Husband's Circumstantial Evidence

[Ellie342]

I know my husband is thinking I'm a bit of a nut for suggesting he try a gluten-free diet. He wouldn't meet any diagnostic criteria for celiac based on his tests, but I feel like the sum total of the circumstantial evidence is accumulating:

- he has mild chronic IBS

- he has recurrent aphthous ulcers in his mouth

- he has mild psoriasis, and an uncle with severe psoriatic arthritis (I've read a study that says those psoriatic arthritis patients with positive anti-gliadin antibodies see improvement of their arthritis on gluten-free diets, even though they don't confirm positive for celiac on bipopsy or anti-ttg)

- he tests "equivocal" for anti-gliadin IgA (top of the "equivocal", or "iffy", range) but has negative anti-gliadin IgG

No one thing is that big a deal, but the sum total sure makes me suspicious. What do you all think?

Ellie

[Ursa Major]

I think it can't hurt to try the gluten-free diet, what have you got to lose? It really might help, if your husband is willing to give it a good try, without cheating. And you're right, the combination of symptoms could be celiac disease or gluten intolerance.

If the gluten-free diet doesn't help, at least you'd be able to look elsewhere. By the way, those symptoms could also be caused by an intolerance to dairy or soy. Or a combination.

I hope that the gluten-free diet helps.

[nikki-uk]

I know my husband is thinking I'm a bit of a nut for suggesting he try a gluten-free diet. He wouldn't meet any diagnostic criteria for celiac based on his tests, but I feel like the sum total of the circumstantial evidence is accumulating:

- he has mild chronic IBS

- he has recurrent aphthous ulcers in his mouth

- he has mild psoriasis, and an uncle with severe psoriatic arthritis (I've read a study that says those psoriatic arthritis patients with positive anti-gliadin antibodies see improvement of their arthritis on gluten-free diets, even though they don't confirm positive for celiac on bipopsy or anti-ttg)

- he tests "equivocal" for anti-gliadin IgA (top of the "equivocal", or "iffy", range) but has negative anti-gliadin IgG

No one thing is that big a deal, but the sum total sure makes me suspicious. What do you all think?

Ellie

My hubby is a diagnosed coeliac but going gluten-free completely cleared his psoriasis (and eased his psoriatic arthritis) so it certainately can't hurt!!

[happygirl]

I think that it would be worth it to have the full Celiac panel run, which includes the tTG test, which is more sensitive. After that, regardless of the results, it might be very well worth it to try the gluten free diet! There are many on this board who do not have an official diagnosis, but refer to themselves as "gluten intolerant"---they know they do better on the gluten free diet.

I think every single board member on here has been diagnosed with "IBS"....amazingly, the vast majority do not have these problems once on a strict gluten free diet.

[Nancym]

We get so many people with a positive dietary response that don't pass any clinical blood tests. If you could just get him to agree to a limited trial... it might convince him. But I would imagine it'll be hard to really get him to go along with the notion.

[CMCM]

I don't know why so many people balk at testing out a gluten free diet......it's not like you're taking a dangerous drug or anything. Just a couple of weeks, a month, and you'll learn a lot. There are a LOT of nutritionists and doctors out there who feel gluten AND dairy are highly problematic and behind a huge number of things that ail us. They feel NONE of us should eat gluten and possibly dairy too. It's worth a try,and who knows, the psoriasis just might go away! Then the issue might become the question of whether or not eating gluten is a good trade off for having psoriasis and other things. And also the question of either celiac disease or gluten sensitivity remains. The latest book I just read claims that 80% of us are at the very least gluten sensitive, and that celiac disease is merely one extreme subset of the extensive group of people who are gluten sensitive. And there remains the question of intestinal damage occuring even if you don't have the celiac disease gene. Everything is not yet known about all this.