Mosaics' Blog

Whew! I got here just in time to save my blog from dropping to the second page.

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So...I've been telling my mom, who has had all kinds of intestinal problems and other celiac symptoms for years, that I think she has celiac disease. It stands to reason, does it not, that she would have it since two of her four children are confirmed CDers and one other has loads of symptoms, but hasn't been diagnosed?

She got tested last year with a blood test and her doctor said she didn't have it. I didn't believe him. She has too many symptoms, but she liked that diagnosis "that's my diagnosis and I'm sticking to it."

Well, anyway, it so happened that she went to a new doctor a couple of months ago and she mentioned that she'd like to be tested for celiac disease. He exclaimed that he had a nutritionist that he shares an office with that actually has celiac disease herself. So Mom made an appointment with her and she suggested that Mom get a gene test, which is done with a simple mouth swab (Entero Labs does this test).

I found the interpretation of her results to be very interesting and wanted to share them with the (infrequent) readers here.

Interpretation Of HLA-DQ Testing: HLA gene analysis reveals that you have one of the main genes that predisposes to gluten sensitivity and celiac sprue, HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ8. Each of your offspring has a 50% chance of receiving this gene from you, and at least one of your parents passed it to you. You also have a non-celiac gene predisposing to gluten sensitivity (DQ1 or DQ3 not subtype 8). Having one celiac gene and one gluten sensitive gene, means that each of your parents, and all of your children (if you have them) will possess at least one copy of a gluten sensitive gene. Having two copies also means there is an even stronger predisposition to gluten sensitivity than having one gene and the resultant immunologic gluten sensitivity or celiac disease may be more severe.

So, Mom's gluten-eating days have come to an end. She has about a million cans of cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup that will have to go (they shop in bulk). Any takers?