General Disease Question

[jaimi alderson]

I was diagnosed Mar 29 with celiac by bloodtest & positive biopsy. Do I say that I technically had the disease for 30 years before it was diagnosed being that I am 30 years old? I had no symptoms except anemia which I may never know if that was related as it was anemia due to small RBC's not iron-deficient & I don't have time to travel to the ends of the earth to get that question answered. But anyway NO digestive probs until Feb. 24 everyone in my house got Rhotavirus or something similar as tests for this were neg but kids got over it with in 6 dyas & I DID NOT. So I was sick for 3 weeks then got blood test back & was almost symptom free after gluten-free for a week. And now I am totally back to normal 2.5 weeks after gluten-free. So anyway have I been causing damage to my Villi my whole life with no symptoms or do I just say that I have had the disease for a month? I so appreciate any input anyone has...I have so very little time to research or write with my toddlers!!!!!!

[Guest nini]

the general consensus is that you need something to trigger it into action, that you always had the predisposition to it, but that it took something (a stressor) to cause your body to react. So, I would say that if you can pinpoint an event, like a major illness, a job stress, an accident, childbirth anything like that, then that would be your "trigger" and you've had full blown celiac since that point. My personal opinion is that gluten is toxic to everyone and you may have been having symptoms all your life, just not severe enough to notice. But as a general rule, I would say that it needed a trigger before the damage really started to occur.

[sillyyak]

Hi

I should mention that I was also clinically asymptomatic for 35 years until Fall 2005 when I feel deathly ill. I acquired an infection, which triggered the sprue symptoms. So, like you, I also had no symptoms for all of my life. In my case an infection "activated" my celiac. This is not the case for everyone though ("there are two celiacs that are alike"). I usually say that I have had sprue all my life (if asked). I am sure I was doing damage in some way to my body (not necessarily villi related) as I have bone loss and was diagnosed with bone loss about 10 years ago. Of course hindsight is 20/20 and the bone loss was really a symptom of the celiac.

[SueC]

I had no Gastric symptoms at all and it was not until I was 38 that I got really sick with neurological problems and rapid weight loss. My endoscopy revealed COMPLETE villious atrophy. Hindsight being what it is, I can probably blame many unexplained miscarriages on celiac but that the is the only other symptom I showed.

[tarnalberry]

There's no way to know, and it doesn't actually matter in the treatment.

[ogrestrength]

Do most of us pick up this stressor in our 30's? I got it when I was 33 , my sister when she was 32, and I see a whole lot more 30's on this board.

[nikki-uk]

I think the reason why alot of people finally get dx'd in their 30's is because after years of their body fighting the 'toxin' (gluten)-it finally gives up and just can't do it anymore.

This is when you 'really' start to notice that all is not right with your body.

My husband got dx'd with arthritis at 35yrs and celiac disease at 40yrs-at which point his immune system said

'Enough!!'

[chrissy]

you can just say "i was diagnosed with celiac disease in march."

christine