New Member With Questions

[LoriG]

Hello,

In May I went to an applied kinesiologist who muscle tested me and said I have a gluten intolerance with malabsorption. This sort of made sense because I am hypothyroid with hashimotos disease and have for years felt fatigued and depressed and insomnia.

He told me my thyroid meds weren't working well because of the malabsorption. So I began a gluten-free diet and after one month ate some gluten with no reaction. I began to think I don't have it. I tried for the most part to keep gluten-free, but not 100% since then. It has been hard sticking to the diet when I am not getting well doing it.

I recently went back to the AK and he said again that I have this and I need to stick with the diet. Ugh!

I asked my family doc to run some blood work and she said it is highly inaccurate and refused. Not sure what to do at this point.... should I do enterolab? should I find a doc to do blood work and if so, why do I say I want it? It sounds weird to say I suspect malabsorption issues with my thyroid. Also I have constipation which I have attributed to my thyroid all of this time. Do I trust the muscle testing?

I do believe I have family that has this but never got tested. I just need some direction right now. Thank you.

[mftnchn]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Your symptoms of thyroid issues, fatigue, depression and insomnia, plus constipation all paint a picture that could be celiac. I am not very sure about the alternate approach to diagnosis though.

Since you have been gluten free or gluten lite for awhile, the blood tests and biopsy could be negative, and you could still have celiac. There is another good thread here about celiac versus gluten intolerance, you might find that helpful. What I understand from this forum is that there is a blood test very specific for celiac, and that false positives are unlikely, but false negatives are common. False positive biopsy is also very unlikely as long as it is reliable person doing the examination.

I think that given your situation, enterolab would be a good option if you can afford the testing. It would not diagnose celiac, but could give you more information about the gluten sensitivity aspect. If it confirms the malabsorption and gluten sensitivity, plus shows that you have celiac genes, that would mean that you need to carefully consider whether you should be eating gluten.

The other option is to eat gluten normally for 6-8 months (equivalent to 3-4 slices of bread a day) and then do blood testing and biopsy. This only picks up celiac when there is enough intestinal damage present. So when you go gluten free/lite, the intestine heals enough that the testing is negative.

If you do have celiac, you can be asymptomatic, but still have damage accumulating in your body and be more susceptible to other autoimmune diseases. The longer you eat gluten the more damage occurs.

This forum is a good place to get input and information.

[LoriG]

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Your symptoms of thyroid issues, fatigue, depression and insomnia, plus constipation all paint a picture that could be celiac. I am not very sure about the alternate approach to diagnosis though.

Since you have been gluten free or gluten lite for awhile, the blood tests and biopsy could be negative, and you could still have celiac. There is another good thread here about celiac versus gluten intolerance, you might find that helpful. What I understand from this forum is that there is a blood test very specific for celiac, and that false positives are unlikely, but false negatives are common. False positive biopsy is also very unlikely as long as it is reliable person doing the examination.

I think that given your situation, enterolab would be a good option if you can afford the testing. It would not diagnose celiac, but could give you more information about the gluten sensitivity aspect. If it confirms the malabsorption and gluten sensitivity, plus shows that you have celiac genes, that would mean that you need to carefully consider whether you should be eating gluten.

The other option is to eat gluten normally for 6-8 months (equivalent to 3-4 slices of bread a day) and then do blood testing and biopsy. This only picks up celiac when there is enough intestinal damage present. So when you go gluten free/lite, the intestine heals enough that the testing is negative.

If you do have celiac, you can be asymptomatic, but still have damage accumulating in your body and be more susceptible to other autoimmune diseases. The longer you eat gluten the more damage occurs.

This forum is a good place to get input and information.

Thank you for your help and information. You sure explained the blood tests and biopsy well for me. I may just pay for enterlab. Thanks.

[mftnchn]

You are welcome, and hope you let us know how things go.