Anorexia

[muffin2]

Hello!! Just curious I have been recently dx with Celiacs and had anorexia for 7 years. I am just curious if I have been possibly miss dx and instead of having celiacs is it possible that my symptoms are a result of my past?? I have had blood work done and a small biopsy and the blood work came back positive but the biopsy was negative. My symptoms are still there even though I am gluten-free. Thanks for any help you can give!!

[KaitiUSA]

I would go by the bloodwork. Biopsies are good to have but I have heard that if there is not alot of damage yet it can be missed. (that was not a personal experience it was a friends) Symptoms can take a while to go away. I have been gluten-free since Jan of 04 and it took months for the symptoms to go away. Make sure you don't have gluten sneaking in even in the very small amounts because that again will prolong the symptoms. Anorexia can also come with Celiac. Alot of people have eating disorders with Celiac. Hope this helps some

[MySuicidalTurtle]

Blood tests can be unreliable, too.

[kvogt]

Bloods tests are more likely to give false negatives. That is, they say you don't have the disease, when actually, you do have it. I've not read any reports of false positives. The disease is underdiagnosed for this reason - not overdiagnosed.

[muffin2]

Thanks for replying. I keep getting different information on the blood tests. I am even getting a allergy test next week. Do you think this will be helpful??

[VLK]

Your eating disorder may have caused/triggered your Celiac Disease. This is what happened to me. It's unusual, but may be the case. Worth asking your doctor about.

[muffin2]

Really. It makes sense no one else in my family has celiacs. I figured that being anorexic would come back to haunt me in the future. Thanks for your input!!

[burdee]

I totally disagree that an eating disorder esp. anorexia can 'trigger' celiac disease, although many doctors will blame EDs for just about anything to scare their patients into abstaining from their ED habits. I have corresponded with MANY people struggling with 'disordered eating' habits (including starving, restrictive dieting, bingeing, purging and laxative abuse) and also moderate a website for women who have 'struggled with disordered eating and are now committed recovery'. I have observed that many people use disordered eating, esp. avoiding eating or purging to COPE with celiac disease symptoms(before or after diagnosis). I myself have avoided eating for long periods to avoid the cramping pains or other intestinal discomfort after meals before I realized what I ATE caused those pains. I also have thrown up after eating when I hurt sooo bad that I couldn't tolerate anything passing through my digestive system.

I know anorexics who both starve to avoid celiac disease pain and purge after meals to cope with celiac disease pain. Of course chronic deprivation of food can influence later eating binges. So I see a thin line between disordered eating behaviors and coping with undiagnosed celiac disease symptoms. On the other hand, there are many people who used ED habits to cope with life stresses unrelated to physical pain. Those people do NOT have genetic predispositions for celiac disease and don't develop celiac disease. I also have heard stories about doctors blaming ED habits for ulcerative colitis, lactose intolerance and celiac disease. Doctors don't know much about celiac disease, but they know even LESS about disordered eating habits.

BURDEE

[cynicaltomorrow]

Thanks for replying. I keep getting different information on the blood tests. I am even getting a allergy test next week. Do you think this will be helpful??

Allergy tests are generally a waste of time. Very few people have true allergies to foods. Celiacs isn't an allergy at all, it's an intolerance.

[MySuicidalTurtle]

Allergy testing is not a waste of time. She could have a wheat allergy and not Celiacs.

[Mballerina]

Celiac caused leaky gut and that is the main cause of food intolerance and food allergy, so testing is a good idea. The Lame Advertisement test is the best because it uses your white blood cell count as a baseling and therefore can even pinpoint intolerance.

[Guest The Weasel]

I was about to say the same thing VLK did. I never had celiac disease show up in any blood tests my entire life (and I get blood tests done every single time I go to the doctor for all kinds of things. Celiac Disease never showed up until after I had gone through a lengthy period of disordered eating which also caused all kinds of other problems. My doctor didn't know about my eating problem so he's not the one who put the idea into my head. However, on several other message boards and livejournals I have read other people with disordered eating having tested positive for celiac disease afterwards. I wouldn't totally blame it, but I wouldn't discredit it either so it is a possibility.