Still Not Sure

[deedub]

I have blood tested with elevated TTG antibodies and my endoscopy shows an inflamed/ erythema duodenum, but no lab results back yet. My symptoms are occasional minor bloating, occasional minor upper abdomen burning sensation after a meal and occasional flatulence, but no other typical celiac symptoms. My overall health and feeling is good. I have eaten gluten related food all my life and never felt a correlation between my symptoms and gluten. Furthermore, I can eat a gluten free meal and still have immediate flatulence/ minor bloating, so it would seem that there is too much bacteria in my body ? My stools are mostly well formed, they sink mostly, and I rarely have Diarhea. My question to you is can some other bacteria ( H-pylori ) or candida cause elevated antibodies / inflamed duodenum and give me these symptoms?

Any thoughs are appreciated.

Thanks

[jdp364]

I have blood tested with elevated TTG antibodies and my endoscopy shows an inflamed/ erythema duodenum, but no lab results back yet. My symptoms are occasional minor bloating, occasional minor upper abdomen burning sensation after a meal and occasional flatulence, but no other typical celiac symptoms. My overall health and feeling is good. I have eaten gluten related food all my life and never felt a correlation between my symptoms and gluten. Furthermore, I can eat a gluten free meal and still have immediate flatulence/ minor bloating, so it would seem that there is too much bacteria in my body ? My stools are mostly well formed, they sink mostly, and I rarely have Diarhea. My question to you is can some other bacteria ( H-pylori ) or candida cause elevated antibodies / inflamed duodenum and give me these symptoms?

Any thoughs are appreciated.

Thanks

You might want to look into the possibility of SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth). That is a condition I am investigating with respect to my own as yet undiagnosed symptoms as well, which are similar to yours. SIBO is treatable with anitibiotics, but I suspect more is involved in my case than just that. My celiac panel was negative, but I have been noticing a correlation in my case between ingesting gluten and the onset of my "attacks" of gas/pain etc.

[CMCM]

It's always very well worth checking out other possibilities REASONABLY, because everything is not always caused by celiac disease/gluten. However, don't let your search turn into years and years and an eldless supply of drugs to cure the symptoms (but not the underlying cause!!). And the relative lack of symptoms you describe means very little since actually, most celiacs are ASYMPTOMATIC. The celiac symptoms are on a spectrum of terribly deathly ill on one end to zero symptoms on the other, and every degree in between. Most celiacs are normal or overweight, too, and not underweight as was previously believed. This is part of the problem with celiac disease diagnosis...everyone, doctors included, is always looking for the worst case end of the spectrum when in reality, people are all over the place symptom wise.

If further reasonable testing reveals nothing, the next logical step would be to go on a gluten free diet and see what happens. If everything improves, that's your answer. THEN....at that point you might want to do at the very least the celiac gene test, just so you know if you are predisposed to celiac disease. If you don't have the gene, you have less to worry about.

By the way, many people who think they feel just fine realize AFTER going on a gluten free diet that they actually didn't feel as well as they thought. They just thought how they felt was "normal." Being gluten free, they find out how good they then feel by comparison!

[tarnalberry]

Hopefully the test results you're waiting for will give you some answers. If not, hopefully there are some additional avenues of testing. It sounds like the possibilities are wide open, but do keep in mind that one gluten free meal will never be enough to tell you how you respond to a gluten free diet. At least a solid week (at least! a month would be *significantly* better) on a completely gluten free diet is needed to get an idea how you respond to the gluten free diet. Before doing that, however, all blood work for celiac should be gathered.