Do I Have Celiac?

[Britt Dubendris]

I am new to this message board, so hope I am doing this right. I am not sure if I have celiac or not. I had blood drawn and my IgG was a little higher than the range (mine was 21, the normal range was 0-19 units), so it wasn't that much higher. My IgA was 6 (normal range 0-19 unites) and my tissue transglutaminase was 12 (normal range 0-19 units). So I was told I do not have celiac. I did not pursure the biopsy route, the way the doctor was talking I kind of felt like he wouldn't bother with the biopsy because he was so adament my stomach pain was irritable bowel syndrome not celiac. I continue to have symptoms-abdominal pain, constipation, nausea. I was also told a while ago when I have blood drawn before this that I was slightly anemic. I have gone through other tests to see if this stomach pain was something else-cat scans, ultrasounds, food allergy testing. Everything has come back fine. However, I think I am going to try the gluten free diet to see if it will help with the way I feel. I continously feel lousy, exhausted, etc. I don't know if I should pursue any more testing or just try the gluten free diet to see what happens?? Any thoughts? thanks!

[CarlaB]

At this point your best bet is to see what your dietary response is. If you get better, you know you have a gluten intolerance that may or may not be celiac, but what does it matter if you feel better? If you don't get better, then start looking for what else might be causing your illness. There are systemic diseases that have digestive symptoms and fatigue.

Welcome to the board! You will learn a lot here.

[mommida]

If you continue testing, stay on gluten and get another doctor.

If you start the diet, traditional testing is over. If you have a positive reaction to the diet, you will stay on it for life. Some people have a hard time staying on the diet if they start to doubt themselves. Genetic testing will not be entirely accurate and doctors will not diagnose Celiac just from the genetic markers.

It the long run it may be better not to have an official diagnoses for health care coverage.

L.

[Guest Villanfam]

I would say definitely try the diet. It couldn't hurt . I hope you find your answer and get better soon. Courtney

Here is what we know about antigliadin anitbodies

Antigliadin antibodies:

The antigliadin antibodies IgG and IgA recognize a small piece of the gluten

protein called gliadin. These antibodies became available during the late

1970

[Britt Dubendris]

Thanks for the info. I am thinking of starting the gluten free diet as of January 1st. Start the new year off fresh. I'll see if I will go for more testing, if I do I will definately switch doctors to one that will listen to me. I see a lot of people talking about Enterolabs. What is that?? Do they do testing for celiac and gluten sensitivity? Would that be a good idea to get tested through them? Where are they located?

Britt

[Guest Villanfam]

Enterolab is a private lab that does stool testing. It will tell you if you have a problem with gluten. Insurance does not cover it and some people on here prefer it because they never have to report the results to their Insurance Co. Most (if not all) Doctors dismiss the results because it is still new technology. You will have to order the tests from their website Open Original Shared Link I think it is around $300 or a little more.

Courtney

[Britt Dubendris]

Thanks for the info. about Enterlob. I think I might look into it more and see what results I can get from them. Thanks again!

Britt

[happygirl]

Hey Britt,

Welcome to the board! We are happy you have found us. This is a great resource!!!!

My vote goes to trying the diet. See how you do. You won't know necessarily if you have Celiac Disease or non-Celiac gluten intolerance, but in terms of day to day life, the treatment is the same: a strict gluten free diet.

I was dx'ed through traditional blood testing, but 2 years later, I used enterolab for their gene testing and other food sensitivities (I had non-gluten related problems). All of my doctors dismissed their results....so your doctor may not be interested in the results. It might be worthwhile to find a local Celiac support group and get a referral for a good doctor. Most docs know little about Celiac; even fewer recognize non-Celiac gluten intolerance. They just dont get it!

Regardless of what docs think about enterolab, I liked them for their gene testing (they use an outside company for that...or you can have it run through your doctor through a different lab). It let me know that I did have a Celiac gene....

Glad to have you here! Let us know what we can do to help. Read a lot, and do searches, and ask questions!

Laura

[Rachel--24]

If you're going to use Enterolab at this point I would say to only get the gene testing to see if its possible for you to have Celiac. You already tested positive for gluten intolerance so you dont really need to pay to have Enterolab tell you what you already know. I think the gene test alone is around $150.

Enterolab cant diagnose Celiac...they can only tell you if gluten is a problem for you. The elevated IgG already shows that gluten is a problem so you can save yourself some money and just order the gene test which will tell you if you carry a Celiac gene or not. If not then you likely dont have Celiac but are still gluten intolerant. You should try the diet to see if it helps.

Its not a good idea to start the diet on the 1st if you plan on seeing another Dr. and possibly doing further testing. Starting the diet before testing will skew the results and you may get a false negative. You need to stay on gluten for any future Celiac testing.

This is *not* the case for Enterolab testing. You can start the diet and still get whatever tests you want from them.

[wowzer]

I am new to this message board, so hope I am doing this right. I am not sure if I have celiac or not. I had blood drawn and my IgG was a little higher than the range (mine was 21, the normal range was 0-19 units), so it wasn't that much higher. My IgA was 6 (normal range 0-19 unites) and my tissue transglutaminase was 12 (normal range 0-19 units). So I was told I do not have celiac. I did not pursure the biopsy route, the way the doctor was talking I kind of felt like he wouldn't bother with the biopsy because he was so adament my stomach pain was irritable bowel syndrome not celiac. I continue to have symptoms-abdominal pain, constipation, nausea. I was also told a while ago when I have blood drawn before this that I was slightly anemic. I have gone through other tests to see if this stomach pain was something else-cat scans, ultrasounds, food allergy testing. Everything has come back fine. However, I think I am going to try the gluten free diet to see if it will help with the way I feel. I continously feel lousy, exhausted, etc. I don't know if I should pursue any more testing or just try the gluten free diet to see what happens?? Any thoughts? thanks!

[wowzer]

I'm wondering the same thing. My blood work came out negative for celiac. I did have the full panel test. The more posts that I read the more symptoms I find that I have. When I look at the DH pictures, some remind me of rashes that I have had. I get the tingling feeling, hot flashes, I take synthroid, my little sister is a celiac, have been treated for carpal tunnel, wake up with swollen fingers. I've been told the rashes could be impetego, poison ivy, eczema. I was tested for herpes. I had major itching in the female area. My gynecologist did do a biopsy which came back as an allergy. I wish it had been tested for DH. My family doctor did say that even though my test was negative that it didn't mean I didn't have it. I just can't believe how itchy it gets. I know I need to try the gluten free diet. I am more than half way there. I used to be the cookie monster and don't look at them anymore. I take leftovers for lunch instead of a sandwich. The majority of my dinners are a meat, vegetable and potato. We don't usually have bread with dinner. I was also tested for diabetes a year ago and it came out negative. Why can't doctors understand? It is so frustrating.