Do I Have To Eat Gluten Before Biopsy?

[ngj1225]

I went gluten free about 2 months ago and have started feeling so much better. However, since I have not been to a doctor in years I saw a family doctor today. He would like me to have blood work done as well as get scoped from top to bottom.lol My question is since I have already gone gluten free, do I need to eat gluten before my biopsy? If so, how long before I go in would I have to eat it? I just don't want to go through all the testing and find out I messed up the results! Thanks!

[GlutenFreeManna]

Yes you need to eat gluten again. I have read on here that your should eat it daily for at least two months prior to testing.

[tarnalberry]

Yes. The tests (including biopsy) are looking for a reaction to gluten. If you aren't celiac, you won't react in the presence of gluten. If you're celiac, you have to be ingesting what you would react to in order to have a reaction.

Conservative estimate: three to four slices of bread (or the equivalent) each day for three months.

[ravenwoodglass]

If you have been gluten free and you are getting relief from the diet is a two month gluten challenge going to be worth the pain? You need to go back to a full gluten diet for at least 2 to 3 months and you may still have a false negative on the testing. If you are not having any problems with sticking with the diet and the diet has been successful for you I would ask your doctor why he wants you to do a challenge. You don't need his permission to eat gluten free. He can still order the other tests that should be done, a vitamin and mineral panel and a test for osteoporosis without you having to go through all that pain.

If you are still having issues even on the diet then perhaps a challenge might be useful but he can still scope you and look for other problems without the challenge.

Some of us have a very severe reaction to the challenge, if you decide to do one do keep the doctor advised of the reactions.