Newbee

About a year after I got diagnosed with celiac disease I was diagnosed with hashimoto's.  They tested my thyroid at the same time they gave me the celiac test and my thyroid was fine.  A year later all my thyroid tests were severly bad.  I think this is no coincidence.  In fact I've read there are proteins in your thyroid that are very similar to gluten.  It makes me wonder if when you remove gluten from your body, those antibodies you have go attack your thyroid.  I have no idea if it works like this, but just makes me wonder . . .

For some people, being gluten free is not enough.  Unfortunately I am one of those people and have needed to eliminate grains and a lot of other foods to feel better.  I've been following the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) which helped me start an elimination diet which helped me figure out what other foods are bothering me.  I would recommend trying this if being gluten free is not resolving issues for you.  

As you tested positive all your first degree relatives should be tested for celiac.  It is very common for siblings, parents, and children to have the disease even if they don't think they have any symptoms.  My brother thought he was fine but he was diagnosed in the early stages of the disease.  This is when you want to catch celiac disease.  By the time you are showing symptoms or it has gone undiagnosed for years this is when you have trouble healing.

Good luck.

The doctors did find that I had hashimoto's disease this time (really high antibodies for this), so perhaps as suggested this is why I'm still showing a positive result with the TTG IGA. Blah, hope I don't get anymore autoimmune conditions.

Yep, checked with the manufacturer on the thyroid medication before I bought it. I've found that I have a lot of food intolerances so now I mostly follow the SCD diet which is completely grain free. That has helped with symptoms quite a bit but the few foods I don't react to give me a very limited diet. I saw my GI doc today and he told me to keep doing what I'm doing, nothing else will help he says.

Interesting to hear how long it took you to heal. I've heard it can take a long time if you've had the disease a long time. I was pretty patient the first 6 months and got antsy after the GI said I should be better by then. I've read it can take as long as 1 year for blood tests to normalize. But I'm past that. I know it is close to normal. Just wish I would hurry up and heal and stop developing other new health problems. I spend way too much time researching my health issues.