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Positive For Allergies But Negative For Celiac?

MissCici

By MissCici
in Coping with Celiac Disease

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MissCici Rookie
MissCici
Posted

I had a skin test two weeks ago for food allergies and discovered that, among many other things, I'm allergic to wheat, yeast, barley, rice, potatoes, etc. Today, they called to say that I was negative for Celiac Disease. I know that my diet will be the same either way, but with all the related allergies, I'm curious why the gluten didn't show up. Also, the blood work they ran to confirm the allergies was very inaccruate - it showed no allergies to foods I've had a reaction to. The nurse told me that the blood test isn't as accurate and to go off the skin test since it confirmed some foods I had a known allergy to. Should I trust the negative on the Celiac? It seems that it is frequently misdiagnosed or shows a false negative.

Thanks!

Cici

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rinne Apprentice
rinne
Posted

Cici, hello and welcome. :)

Yes, there is often a false negative for celiac tests.

I am of the opinion that diet alone can be used as a diagnostic tool.

It sounds like you are having a lot of reactions, do you have a sense of what else might be causing them?

I can't eat grains, dairy, nightshades, sugar, coffee..... for me it is related to Celiac (a brother and sister diagnosed with Celiac so I am either Celiac or gluten intolerant) and Lyme but that is all tangled up with Candida and mercury toxicity. :(

I've been on this board for just over a year now and have found it incredibly helpful. I'm also feeling much better after being gluten, dairy, etc. free for the past year. Okay, I cheat occasionally with strawberry Hagan Daas. :) Well and a little coffee. :ph34r::lol:

All questions are good questions.

sneezydiva Apprentice
sneezydiva
Posted

My experience with allergy testing for my pollen/enviornmental allergies is that the skin test is far more accurate. So I agree with your nurse. I move around a lot, and have to get periodically retested and have my shot adjusted. The one doctor who used a bood test, the shots didn't work at all. They grudgingly retested with a skin test, and the results were radically different, and the resulting shots worked much better.

There are a lot of false negatives with blood allergy testing, and from what I gather, since I'm new here, is it is the same with the Celiac blood testing.

miles2go Contributor
miles2go
Posted

Listen to your bod. :)

drewsant Rookie
drewsant
Posted

I went to an allergist about 2 years ago, and had the skin test, and tested positive for chicken, wheat, soy, tree nuts and fish. That's interesting that you're all saying that the skin test is more accurate. I had always heard that the blood test was more accurate. The allergist also told me that the wheat, soy and chicken reaction wasn't that big (it was a 1) but the tree nuts and fish was a 2 so he just said to stay away from the latter 2 things. But every time I eat bread, breaded things, things fried in oil (soy) I get sick--within an hour.

I just today decided to go back on a wheat free diet , and chicken, fish, soy, and tree-nut free diet and see if that works better. It's really hard though, because the only things I can afford are fresh fruits and veggies. I'm on disability and unemployed, so not much more than 30.00 a week allotted for food.

tarnalberry Community Regular
tarnalberry
Posted

celiac disease is not an allergy - the allergy tests don't even look for it.

drewsant Rookie
drewsant
Posted

Yeah, I know the difference, believe me. I spent hours and hours on the computer researching it 2 years ago. I either have celiac, or just a wheat allergy, which is what I thought I said but I guess I didn't. But I think I have a wheat allergy rather than celiac, just from my symptoms. But the result is the same, stay away from wheat/gluten.

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tarnalberry Community Regular
tarnalberry
Posted
Yeah, I know the difference, believe me. ...

sorry if it wasn't clear in my post, and it doesn't help that we don't have any note of hierarchical structure while maintaining view of all the posts, but my response was to the OP (original poster). it's one of the things that can be a bit difficult to read about the site - who's responding to whom. :shrug:

drewsant Rookie
drewsant
Posted

Sorry, I wondered that after I posted, when I went back and read the posts again.

MissCici Rookie
MissCici
Posted
  • Author

Sorry if I wasn't clear - they tested me for both allergies and Celiac. The allergies are definate based on the skin test. The blood on the Celiac came back normal, but I've read that those results aren't always accurate. Although they are different, I think that it's odd that the allergies can be so strong (3s or 4s on the scratch test), with the Celiac being normal. It's seems as though there would be a high correlation between the two.

Tim-n-VA Contributor
Tim-n-VA
Posted

Everything that I've read indicates that allergy and celiac are two different reactions to the wheat/gluten. The symptoms can be the same, the treatment essentially the same (don't eat it), but the underlying mechanism is different.

You can be both, neither or one without the other.

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