Coeliac suspected, please advise.

[TonyDexter]

Hello, I am Tony, 34yo. In my time I have had plenty of encounters wih doctors, but none ever suggested celiac disease. After researching extensively I'm suspicious I might have it, but before I go out to see a doctor (again!..) I'd like to share my concerns with you guys hoping you'll help me understand how strongly my symptoms match the pattern. So, the health problems:
1) I'm really underweight. 178cm tall and my normal weight is around 55 kg. Everything looks underweight - low fat, low muscle tone, light bones. When I was working out for a year I managed to push it to 60 kg, but not any further. And as soon as I stopped it gradually came back.

2) When I was born I was a really big baby, but when I went to school, I was 2nd shortest and the skinniest. In my baby years I had troubles starting to walk, because I had rheumatoid arthritis (or at least I was told). I also had a cataracta develop on one of the eyes. I'm pretty sure there was more to it but I just don't remember.

3) I'm sure I have anemia. Pretty much all the symptoms apply, but in their mild version. Not sure if this is connected, but my thyroid gland is slightly larger than normal.

4) I have acne even in my age, bad teeth, thin hair, but not getting bald just yet.

5) I have low energy and motivation. Sometimes I have to really push myself to do even some important stuff. Physically I can't run distances, even when I was young, and swimming was giving me shortness of breath and a weakness feeling after swimming like just 10-20m.

6) Looking at different nutrients deficiencies, it seems like most of them apply (for example magnesium, iron, calcium). But it's hard for me to esteemate to what extent.

7) I don't have issues with vomitting, the last time was probably more than 5 years ago. But diarrhea is kind of different. It doesn't happen often, more frequently in the early time of the day. And with age I think the rate decreases (which may be because I eat less junk food). But when it does happen, it's always bad and I'm left wondering what could possibly cause it. Pretty much everything im McDonalds gives me a diarrhea, besides chicken rolls and similar products. 
The last time I had diarrhea was when I was being late and ate just a big apple in the morning. 30 mins after I had severe stomach pains, sweating, feeling I was going to faint out. That apple incident makes me kind of sceptical about the whole celiac disease thing. One more thing about digestion, even when there is no diarrhea, I can often tell that the digestion process is sped up as if the body wants to get rid of the food ASAP. And just to point it out - my stool is normal 95% of the time.

8) my stomach is flat, never had any kind of bloatings whatsover, but my mother had problems in that regard. She had cardiovascular problems since childhood, and eventually that's what killed her. celiac disease was never mentioned by the doctors. But in retrospect, she had much more symptoms of celiac disease than I do. In particular - she had edema, extreme weakness, pretty much lost all her teeth in her 30s, had a bad cough most of the time.
And on my father's side, my granddad had diabetes.

9) I might also be wrong, but it feels like what sometimes gives me diarrhea is when I drink some liquid (tea with sugar) immediately after having a meal. And the meal can be eggs+meat or potatoes, so not necessarily something heavy with gluten.

10) Had some problems with accute gastritis, which i tied to coffee. As soon as I cut it out, the incidents stopped.

11) and some other symptoms that I dont have: I don't fall victim to flue more often than can be considered normal, I am not irritable at all (in fact, I like to think I'm really calm), my appetite doesn't change often.

So, that is pretty much it. Would love to read your replies.

 

 

[Jmg]

Hi Tony and welcome

You may find some of this helpful:

Especially the part about the different ways celiac can manifest. Some of which has some parallels with your experience as above, but others which may indicate maybe other issues. 

As it says there, no-one here can diagnose you and the best advice is probably to get to a dr and request a blood test. What you shouldn't do is make the same mistake myself and others have done and exclude gluten first.  That makes testing soo much more difficult.

Of course if you test negative theres nothig to stop giving gluten free diet a try...

Best of luck!

[Ennis-TX]

Sounds like you might have it, celiac disease effects everyone differently. It being a autoimmune disease that causes ones own immune system to mistakes and attack ones body damaging it. The whole fruit/sugar issues is a common enough problem. I get bloat and other gastric issues with carbs and sugars, and have had to be on a mostly fat, and protein diet for years. It is a combination of gut damage, and the biome of bacterial flora in your intestines.

What I do suggest is getting the proper testing done. See about getting a full celiac panel blood test done. Followed by a endoscope with biopsies. This requires you to eat gluten every day for 12 weeks prior to the blood test, just a cracker or half a slice of bread a day is enough. The endoscope I think requires 2 weeks of this. This way you can get the proper diagnoses.

Following this I would suggest seeing a dietician and getting tested for deficiencies, and then supplementing what you need and building a diet around what you can tolerate as it seems you have carb and sugar issues. Perhaps a ketogenic diet would work well for you. I can also suggest some brands of gluten-free supplements that might help with your fatigue and other issues if you would like, but I would suggest you figure out what your missing first.

[GFinDC]

Hi Tony,

Welcome to the forum!

I agree with JMG.

It's really hard to identify celiac disease just by symptoms, as people have such a wide variety of symptoms.  Some are not GI symptoms at all.  The only times the symptoms are clear are when they are typical GI distress, alternating constipation and diarrhea, or a skin rash called dermatitis herpetiformis (DH).  Some people have no GI symptoms at all, but still have celiac disease.

Celiac can damage your gut lining, and that makes gut performance a real unpredictable thing.  If it's broke, it's broke!  So sometimes eating things like an apple (which have hard to digest skins) can cause symptoms, even though they are gluten-free.  Other hard to digest foods can do that also, like popcorn, raw veggies, dairy maybe nuts,

So, the thing to do is get tested (via blood antibodies) and then if those are positive they do an endoscopy with biopsy samples of the small intestine lining.

You do have symptoms of possible celiac disease.  Underweight is a classic symptoms, fatigue, digestion problems, slow growth, joint pain, acne (skin issues), possible vitamin deficiencies, possible family history, etc.  Getting tested would be a great idea.  I suggest you take your written symptoms list with you for the doctor to read, or send it via email ahead of the visit.

[TonyDexter]

ok, thanks for your input everyone. Looks like celiac disease is a viable candidate. I was wondering though, while I'm still eating gluten, does it make any difference if I eat like a tiny amount or just let it loose and load up with those delicious poisons possibly for the years to come? I mean life-long diet sounds like a really long term.

p.s. this is assuming I do have celiac disease

[cyclinglady]

Here are the tests.  One piece of bread per day should be enough per the University of Chicago:

Open Original Shared Link

[squirmingitch]

1 hour ago, TonyDexter said:

ok, thanks for your input everyone. Looks like celiac disease is a viable candidate. I was wondering though, while I'm still eating gluten, does it make any difference if I eat like a tiny amount or just let it loose and load up with those delicious poisons possibly for the years to come? I mean life-long diet sounds like a really long term.

p.s. this is assuming I do have celiac disease

You don't NEED to eat more than what cyclinglady linked you to but by all means, if you want to have a gluten farewell glut in case you DO have celiac, then this is your chance. Cyclinglady didn't tell you but she makes no secret of the fact that she went whole hog on sourdough bread in the time leading up to her endoscopy. If I recall correctly, she said she ate a loaf per day. So pick your favorites & pig out.

[TonyDexter]

31 minutes ago, squirmingitch said:

You don't NEED to eat more than what cyclinglady linked you to but by all means, if you want to have a gluten farewell glut in case you DO have celiac, then this is your chance. Cyclinglady didn't tell you but she makes no secret of the fact that she went whole hog on sourdough bread in the time leading up to her endoscopy. If I recall correctly, she said she ate a loaf per day. So pick your favorites & pig out.

thanks. I don't put on any wait regardless of what I eat (at least there is some good in this condition), so if there is no difference from a medical perspective, what the hell? 

[squirmingitch]

Right-O!