Got Glutened?

[Twenty4isours]

I'm a (self diagnosed gluten intolerant) newbie to the whole eating out thing and really wasn't thinking yesterday when going to a diner for lunch and ordering a baby spinach salad with chicken. I had told the waitress I couldn't have any flour on my chicken and she said, "No problem I'll tell the chef." After eating a few pieces of chicken I waited for a reaction. Within 10 minutes I felt disoriented/depressed and the stomach started hurting. I was on a gluten free diet for about 2 weeks prior to this and was feeling great, this really stinks...I guess I'm hypersensitive. Today I feel sooo spacey, and I'm extremely forgetful

Oh and a few questions..

I'm getting tested today and was wondering if being gluten free for 2 weeks could make this test come back negative?

Do you recommend any special kind of test?

BTW also getting a casein test.

[lynnelise]

I think there is a chance your tests could come back inconclusive. It's typically recommended that you keep eating gluten until all testing is finished.

[ravenwoodglass]

You want to ask your doctor for a full celiac panel. You do need to be still eating gluten for the test to have the best chance of being correct. If your test is positive your doctor may want you to have an endoscopy so keep eating gluten until that is done if your choosing to have one. Both blood and biopsy have a rather high rate of false negatives so after all testing is complete do give the diet a good strict try for at least a couple of months to see if it helps.

[Twenty4isours]

Correct me if I'm wrong but when someone does go gluten free, it sometimes takes 2 years for all of these antibodies to clear from the system. So how can being gluten free for 2 weeks have any affect on the results other than the possibility of antibodies; showing up, just at lower levels?

[T.H.]

Far as I can tell from what I've read, the problem is that individuals don't all produce the same amount of antibodies, or always react the same way. Because while it may take a while for antibodies to clear from the system, that applies only for some people, who have lots of antibodies (if I'm remembering right).

For some, especially if you don't produce a lot of antibodies, it could clear faster, or it could be at such low levels that going gluten free for a short time could lower your antibodies just enough to be a negative when they would have been a positive before.

My son was negative on the tests, but going gluten free has cleared up many physical and emotional difficulties for him (we also have 4 other family members who test positive for celiac d.). We did a gluten challenge 1 year in, not testing but just for symptoms, and he had problems again. So even if the test is negative, my personal experience has been that the test doesn't catch all gluten problems

[Twenty4isours]

Far as I can tell from what I've read, the problem is that individuals don't all produce the same amount of antibodies, or always react the same way. Because while it may take a while for antibodies to clear from the system, that applies only for some people, who have lots of antibodies (if I'm remembering right).

For some, especially if you don't produce a lot of antibodies, it could clear faster, or it could be at such low levels that going gluten free for a short time could lower your antibodies just enough to be a negative when they would have been a positive before.

My son was negative on the tests, but going gluten free has cleared up many physical and emotional difficulties for him (we also have 4 other family members who test positive for celiac d.). We did a gluten challenge 1 year in, not testing but just for symptoms, and he had problems again. So even if the test is negative, my personal experience has been that the test doesn't catch all gluten problems

Oh, I see..

I really hope this test comes up positive. I'm so sure of gluten being the culprit to all my crazy neurological symptoms. My parents think I'm crazy because I've been trying to "fix" myself for over a year now. I need confirmation! I spend lots of time online searching for an explanation for how I feel and everything leads toward celiac. The gas, lethargy, depression, all of it. It all went away after being gluten free for almost 2 and a half weeks now. This is really really tough, especially without health insurance. Even if it does come back negative, I'm sticking with this diet!