Sensitivity, Intolerance, Or What?!

[SundyFrutin]

Hi everyone-

I'm thinking I have a gluten sensitivity (rather than full blown celiac). How do I get this diagnosed? It seems like blood tests and biopsies are to diagnose celiac alone.

Maybe I do have celiac. My symptoms include a very distended belly, gas, depression, fatigue, muscle pains, 'roids, and probably other stuff I can't think of right now, but none of the diarhea issues. My GE doc says its constipation, but I'm on my 3rd prescription with little relief.

thanks for your help!

[chocolatelover]

It certainly sounds like your symptoms fit (not everyone with celiac has diarrhea, so you're not alone there)...have you had any tests yet? If you haven't, it's probably worth seeing your doctor and getting the bloodwork done; perhaps an endoscopic biopsy as well. You must have gluten in your system for the bloodwork to show positive.

Enterolab (www.enterolab.com) can diagnose you through stool samples--they believe that this test is much more sensitive than the blood tests. It's a little pricey, and usually not covered by insurance, but most people say it's definitely worth the money! You don't need a dr's prescription to do this. They have tests for gluten, dairy, malabsorption, as well as genetic tests to see if you even have the celiac genes...

The other thing you can do is simply go off gluten and see if your symptoms resolve. It may be a while (several months) before they do, but many people try this as well.

Good luck!

[hathor]

Your symptoms certainly fit. I have some of them myself, with my primary concern being the constipation. I have Enterolab looking at what I was finally able to give them, so we'll see. I've gone a full month without gluten (that I know of ) and things do seem to be getting better.

Do you eat dairy products? That can create problems with constipation and gas as well for some people.