Am I Gluten Intolerant Or What

[Conitha]

I am 58 yrs old and recently figured out through trial and error I am allergic to beer and other alcohol beverages. I get a itchy rash from it. All my life I have  had numerous allergies and IBS type problems. I had my gallbladder out 2 yrs ago and was feeling so much better.

Now I have rt lower quadrant pain almost all the time and MRI and CT did not find any definitive diagnosis.

Can a person become gluten sensitive at such a late age? Can pain in my abdomen be caused by gluten sensitivity.

What further testing should I be asking for or should I just try gluten free diet. I find it looks hard to follow for a pasta lover but if someone else has experinced similar problems would like to know how to proceed. Medical technology is not figuring it out.

[Solandra]

Well, relax, because there are some good gluten free pastas. You can develop problems at any age. Have your doctor start with a full Celiac blood panel.. TTG IGA and IGG, Gliadin Antibodies IGG and IGA (whatever the newest tests are for that).

[nvsmom]

Celiac disease, a form of gluten sensitivity, can develop at any age just like any other autoimmune disease (it is not an allergy).  If you have linked symptoms to gluten, I think you should get tested.

 

The blood tests you want are:

tTG IgA and tTG IgG (tissue transglutaminase)

DGP IgA and DGP IgG (deaminated gliadin peptides)

EMA IgA (endomysial antibodies)

total serum IgA - a control test

AGA IgA and AGA IgG (anti-gliadin antobosies) - older and less reliable tests which were replace by the DGP tests

 

You need to be consuming the equivalent of 1-2 slices of bread per day in the 8-12 weeks prior to testing or you run a higher risk of getting a false negative. Do not go gluten-free until you are sure your testing is complete.

 

You could also ask to have the area beside your rash biopsied for dermatitis herpetiformis, the skin rash that can occur with celiac disease.

 

Some doctors also like to perform an endoscopic biopsy to look for intestinal damage.

 

You can always do genetic testing too but that only checks to see if you are one of the 30% of the population that has the DQ2 or DQ8 genes which would put you at a higher risk to develop celiac disease (1 in about 30 rather than 1 in 133). These tests will not tell you if you have celiac disease, nor can they rule celiac disease out completely (3% of celiacs do not have those genes).  I would personally skip these tests.

 

If the tests are negative, it is possible that you have non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), which has the same symptoms as celiac disease.  The only way to diagnose NCGS is a positive response to the gluten-free diet (after a few months gluten-free). 

 

Once you are done testing, there are some good gluten-free (rice flour) pastas out there. There are even some good gluten-free beers.  Eating out gets trickier when gluten-free, but otherwise it is just changing a few things at home.  

 

Welcome to the board.