Frustrated! How Do I Find A Doctor Who Can Work With Me On This Issue?

[Threebrainedbeing]

I live in NYC, am frustrated as hell with all my symptoms, feel like a hypochondriac, and my doctor isn't really very supportive or aggressive with investigating what is going on with my system. When I had a different doctor no longer with the practice, she sent me to a nutritionist who put me on an elimination diet which seemed to indicate I was having a reaction to gluten.

There is obviously something systemic going on because I get blepharitus or severe puffy eyelids periodically that are itchy and look like I've aged 20 years, wheeziness which seems to have finally gone away after eliminating gluten, and when I cheated recently I got a horrible irritable bowel syndrome with severe constipation gas pain and mucus that was so bad that I went to a gastroentronologist who performed a colonoscopy which revealed nothing. It is finally calming down but it is still not totally back to normal, and it's been months. My doctor has done a celiac blood test which came up negative and nobody, not even the gastroentronologist seems to have heard of the enterolab.

I am frustrated and feel as though there is no support in the medical field. It is obvious to me I have a gluten issue and I suspect I also have a candida issue, because many of the symptoms seem to fit. I am wondering if anyone out there has a more supportive doctor who does more thorough testing, or knows how to find one. The practice I am going to is supposed to have a holistic bent, but I am left unsatisfied.

[Nancym]

You might want to reevaluate if you really need a doctor for this. A doctor can't cure you, they know nothing about nutrition, there's no prescription that can help you with gluten sensitivity. I think what you have to do, what most of us did, was educate ourselves on the Internet, get our own testing or do dietary trials and figure it out on our own. The vast majority of MDs just aren't capable of dealing with this issue and it is a waste of time and money looking for one, IMHO.

[kbtoyssni]

It takes time to find a good doctor. I'd call around some of the doctors in your area and ask if they deal with celiac patients. Their response should give you a good indication of how open they will be to the disease. In my experience, younger doctors have been better. They're not set in their ways yet and tend to be open to alternative diagnoses. While you may not need a doctor to officially diagnose celiac, I prefer to have a doc who is aware of it since I will be seeing her at least once a year. I do not want to have a fight about celiac every time I go in and there are some conditions that are more common in celiacs that I'd like for her to be aware of.

[Corsicana Grandma]

I live in NYC, am frustrated as hell with all my symptoms, feel like a hypochondriac, and my doctor isn't really very supportive or aggressive with investigating what is going on with my system. When I had a different doctor no longer with the practice, she sent me to a nutritionist who put me on an elimination diet which seemed to indicate I was having a reaction to gluten.

There is obviously something systemic going on because I get blepharitus or severe puffy eyelids periodically that are itchy and look like I've aged 20 years, wheeziness which seems to have finally gone away after eliminating gluten, and when I cheated recently I got a horrible irritable bowel syndrome with severe constipation gas pain and mucus that was so bad that I went to a gastroentronologist who performed a colonoscopy which revealed nothing. It is finally calming down but it is still not totally back to normal, and it's been months. My doctor has done a celiac blood test which came up negative and nobody, not even the gastroentronologist seems to have heard of the enterolab.

I am frustrated and feel as though there is no support in the medical field. It is obvious to me I have a gluten issue and I suspect I also have a candida issue, because many of the symptoms seem to fit. I am wondering if anyone out there has a more supportive doctor who does more t

thorough testing, or knows how to find one. The practice I am going to is supposed to have a holistic bent, but I am left unsatisfied.

The doctor that I confer with is Carol Dalton, RN, NP. She works from the Helios Health Clinic in Boulder, Co. She is the one who cured the candida that I had for a dozen years - no other doctor could discover the problem. She discovered my gluten intolerance and casein allergy. She had me do the tests thru the EnterLab. She charges $120. a 30 minute session. Some of the best money I've ever spent.

Corsicana Grandma

[Threebrainedbeing]

I prefer to have a doc who is aware of it since I will be seeing her at least once a year. I do not want to have a fight about celiac every time I go in and there are some conditions that are more common in celiacs that I'd like for her to be aware of.

Thank you for understanding. This is exactlty why I'd like to have a doctor who is on board about this, and other holistic and preventative issues. I have been self-diagnosing for so long that it would be nice to have a doctor who can work with me on the issues to help me find the data I need, and there are certain conditions that can be actually worsened by being prescribed certain medications. I'd like to be treated holistically rather than piecemeal.

[happygirl]

I don't have any personal experience with him, but have heard of Dr. Leo Galland in NYC, who deals with food issues and other more 'holistic' realms.

We have some NYC'ers on this board...maybe they will have some ideas?