How is celiac disease diagnosed?

I received good information about confirming a diagnosis.

I am not supposed to eat gluten but I do anyway, and now I have side pain (left) and I have diarrhea. This has been happening over a year now. Is this bad??

I am not supposed to eat gluten but I do anyway, and now I have side pain (left) and I have diarrhea. This has been happening over a year now. Is this bad??

To: Willow, At its worse celiac can be very disabling. Along w/digestive pain and diarrhea, does eating gluten make your stomach swell and extend as if 10 months pregnant? Is the gas so volumous, the passing process is as painful as it is musical? Do you have lesions like small sores on your hips and buttocks? But the number one sign that you are dealing with a severe intolerance is the distinctly different odor associated with your movements. Celiac BMs have a stench that is so foul and so bold it cannot be easily contained nor quickly eradicated no matter what. If after you use the throne, others who come in contact cannot resist making loud, rude comments, then it is time to eat a couple days of wheat heavy meals and on the third day deposit early morning samples in a clean jar and take it to the lab for analysis. Watch out for the warnings given above. Just a few years ago, I saw several GI specialist, one called himself the top celiac physician in the Bay Area, the other was THE number one GI man on the left coast. Yet in spite of my delicately informing them, neither seemed to understand that when one has consumed NO gluten for four years that there was no way I could have any anti bodies! Duh! Shucks my local GI told me I could not have the disease because had part African-American blood. (Yes "Blood") Even I knew the doctor credited for "discovering" celiac was Irish and his introductory study said that people who adhere to the AFRICAN CULTURE where the diet does not consist of gluten causing grains (wheat/barley/sometime oats) but easier digesting grains like millet did not tend to have significant numbers of celiac suffers. So it has nothing to do with one's genes, or bloodline, but how much wheat is consumed and one's ability to digest it. Take lactose intolerance. Yes, certain groups of people tend to have it more than others, but this still goes back to the culture's diet, how much milk and dairy products they tend to consume, and how often, the body's means of metabolizing and what other foods are consumed in combination that can aid or harm said metabolization rate. These are also issues you, Willow must take into account when you speak with your doctor regarding your gluten consumption. Please also remember there lots and lots of hidden gluten in foods you'd never dream would have it. Also find out the list of alternate names the gluten is hidden under like most starches and many additives. That's alot to take it but there one more big ONE... Don't put it off! I let my pain specialists tell me my digestive issues were no big deal. I should not be upset because I had to evacuate my self digitally. I let them tell me it was just a little constipation caused by the opiates, when I knew better. I let them talk circle around me. A year goes by and next , they're removing a totally dysfunctional 85 foot mega colon, and my two day hospital stay turned into 2 code blues, 48 day stay w/ 30 days on-line, needle-only TPN feeding (no food, no liquids), discharged with internal bleeding for 6 mos, requiring 4 transfusions that lead to a 70 lb weight loss in 3 mos, as it turned out was all caused by a post-op complication; a grapefruit size pancreas tumor, benign, the adventure capped off with 5 very painful major fistula surgeries, all failures. So should you get anything from this email, get this:) If you value your health/life , pain and dysfunction are signs something is wrong. Do not wait. Insist on seeing a GOOD specialist NOW and 2) If its celiac, it stinks to high heaven! Good Luck. May it be something small and easily fixed, like eat more fiber. But if it is celiac. Write again and I'll tell you all the best gluten -free stuff that won't cost you and arm and a leg.

Too funny. I'm just hours into finally researching gluten free and I'm just laughing my butt off. Ever think that people that commence a gluten free diet do well because they actually quit eating man made crap? After only a few hours of research, I've found out that I mostly eat gluten free foods, salads with turkey, fruit. After a few hours, I'm reminded of a friend of my dad's, some 40 years ago. He quit eating bread in hopes of losing weight, he did.