Unexpected Results

[Bibulousman]

When I was young I was diagnosed with celiac disease. Until the age of 8 I was on a totally gluten free diet. After the age of 8 I was told that I was in remission, but eventually my celiac disease would come back.

About 4 months ago I decided to revert back to my celiac diet after bumping into a friend who explained that being celiac was for life. For the past few months I've had nothing containing wheat.

Last week I was at the doctors for a common cold. While I was there I asked the doctor to do a blood test and check me for an allergy to wheat. The results came back today and it said I have NO allergy to wheat.

Is this possible? Is it possible for a celiac to register a 0 sensitivity to wheat allergy blood test? Is it more likely that I was misdiagnosed when I was young?

[Ursa Major]

Most people with celiac disease are NOT allergic to wheat. Celiac disease is not an allergy, but rather an autoimmune disease. The reaction to gluten is an autoimmune reaction, not an allergic one. Hence, your blood test shows you aren't allergic to gluten, and yet you are extremely intolerant to it.

Your friend was right that you don't outgrow celiac disease. Once your intestines heal, and you are well, you can go into remission, at least for a while. But unfortunately, anybody with celiac disease who then goes back to eating gluten (and slowly destroys their villi again) will regret it sooner or later.

Many people who have gone back to eating gluten (most because of ignorant doctors who told them they were healed and fine) as children later developed terrible health problems, including other autoimmune diseases.

Good for you for getting back onto the gluten-free diet. I don't know if you were having symptoms again, or were not well, but no matter what the reason, it was a good decision.

Just remember, gluten is not just in wheat, but in rye and barley as well. And it can hide in the most unexpected places. For instance, in most soy sauces the first ingredient is wheat. Regular beer, of course, is brewed with barley, and is therefore forbidden (there are good gluten-free beers out there now I am told).

You will need a new toaster, because it isn't possible to clean the old one well enough to be safe. Even a crumb of bread is too much.

Soon you may find that symptoms are gone that you didn't realize were symptoms. But you need to be 100% gluten-free. You need to read all labels on food you buy. You can't just assume that something doesn't have gluten, just because it ought not to.