Endoscopy After 3 Months Of Gluten Free

[bluebonnet]

my doctor wants me to have an endoscopy/colonoscopy. while i'm responding well to the gluten free diet, i told him he is doing it "backwards" that it may not be accurate ... should i start eating gluten again between now and my appt? he is checking me for other issues as well but i'm not sure if i should eat gluten again. just with a few accidents lately its taking forever to get the pains and bloating gone. i've had 2 tests done with one being positive and one being negative so that's why my doctor wants to have a "gold standard" done plus to check for a few other things that may or may not be related.

do you think i healed enough in 3 months for them not to get an accurate result for their "gold standard" biopsy? i know there is tons of inflammation and i'm really worried about whatever else they might discover. i'm so confused about this.

[ravenwoodglass]

For the best chance at a Gold Standard diagnosis you really need to be eating gluten. If the doctor is just looking for other issues then no but if he is attempting to diagnose you as celiac you must go back to a full gluten diet to get the best chance of accurate results. Even on a full gluten diet there is still a chance of a false negative on the biopsy.

[GFinDC]

Right, and you need to be on gluten for quite a while, maybe 2 or 3 months every day. If you had one positive test, it seems like that would be enough to settle the issue? The endoscopy seems to be a hit or miss type thing, not a guaranteed answer, even after being on gluten. The positive test results are said to be more reliable than the negatives results.

If it makes you sick though, is it really worth getting the diagnosis? Maybe you could check into Enterolab testing instead. It can show if you are making antibodies in your intestines. It's not a diagnosis either, but if you have gliaden antibodies in your intestine, then something is causing them.

[bluebonnet]

i really don't want to eat it again especially because its a hit or miss. maybe they will see something while they are in there checking me out but i just don't think i want to eat it if its not a guarantee. i just wasn't sure if 3 months did any great amount of healing.

thanks for the advice!!

[WheatChef]

The gluten challenge is one of the most irresponsible aspects of medicine these days. Apparently the whole "keep my patients from harm" aspect of the Hippocratic oath doesn't apply when doctors are dealing with someone suffering from gluten problems.

If your doctor simply wants to take a look inside to see how things are going and to look for any unrelated problems then that's not that bad of an idea. If he wants you to poison yourself for a semi-useless diagnosis then that just seems like it's a bit of a selfish act on his part.