative. The blood test, I hear, is not sensitive enough to diagnose everyone. I don't know what the bio card is. Either way, the cure is the same - a gluten free diet.

[Will29]

Have done more research and from what I understand intolerance is caused by the general not specific immune system, (not antigen related), what confuses me is if I have intolerance and therefor no lining damage why lactose intolerance can still be a symptom and inability to digest fat? Confused as to how intolerance can cause same symptoms without the same cause.

[ravenwoodglass]

Not meaning to add more confusion but some consider gluten intolerance and celiac to be the same thing. Some doctors would define me as gluten intolerant because I had false negative blood tests but the damage done was still autoimmune and severe although it was my brain and skin that were attacked before my gut. As the previous poster stated it doesn't matter what they call what is going on any amount of gluten is off limits.

[MitziG]

As you probably gathered by now, there is no definite answer yet, but theories abound. One that was written about in the book "healthier without wheat" made the most sense to me, so I will share it.

When gluten protein is put in a petro dish with healthy tissue, the tissue suffers damage. Gluten itself is toxic to tissue. Now, if you have a healthy mucosal barrier in your intestine then theoretically, gluten would pass harmlessly thru. However, most everyone suffers SOME danage to that barrier, whether by antibiotics, illness, surgery, even stress can damage it. Once the tissue is exposed, gluten comes into contact with it, and voila, damage. In celiac disease, you have an auto-immune response where your own immune system is putting holes in your intestine, in addition to outside causes.

So...the root cause is different, but the end result is the same. Damaged intestines, and a permeable intestinal barrier, ie "'leaky gut" that allows harmful proteins, like gliadin, to enter the bloodstream where they can wreak havoc not just on the intestine, but the entire body.

If you subscribe to that theory, then you would possibly, with extreme care, maybe be able to restore your intestinal lining to health and it could again do its job. It seems doubtful to me though, that perfect restoration and maintenance would ever be likely unless you happen to live in a stress free, organic, non-inflammatory bubble....but....you know, its something to strive for! Anyway, if that happened, you could go back to eating gluten without issue. Which I think few people would be willing to risk.

A celiac, of course, could NEVER do that because any ingested gluten would just trigger the process all over again.

Now...your lactose issue there IS hope for. You don't need PERFECT intestines to digest lactose- just enough healthy villi that they produce lactase to digest it. That IS attainable, usually within 6 mos to a year of a gluten-free diet. But not always. Some peoples bodies simply don't work the way they should in that regard.

Hope this helped!

[Persei V.]

Well, I've read somewhere GI is a lighter form of celiac (can't remember where for my life). Personally, I agree with this view. Fatigue and quick weight loss are signs of malabsorption, and I've been getting more sensitive to gluten even though not that much.

However, in comparision to what the celiacs go through, I actually have it pretty easy. Bloating, discomfort, occasional stomachache which doesn't last for even an hour and soft stools are barely nothing, in comparision. And I have lived with lactose intolerance for six years before discovering the GI.

It is worst, and better. The symptoms were harsher, but I recovered with time, not to mention they would go away pretty quickly (in a matter of 8 hours maximum). With GI, once I am glutened, my diet has to go back to the safe foods list for a week before I'm well enough to handle any possible small CC: the symptoms go away slowly and I react even to the safe foods, although in a considerably smaller dose.

I can even eat some gluten and "get away" with it (though it usually comes from CC and once I start eating the food in question in a bigger frequence, I feel the pain).

BUT I am merely myself and these are my experiences. I doubt they can beat scientific researches on the matter of what exactly is non-celiac GI.