Is This Celiac?

[KMD1]

Hello,

 

I am a nineteen year old female who has been having some strange symptoms for about a year.

It started last spring when I started to get eczema for the first time in my life. About a month later I started to get muscle twitching that has not gone away since. I have gone to my gp several times because of this, and he said since there was no sign of clinical weakness there was no reason to worry about it being anything serious. In the fall, I started to notice excess hair shedding and again my doctor told me that it was probably telogen effluvium, and I would just have to wait it out. My hair has since stopped falling out excessively, but I still lose more hair than I did before it started falling out.

 

My sister was diagnosed with Hashimoto's last year and has been gluten-free ever since. I'm going to get my thyroid tested in a couple weeks, but I've been reading that thyroid problems can be linked to celiac disease.

 

My symptoms include:

muscle twitching

general fatigue

dysphagia (For about ten years, I have had problems with food getting lodged in my esophagus and read that it can be related to food allergies)

hair loss

bloating

constipation

gas

pins and needles and vibrations in hands and feet

eczema

 

I am wondering if I should also have my doctor test me for celiac when he tests me for thyroid problems.

 

[MycasMommy]

I would certainly ask him to do so.  I believe kareng has the list of the runs that should be run. Also, you have to be eating gluten right up until the blood test.

[cyclinglady]

Welcome!

Here is a link to Mary Shomon site regarding thyroid testing:

Open Original Shared Link

These are the celiac tests:

-tTG IgA and tTG IgG

-DGP IgA and DGP IgG

-EMA IgA

-total serum IgA and IgG (control test)

-AGA IGA and AGA IgG - older and less reliable tests largely replace by the DGP tests

-endoscopic biopsy - make sure at least 6 samples are taken

The University of Chicago's celiac disease website has a wealth of information and I encourage you to check it out.

KEEP EATING GLUTEN UNTIL ALL TESTING IS COMPLETE!

All lot of thyroid sites are recommending a gluten free diet. But many folks who have Hashi's also have celiac disease. Testing for celiac disease should be done before trying a gluten-free diet. If you do have celiac disease, going back on gluten for testing can be horrible! If tests results are negative, then by all means, try a gluten-free diet. Most folks need a definitive diagnosis in order to maintain the diet for life. I can tell you that going gluten free has not helped my thyroid at all! I have been gluten-free for two years and I am currently on a hyper swing.

Welcome to the forum and let us know how it goes!

[nvsmom]

I discovered that I had Hashi's when  when we were running (confirmation) tests on celiac disease -I had the doctor run extra tests for thyroid problems .  LOLI agrre that you might as well check them both at once.

 

Good luck with it!