Need Advise

[Lori F.]

My 19 year old daughter has gone a few times to the dr and had blood and stool tests as a result of severe cramping and pains in her stomach that often make there way to her chest area. She was given strong medicine that made her sleep and not alert to play college sports. She has been feeling better but has loose stool with every bowl movement. She also had a psoriasis and a sore developed in her mouth last week. Does anyone have any suggestions or feelings on the above?

[WheatChef]

IBS is just your doctor's way of charging you money for a diagnosis when they have no clue of what's going on. Do you know what the blood and stool tests came back with?

[mushroom]

My 19 year old daughter has gone a few times to the dr and had blood and stool tests as a result of severe cramping and pains in her stomach that often make there way to her chest area. She was given strong medicine that made her sleep and not alert to play college sports. She has been feeling better but has loose stool with every bowl movement. She also had a psoriasis and a sore developed in her mouth last week. Does anyone have any suggestions or feelings on the above?

I agree with WheatChef that it would be interesting to know what she was tested for and what the results were for those tests. The doctor may not have any familiarity with celiac disease. What was the "strong medicine" she was given and what was it for?

Psoriasis is an autoimmune disease, like celiac disease, and often occurs in conjunction with celiac. Celiac disease has a tendency to lead to other autoimmune diseases. Mouth sores as you are probably aware are a sign of gluten intolerance.

Your daughter needs to either find a doctor who knows something about celiac disease, and get further testing, or stop eating gluten and see if she feels better. Those seem to be the only two paths open to us. Some go around banging on doctors' doors for years; others just say to heck with it, if it works to stop eating gluten that is what I am going to do. We have had many long discussions on here on the whys and wherefores and outcomes of these different approaches. When it all comes down to it, the individual has to make the decision as to what is best for them.

Just so you and your daughter know, the proper testing procedure for celiac disease from the perspective of the medical profession is the celiac blood panel, which consists of:

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgA

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgG

Anti-Endomysial (EMA) IgA

Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA

Total Serum IgA

If the blood tests are positive the patient is then referred to a gastroenterologist who performs a procedure called endoscopy, whereby a tube is inserted under sedation down the esophagus and into the small intestine to examine it for damage. Biopsy samples are taken which are then looked at under a microscope.

If none of these tests are positive, does it mean your daughter can continue to eat gluten? According to most doctors the answer is yes. But most do not know about non-celiac gluten intolerance, which does not test positive on their tests but produces the same symptoms and causes the same damage to the body as celiac disease. So the consensus on this forum is that after all testing is complete (and she must continue eating gluten until the testing is complete for it to be valid) she should give the gluten free diet a strict three month trial. This should tell her whether or not gluten is a problem for her. If she shows no improvement then she should continue to try to get a diagnosis for her symptoms.

I hope this has been of some help to you.

[Mari]

I agree that going on a gluten free diet may prove helpful. If you need help with figuring out a diet look at the Specific Carbohydrate diet which is good for both IBS and gluten intolerance.

Problems in the digestive system are caused by many factors. She probably has an unbalanced intestinal flora - the mixture of different bacteria -and the presence of parasites and possibly gall stones. Physicians can test for some of these problems but many people use herbal and natural remedies with success. If you would like to learn more about the alternative methods let me know.