Confused

[slee]

What is celiac sensitive, vs. celiac, or gluten intollerence, is it the same or different? My doctor called and said she thinks my son is celiac sensitive, and the endoscopy will be a good indication of what is going on... I just don't understand this term, as I haven't heard it before. Had she not said it 3 times I would have thought it just came out wrong.

Thanks

[Takala]

  slee said:

What is celiac sensitive, vs. celiac, or gluten intollerence, is it the same or different? My doctor called and said she thinks my son is celiac sensitive, and the endoscopy will be a good indication of what is going on... I just don't understand this term, as I haven't heard it before. Had she not said it 3 times I would have thought it just came out wrong.

Thanks

Sometimes doctors call Celiac Disease "Gluten Sensitive Enteropathy".

Your doctor may have been scrambling the 2 phrases together in her mind when she was speaking to you.

If she wants to do a endoscopy, that would mean she is looking for enteropathy, or damage in his intestines that may be caused by eating gluten when he has "gluten sensitivity", when he can't digest the gluten (proteins) in the wheat, rye, and barley family properly. Gluten sensitive people develope an auto immune reaction which changes the lining of the digestive tract and causes damage which in turn causes nutrient malabsorbion and other physical symptoms.

Not too long ago they didn't realize that the "other physical symptoms" like neurological problems were the symptoms of the same disease. They put 2 + 2 together and finally got 4.

I haven't figured out the link box yet (it keeps disapearing my entire replies) but I found this at the aafp.org website under "Gluten Sensitive Enteropathy(Celiac Disease): More Common than you think Dec 15, 2002. I believe their premise that Celiac is found in one out of every 250 persons is already outdated and the incidence is now believed to be MUCH HIGHER. See how far we have come in just over 5 years.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Actually, University of Chicago's 2006 study states that celiac has been diagnosed in roughly 1/133 people--and that it takes an average of eleven years to GET diagnosed in this country.

You can see that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

It is quite likely that gluten sensitivity is, in many cases, just early-stage celiac. But there are many other factors that can cause non-celiac gluten-sensitivity, such as Lyme DIsease and mercury toxicity. THose could conceivably cause or trigger celiac in some people, too.