Sometimes I Wonder If I Don't Have Celiac Disease

[shai76]

I know I am allergic to wheat and oats. When I would eat those things I would have asthma attacks and hives, but not too terrible stomach problems. Sometimes a belly ache, but rarely any D. I am just confused. The first time I had a blood test a couple years ago the doctor said it was slightly positive, but my new doctor showed it to me and it said "NEGATIVE." I saw a GI doc because I had blood and mucus in my poop (I know, gross, but you all are probably used to it so what the heck), which my family doc thought was from my food allergies. They said I have positive celiac antibodies, but the biopsy was fine in my small intestine. So they said I don't have it, but I have a predisposition for it. My ENT did more extensive allergy testing and found out the cause of my asthma, hives, and swollon esophagus was wheat, as well as oats and other foods (I've know I was allergic to milk and eggs for years). My ENT says it doesn't matter if I have celiacs or not because I am allergic to those things anyway, but I would love to just know, you know? I really want to know if this is why I have all these food allergies and if being gluten free means some day I can eat those others things?

Plus I have to challenge for my food allergies all the time, and if I have celiacs I don't want to challenge that and run the risk of re-deloping my other food allergies if I end up getting rid of them. Anyone else have similar problems?

[jnclelland]

Well, you could challenge with rye and/or barley. If you can't tolerate those, then does it really matter whether or not you're celiac? Either way, you have to avoid the gluten-containing grains, right?

Jeanne

[penguin]

Food allergies are bad news and can get worse with each exposure. Your athsma attacks could turn into anaphalaxis. Not to scare you, it's just not something I'd screw around with.

It doesn't matter if you have celiac, does it? If your food allergies ever get better (and you should only test under the supervision of a doctor), then worry about celiacs. Your gluten intake is nil now, and isn't likely to change any time soon.

[nikki-uk]

When you had your biopsy was you avoiding Wheat and Oats already?(as you experience allergic reactions to them).

If you were,then that would explain the negative result .

Ok,positive antibodies to me =celiac disease.

I would imagine if you carry on eating wheat and oats,you would eventually get a 'positive' biopsy-but you know they make you ill,and would you really want to put your health at risk by doing that?

Some docs are sooo reluctant to give a diagnosis of celiac disease without the 'gold standard' definition (positive biopsy) and actually think they are doing you a favour-by not condemming you to a gluten free diet for life.

Whatever happened to preventative medicine??

I really don't like the sound of you having to do food challenges .If you are getting anIgE (allergic) reaction to certain foods,then this could seriously put your health at risk.

There are plenty of people on this board who have been given a diagnosis of celiac disease by their (more enlightened)docs just from positive antibodies.

BTW,do you ever get a reaction from Rye?

Good Luck

[tarnalberry]

as has been noted, you can test with barley and rye. barley would probably be easiest, as you can get pearl barley from the store and cook it up as a side dish and eat it. it's harder to find rye bread without wheat, though I believe you can get rye crackers without wheat in them.

[Ursa Major]

The REAL, black, coarse pumpernickel bread (the German kind) is made from rye without wheat. Try eating that as well as barley. And while you're at it, have some for me, it used to be my favourite bread!

[CarlaB]

Have something malted for me!! Vanilla malt ... malted milk balls ... yum.

[shai76]

Well, I had some spelt bread last month and I had a violent reaction to it. I even thought I was going to crap my pants.

Ever since I was a kid I would get tummy aches, at least once a month, and feel like I have to go and not be able to and then when I finally did I couldn't stop. I don't know if that was from my food allergies, or a sign of celiac disease, but it has stopped since I have eliminated all the foods I tested positive for on my allergy test. The problem is I stopped all allergens and gluten at the same time, so I don't really know. Being that I am class 2 or more for most of my allergies I don't want to risk trying wheat for awhile. I'm scared to use the epipen, and I carry benadryl wherever I go because I am anaphelectic to mold spores.

I'm not even allowed to eat things with yeast in it because I am so allergic, so I can't eat anything malted. Most breads are out of the question. Even those rice breads have yeast. I tried one that didn't once and it tasted like cardboard.

A couple problems I have believing it is I am overweight (I am 5'4 and 190 pounds), I've always had a difficult time losing pounds. It makes it hard for me to believe I have a malabsorption problem, even though my sisters doc says she had a 400 pound woman with anemia and celiac disease. And I see lots of people here that have problems gaining weight and I just have a hard time making sense of it.

Why do some people not lose weight from celiac disease? Why are some of us having problems taking weight off, not putting it on?

[tarnalberry]

Well, I had some spelt bread last month and I had a violent reaction to it. I even thought I was going to crap my pants.

Spelt is very closely related to wheat, and hence not suitable for testing with. (Some who are allergic to wheat cross-react with spelt. It looks like you do.)