My Symptoms

[alenacat]

I am a 21-year old female student from England, I am wondering if I am celiac or merely gluten sensitive. When I am alone, buying food for myself I buy fruit, veg, fish, milk, eggs. I never buy bread, pasta or cereals. Gluten is not something I have aknowledged up to now. But when I am around other people I do eat these foods, I like the taste and the texture of them and afterall they are normal foods.

But I alwasy have

stomach aches

nausea

acid reflux & indigestion

bowel pains followed by diarrhea (usually after bread)

or constipation (pasta and others)

hangover like feeling

bloating

To be honest I thought a lot of other people had this and I was just less tolerent to pain and keeping my irritability and depression at bay.

In the past I have been to the doctor about my depression and joint aches. I have been tested to be negative to rhumatoid arthritus. While I have an underactive thyroid that is active enough to be not classed as abnormal, I changed my diet which was a vegan one (ethical reasons) to include fish and dairy.

Now I work out a bit and some days (perhaps the days after I've eaten gluten, but dairy might play a role too) I cannot work out as long and it is much more difficult even though I should have the energy. Any advice helpful

[Ursa Major]

Hi, and welcome to this board.

You sure sound like you are gluten intolerant. Celiac disease is just one manifestation of gluten intolerance/sensitivity. Neither one is worse than the other.

It seems that really, you have already figured out that you have a problem with gluten. If you want to have official confirmation, I suggest you try celiac disease testing. Just one caution: Because you really don't eat a lot of gluten, your tests could be coming back a false negative.

Another way to go would be with Open Original Shared Link. Their testing is much more sensitive and possibly more accurate in your case (if you can afford it).

Really, you have probably realized by now that you should stay away from gluten for life. And I mean completely. Your depression and joint aches are likely caused by gluten, two very common symptoms in addition to the other ones you cited.

All the best!

[mellajane]

I have been sick since I was seven I am now 30. It has been three years. Your symptoms are exactly as mine...I get deathly sick like a very bad hangover, I dry heave for days at a time.It is literally like poisining your body. I have found from research that those particulair symptoms is more the wheat allergy vs gluten. I do avoid both and have for three years it has changed my life dramatically. Depending on how sick you get and I think the amount of years the more you have to eliminate everything bad. I am fairly small in size always had weight gaining issues, it has taken my body at least thre years to recover form the wheat and gluten over the years. I did come up negative on all my test....they did however test me to late of a time I had already stopped eating wheat.This is the only thing that has helped me for years.... It is seriously crazy to think that this whole time I was allergic to wheat. I am italian you could only imagine. Good luck please anyway I can help is awesome!

[GlutenWrangler]

Whether you have celiac disease or gluten sensitivity, the protocol is the same; the gluten-free diet. Celiac disease is just gluten sensitivity which manifests as intestinal damage, visible on a biopsy. With your symptoms, it would definitely be a good idea to get tested. I agree that Enterolab is a great way to go, since it is such a sensitive method. I'm not sure how it would work considering that you live in England, but I'm sure they can probably ship internationally. It seems like you have a great diet without the gluten, so you shouldn't have too much of a problem adjusting to the diet. Feel free to ask if you have any other questions. Good luck,

-Brian

[Nantzie]

I had a similar situation. If I tried to eat "healthy" as far as what my health-concious friends and family ate, I felt awful. If I threw in the towel and ate junk all day long, I felt fine.

My favorite junk foods? Many of them ended up being gluten-free. Even most of the candy bars I like ended up being gluten-free.

I remember telling my MIL that I was just weird. The only time I ever felt good was when I ate junk food. Made no sense whatsoever, but it was true.

Who knew?

Nancy

[nora-n]

Hi

I am in europe too.

There have been some very good articles about celiac in the bmj. They might be worth showin to the doctor.

i think you should ask the doctor for the celiac blood tests.

i tested negative, was off gluten too soon after the symptoms appeared (I had had negative tests twice before, a couple of years ago and several years ago so I did not feel too guilty) but when I really wanted the tests because I realized I had just started to have peripheral nevropathy before stopping gluten, and there was a connection.....I went back on gluten for the biopsy, but only five weeks. Should have been 3 months , and 300 milligrams of gluten per kg, about 300 grams of bread and wheat a day. I do not think I ate that much.

But I noticed afterwards that my peripheral nevropathy started to return.....went off gluten again.

So the moral of the story: Get tested as soon as possible, or go on gluten for three months and ask for tests. It is much easier to get tested nwadays, thye do not refuse the tests anymore.

(I lost two kilos during the gluten period. I was afraid I was gonna gain several kilos.....)

In the US, it is not so good to have an official diagnosis, because of insurance issues. in Europe, it is a plus to have an official diagnosis.

nora

[alenacat]

Thank-you all for advice, I will take the tests and let you all know. Luckily here in England they should be free but I know they won't be as comprehensive as entreolab.. more of a yes/no answer. I will keep all this advice in mind and take a printout just in case my doc isn't celiac-savvy.

[SUZ42]

In the US, it is not so good to have an official diagnosis, because of insurance issues. in Europe, it is a plus to have an official diagnosis.

nora

Hi

Just curious what's with our insurance companies that having an official dx is not a good idea? I am being tested now through EnterLab and depending on those results was going to take it to the Doc. To try to get rid of (I believe) the bogus dx he's given me - IBS/gastritis. Maybe I should just go gluten free on my own and stick with his dx???

Suzanne