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

Threebrainedbeing

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Threebrainedbeing Rookie
Threebrainedbeing
Posted

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.

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Nancym Enthusiast
Nancym
Posted

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 Contributor
kbtoyssni
Posted

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 Rookie
Corsicana Grandma
Posted
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 Rookie
Threebrainedbeing
Posted
  • Author
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 Collaborator
happygirl
Posted

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?

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      Fermented foods, Kefir, Kombucha?

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      I have read fermented foods like sauerkraut, pickles, Kefir, Kombucha are great for gut health besides probiotics. However I have searched and read about ones that were tested (Kefir, Kombucha) and there is no clear one that is very helpful. Has anyone take Kefir, Kombucha and noticed a difference in gut health? I read one is lactose free but when tested was high in lactose so I would probably try a non dairy one. Thanks
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      High TTG-IgG and Normal TTG-IgA

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      Thanks again for the detailed explanation. Just to clarify, I actually did have my initial tests done while I was still consuming gluten. I stopped eating gluten only after those tests were completed, and it has now been about 70 days since I went gluten-free. I understand the limitations around diagnosing NCGS and the importance of antibody testing and biopsy for celiac disease. Unfortunately, where I live, access to comprehensive testing (including total IgA and endoscopy with biopsy) is limited, which makes things more complicated. Your explanation about small-bowel damage, nutrient absorption, and iron-deficiency anemia still aligns closely with my history, and it’s been very helpful in understanding what may be going on. I don't wanna get Endoscopy and I can't start eating Gluten again because it's hurt really with severe diarrhea.  I appreciate you taking the time to share such detailed and informative guidance. Thank you so much for this detailed and thoughtful response. I really appreciate you pointing out the relationship between anemia and antibody patterns, and how the high DGP IgG still supports celiac disease in my case. A gluten challenge isn’t something I feel safe attempting due to how severe my reactions were, so your suggestion about genetic testing makes a lot of sense. I’ll look into whether HLA testing is available where I live and discuss it with my doctor. I also appreciate you mentioning gastrointestinal beriberi and thiamine deficiency. This isn’t something any of my doctors have discussed with me, and given my symptoms and nutritional history, it’s definitely worth raising with them. I’ll also ask about correcting deficiencies more comprehensively, including B vitamins alongside iron. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge and taking the time to help. I’ll update the forum as I make progress.
    • knitty kitty
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      Blood tests for thiamine are unreliable.  The nutrients from your food get absorbed into the bloodstream and travel around the body.  So, a steak dinner can falsely raise thiamine blood levels in the following days.  Besides, thiamine is utilized inside cells where stores of thiamine are impossible to measure. A better test to ask for is the Erythrocyte Transketolace Activity test.  But even that test has been questioned as to accuracy.  It is expensive and takes time to do.   Because of the discrepancies with thiamine tests and urgency with correcting thiamine deficiency, the World Health Organization recommends giving thiamine for several weeks and looking for health improvement.  Thiamine is water soluble, safe and nontoxic even in high doses.   Many doctors are not given sufficient education in nutrition and deficiency symptoms, and may not be familiar with how often they occur in Celiac disease.  B12 and Vitamin D can be stored for as long as a year in the liver, so not having deficiencies in these two vitamins is not a good indicator of the status of the other seven water soluble B vitamins.  It is possible to have deficiency symptoms BEFORE there's changes in the blood levels.   Ask your doctor about Benfotiamine, a form of thiamine that is better absorbed than Thiamine Mononitrate.  Thiamine Mononitrate is used in many vitamins because it is shelf-stable, a form of thiamine that won't break down sitting around on a store shelf.  This form is difficult for the body to turn into a usable form.  Only thirty percent is absorbed in the intestine, and less is actually used.   Thiamine interacts with all of the other B vitamins, so they should all be supplemented together.  Magnesium is needed to make life sustaining enzymes with thiamine, so a magnesium supplement should be added if magnesium levels are low.   Thiamine is water soluble, safe and nontoxic even in high doses.  There's no harm in trying.
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      Neither of them were anemic 6 months after the Celiac diagnosis. His other vitamin levels (d, B12) were never low. My daughters levels were normal after the first 6 months. Is the thiamine test just called thiamine? 
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      Yes, I do think they need a Thiamine supplement at least. Especially since they eat red meat only occasionally. Most fruits and vegetables are not good sources of Thiamine.  Legumes (beans) do contain thiamine.  Fruits and veggies do have some of the other B vitamins, but thiamine B 1 and  Cobalamine B12 are mostly found in meats.  Meat, especially organ meats like liver, are the best sources of Thiamine, B12, and the six other B vitamins and important minerals like iron.   Thiamine has antibacterial and antiviral properties.  Thiamine is important to our immune systems.  We need more thiamine when we're physically ill or injured, when we're under stress emotionally, and when we exercise, especially outside in hot weather.  We need thiamine and other B vitamins like Niacin B 3 to keep our gastrointestinal tract healthy.  We can't store thiamine for very long.  We can get low in thiamine within three days.  Symptoms can appear suddenly when a high carbohydrate diet is consumed.  (Rice and beans are high in carbohydrates.)  A twenty percent increase in dietary thiamine causes an eighty percent increase in brain function, so symptoms can wax and wane depending on what one eats.  The earliest symptoms like fatigue and anxiety are easily contributed to other things or life events and dismissed.   Correcting nutritional deficiencies needs to be done quickly, especially in children, so their growth isn't stunted.  Nutritional deficiencies can affect intelligence.  Vitamin D deficiency can cause short stature and poor bone formation.   Is your son taking anything for the anemia?  Is the anemia caused by B12 or iron deficiency?  
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