Question on Celiac's gene

[Lmiddleton3179]

Hello all,

I've been having many symptoms of Celiac's for years now. I have been hesitant to tell a doctor that I think it could be celiac's related. My question to you all is can you have celiac's without having a relative whose had it? My mom had an autoimmune disease but it was not celiacs. 

[RebekahLynn]

You might have an unknown family history of celiac and simply be the first to find out. I had a friend exhibiting signs of celiac who kept insisting it did not run in her family and her family just coincidentally had a history of various ailments that can be related to undiagnosed celiac. About 6 mos later, her 50 something mom went to the hospital for bernal bleeding and was diagnosed with celiac. Suddenly, there was a family history. Until about 10 years ago, my husband's family had no history, now someone from every living generation has been diagnosed. I know of no one else in my family that was ever diagnosed with celiac, but both my grandmothers and others in my family have multiple symptoms, all seen in retrospect. I think celiac is too new of a disease (in relation to our understanding of it) to really rely on the lack of previous diagnosis in earlier generations. Hope this helps. 

[CherylS]

It is currently a difficult disease to diagnose, with all of our medical technology!

I think that in generations before us, it was even more difficult to diagnose due to the variation of presentations, numbers of symptoms, and lack of technology.

I'm in the process of being diagnosed with or without celiac.  I do have one of the genetic markers.  If I am diagnosed with Celiac Disease, I am going to believe that my dad had it.  He had Rheumatoid Arthritis and other autoimmune disorders.  Now that I am familiar with the symptoms of celiac, I realize my dad had a lot of those symptoms.  We will never know, he died 5 years ago.

[Darren]

95 % of the 1 in 130 people in the world who have celiac, don't know they have it. So you could easily have it regardless of what the "known" family history is. Just get tested and that will let you know. Better to be safe and don't be afraid to tell your doctor what you need done because most doctors don't know anything about celiac.