No Doubt In My Mind Now...

[JerryK]

So after 4 gluten-free days and no Gastro symptoms, I ate a sandwich last night. Lovely Country White

bread tasted heavenly...(sorry)

This morning...right back to the loose floaty bulky smelly stools...boom.

There is no longer any doubt in my mind that I am Gluten Intolerant...absolutely zero.

The only question that remains is do I actually have celiac disease?

Geeze I'm going to miss country white bread....

[aorona]

you could get blood tested for celiac, but you must be on a gluten containing diet I believe for at least one week. If you feel better going on a gluten free diet, and don't want to get tested, just stick with it. It really depends on a personal preference. Some people are so glad to feel better that they don't care to be tested and just stick with the diet.

[penguin]

It's 3 months on gluten, actually, at the equivalent of 4 slices of bread a day. That's what the latest research says, anyway.

Jerry, you have several options:

1: Just go gluten-free if you're confident in your self-diagnosis and don't feel you need mainstream testing. This also requires that you don't cheat and challenge yourself all the time just to be sure.

2: Just get the blood test, and go gluten-free either way. Note that blood tests may be inconclusive, especially since you've been flip-flopping back and forth between diets.

3: Get the blood test and biopsy, see caveats in #2.

4: Use enterolab and see if you have the gene, malabsorption, and immune reactions. It won't tell you if you actually have celiac though, but it will confirm your suspicions of intolerance.

[CarlaB]

Does it matter if it's gluten intolerance or celiac? They're essentially the same, one has visible villous atrophy, but both can damage the intestine and have the same symptoms. Do the testing if you need it, but there's some freedom in not having it as a pre-existing condition.