Celiac Disease Or Wheat Sensitivity?

[dh204]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this forum, but I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice...

I was diagnosed with a wheat sensitivity a few years ago, after a blood test was done. I was originally diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. Anyway, after the wheat sensitivity diagnosis, I noticed that I was constantly breaking out with pimples on my face, and nothing would cure the acne, not even visits to the dermatologist. After trying everything, I finally stopped eating wheat products and noticed a vast improvement. I also went to see my allergist (I also have really, really bad sinus allergies) and asked her about wheat allergies. She performed a skin test, and I showed a reaction to wheat and soy, but not dairy, corn, or rice. The skin reactions were not very bad (compared to the skin test I had had for various other allergens, such as pollen and dust).

Anyway, I've been on a relatively wheat-free diet for some time now (with the occasional relapse one in awhile) and I've been okay. I have noticed, though, when I eat a little bit of wheat, like a cookie or a bite of bread or something, I usually break out with acne on my face anywhere between 2 weeks or 1 month later. I also tend to have stomachaches and feel extremely tired. Recently I started to break out with eczema, and I suspect that it's dermatitis herpetiformus (I usually get them on my legs and elbows, small red raised spots that itch like crazy and resemble a rash).

My concern is that I may actually have celiac disease rather than a wheat allergy. Does anyone know if wheat allergies have the same symptoms of celiac disease? or can a wheat allergy eventually develop into celiac disease? I haven't had any recent blood tests or other testing done to confirm celiac disease; I've heard that it's difficult to determine celiac when one is already on a wheat free diet...

Thanks for any advice!

[CarlaB]

My tests all came back negative after eating nearly wheat free for three years thinking it was just a wheat problem. I noticed that the longer "most wheat" was out of my diet, the more sensitive I became to it. I got tested by enterolab. However, if you do have dh, that is a sure diagnosis of celiac, so you might get the sores biopsied, then you don't have to worry about the blood tests and intestinal biopsy.

Welcome to the forum. It's a great source of information.

[ajay]

Hi dh,

A question (for you and for others): if you know you're sensitive to wheat, does it matter one way or another if you get a celiac diagnosis? I ask because I am allergic to wheat. I go back and forth about getting tested for celiac disease -- I already know that eating anything wheat/wheat-derived will make me miserable, so does it matter if I'm not eating it because I'm allegric to it or because I'm celiac? I feel like the end result is the same.

I'd really like to know what people think about this.

Has anyone out there with a wheat allergy been tested for celiac disease? or decided not to be tested?

[CarlaB]

The only real difference would be if you were allergic to wheat only, then you would not have to avoid barley and rye. For example, if you did not have celiac, but only a wheat allergy, you could enjoy a chocolate malt!

[ajay]

::sigh::

Wish I could, but way back when, when I was first trying to figure out what I was allergic to, I discovered that Wheat, Rye, Barley, and Corn are all off-limits. I suppose there's a possibility of cross-contamination, yadda yadda, but again, it seems to me that the end result is the same. If I eat it, I am not a happy camper.

But I *could* have a chocolate milkshake! If I had to cut out dairy, I'd be crushed.

[AndreaB]

I am allergic to wheat, wheat gluten, spelt and rye on the gluten spectrum. Not barley or oats. I had carob chips a few weeks ago which are barley malt sweetened and also have soy lecithin. My infant son had an eczema reaction to them. Don't know which of those ingredients tipped him off. He doesn't seem to have a problem with me having rice dream milk but I'm thinking of trying to get used to pacific brand. I am also allergic to soy. I still have some eczema patches that haven't gone away, but they don't bother me very often. My family is being tested by enterolab to see if we have anything more than sensitivities but will probably remain wheat free anyway as well as soy free.

[dh204]

hey everyone,

first of all, thanks for all the replies and advice!

The problem is that I'm not really positive as to what I am exactly allergic to (I know that I've definitely got wheat intolerance, but as for other grains, I'm really not sure). While avoiding wheat products, I usually end up buying gluten-free products. I'm living in France now, so the only wheat-free products are also only gluten-free.

As for getting tested, I am quite interested, because then it would be a lot more clear as to which foods I can and cannot eat. I am actually not quite sure that I have the DH eczema thingy, I looked at some pictures online the other day and it doesn't look exactly like the same thing (although it does look similar). My eczema is actually a little bit smaller and much more concentrated in the areas, and the red spots are not as big. I've already seen a dermatologist in France and in the US and it has been diagnosed as just regular eczema. I'm a bit skeptical about it because I've already had some sort of eczema before (which I believe was due to the hardness/softness of the water when I went between the US and France). Also in order to eventually be able to get reimbursed by the french social security system, I need to prove that I have celiac's disease which from what I've gathered so far, means an intestinal biopsy. I really don't want to have to reintegrate wheat again because I've noticed the enormous difference now that I've tried to cut out all wheat products. So I really don't want to go back to breaking out in acne all over my face (am only just getting over 2 enormous zits near my nose) and that weird eczema (which kind of comes and goes). The worst is the fatigue and stomach aches and the gas. I haven't tried eating oat (I never was a big fan of oatmeal anyway, so I've never really eaten much of it, but I did have some wheat-free oatmeal cookies once in the US and I seemed to be fine). I've also never really had much barley in my diet to begin with, so I don't really know about reactions to barley, but I do know that corn and rice are okay. I've just started reintegrating dairy and I seem to be fine, in fact, since I've started eating probiotic yogurt I feel a lot better now. It's just that now is allergy season so I'm trying not to eat too much dairy; I've noticed that my sinuses are much more stuffed up if I've been eating a lot of cheese and such.

[mouse]

There are a few of us on this board that are highly allergic to wheat and also tested positive for Celiac. My GP visually diagnosed DH when he gave me the results of the blood test. I have had small watery blisters on my hands, on and off, my whole life. They itched like crazy. I have only had them once since going gluten-free and that was when I delibertly injested gluten.