How Long Eating Gluten Before Testing?

[msharnoubi]

Hello everyone,

Great site with a wealth of information.

I had some symptoms that persisted for serveral years and were never cleared even after seeing several physicians.

The main ones are chronic fatigue, poor memory, conentration and the brain fog. I also have some GI problems with chronic constipation but they are rather mild and have no problem living with them. In fact, I must admit that thank GOD my overall condition is pretty mild and much better than a lot of conditions celiac or other that one sees and/or hears about. Thank GOD.

Doing some research for myself, I found about celiac and gluten intolerance (or maybe some other intolerance) and thought that may be that's what I have.

However, where I live, these conditions are not very well know (with the exception of the standard celiac for infants). I even think that if I told my physician I think I may have gluten intolerance or some other food allergy, he'll probably think that I should see a psychiatrist .

After some more research, I found about the tests and found that the blood tests are available here but they are quite expensive. Since, I don't have insurance (I don't think inusrance would pay for these tests anyway), I decided to try the diet and see if it works.

Six weeks now, and I've noticed some minor improvements. However, they are very minor that they could be caused by placeboo, the B12 and other vitamins that I've self prescribed or I could even be fooling myself. In fact that's what my wife tells me.

So, I decided to do the tests to be certain.

My question is how long should I eat gluten before doing the blood tests?

Thank you

[Sandi*]

Usually 6-8 weeks is recommended. I'm having my bloodwork after 6 weeks of gluten and endoscopy after 7 1/2.

[msharnoubi]

Thank you for your answer.

I rechecked the dates, it is actually less than 5 weeks.

If I do the tests before the end of week 6, that is without eating gluten again, would they be accurate?

Thank

[tarnalberry]

I have often heard approximately 3 months of at least 3 slices of bread a day (or the equivalent).

Problem is, there is NO cut and dry answer for how long after going gluten free you can get an accurate test, or how long you have to be eating gluten again to get an accurate test. It varies from person to person, from damage level to damage level, and from presentation to presentation. It even varies from lab to lab depending on how much damage or how many antibodies they want to see.

The longer you can eat gluten, and the less time off it, the more accurate the testing.

[Sandi*]

Thank you for your answer.

I rechecked the dates, it is actually less than 5 weeks.

If I do the tests before the end of week 6, that is without eating gluten again, would they be accurate?

Thank

It depends on how long and how strictly you were off gluten before. I was gluten-light before, not strict and even then my doctor recommended to wait just to make sure I'd consume enough of it for the tests.

If I were you and if I could, I would push the dates by anther 2 wks or so.