Help And Advice Needed For Newbie

[littlemissxxx]

Hi All

I will give you all a quick run down of my history

I am a 30 year old female who has recently been diagnosed with Hashimotos thyroiditis. Both my thyroid antibodies and my ANA counts were in the thousands when normal range is below 60.

Without me mentioning coeliac disease to my doctor she has requested testing for anti-gliadin, anti-endomysial and esr tests. She wrote these tests on the form after listening to my chest, I do have a very spotty back is that why?

Reading up on it I wont be at all surprised if I do have this problem. I have had the following symptoms for months if not a year.

Urgent need to open bowels, very smelly gas, either large bulky hard to pass stools or watery diarrea in fact it can go from large and hard to watery in one visit to the toilet. I feel the watery stools gurgling round in my bowel. I have bad stomach pains sometimes also.

My bowel movement have become so unpredictable that when I feel the urge to pass wind I go to the toilet to do it just in case..... I have had a couple of embarrassing incidents where I thought it was gas and it wasn't

What do you all think..... is it likely I have coeliac, would I benefit from a gluten free diet. My blood tests are on the 31st March it is the soonest they could fit me in. I assume I should at least eat normally until then.

Looking forward to some help and advice from all you knowledgable peeps

Ali xx

[celiac3270]

Yes--you should continue to eat a normal diet until you have finished all testing. Celiac affects 1% of the population--so your symptoms, in addition to the general odds, makes it very likely that you might have celiac.

Welcome

[littlemissxxx]

Hi there

Many thanks for your reply, I suspected I would need to keep eating as normal even though the temptation to go gluten free now is getting to me.

I just want to feel well again and feel that another 4 weeks or so of symptoms is going to be a miserable time when I could be getting better.

I will speak to my doctor and see if she is prepared to give a diagnosis and prescriptions on my blood results and symptoms to cut out the wait for a biopsy.

Thanks

Ali xx

[celiac3270]

Sure . That sounds like the right mindset, though--most people are so reluctant to start the gluten-free diet. I think it...sort of helps to have symptoms from gluten, as painful and disruptive they are, because they give you a very noticable incentive to be gluten free and you know when you make a mistake. A month will go by pretty quickly though, so try to get as organized as possible before then. Print the forbidden and safe ingredient lists from this site, call manufacturers about products in your kitchen that appear to be gluten-free.

Remember that with most companies, you will need to call for questionable ingredients, such as modified food starch, natural flavors, artificial flavors, or starch. Some companies, however, have a policy that they will list any gluten that is in their products. This is a blessing for us because instead of having to call about modified food starch, we know that if it doesn't say: modified food starch (wheat) or something of the sort, it's gluten-free. Companies that adopt that policy include:

Aunt Nelly's

Balance

Baskin Robbins

Ben & Jerry

Betty Crocker

Blue Bunny

Butterball *lists wheat only

Breyers

Campbells

Cascadian Farms

Celestial Seasonings

ConAgra *lists wheat only

Country Crock

Edy's

General Mills

Good Humor

Green Giant

Haagen Daz

Hellman's

Hershey

Hormel

Hungry Jack

Jiffy

Knorr

Kozy Shack

Kraft

Libby's

Lipton

Martha White

McCormick

Nabisco

Nestle

Old El Paso

Ortega

Pillsbury

Popsicle

Post

Progresso

Russell Stover

Seneca Foods

Smucker

Stokely's

Sunny Delight

T Marzetti

Tyson

Unilever

Wishbone

Yoplait

Zatarain's