Dairy / Casein Allergy And Celiacs

[jenbaj]

I am very confused and am hoping maybe someone can help me out with these questions. Here is my history.

About 4 years ago, during a workup for infertility, my TTG test came up 2 points above normal. Biopsy results showed mild villous blunting and numerous lymphocytes. The doctor gave me a vague diagnosis of celiacs. At the time, I had no symptoms except infertility and some other autoimmune issues (ITP and hashimotos).

Approx. 2 years ago, I started experiencing pain in my chest where my heart is and also an odd feeling in my throat, like I swallowed a pill. Also, some heartburn, but not too bad.

My current celiac bloodwork is all negative. I have not been on the gluten free diet.

I underwent another endoscopy 2 days ago and am still waiting results (there were no obvious visual signs of anything).

In the meantime, I have related my pain to dairy and gone dairy free for approx 2 weeks now. THE PAIN IS GONE! NO PAIN IN THE HEART AND NO FEELING IN MY NECK! YEAH!

HEre is my question though....ALthough I have not had any tests for casein intolerance, I am pretty sure that this is the cause of my pain. If the biopsy results still show blunting and villous atrophy again, is this due to celiacs, or casein intolerance???? After doing a little research (and unless I am misunderstanding what I am reading) it seems that casein intolerance can cause these symptoms. SO how is this differentiated from celiacs? Does anyone know the answer to this. ALso, I have tried a gluten free diet and felt no difference at all. Can casein intolerance stand alone, or is this combined with celiacs?

Thanks,

Jen

[kdonov2]

I am not the most knowledgable person, but I do have casein/gluten intolerances. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I do not believe dairy protein stays in the body as long as gluten, so it takes a really long time to detox from gluten (think 6 weeks at least). You may or may not experience relief from symptoms at that point. Some people feel worse. I had terrible headaches, the wost burning soarness in my stomach and intestines, fatigue, muscle cramps. It took a long time to learn what I could and could not eat, but I feel better now. I no longer have terrible stomach cramps and IBS/Crohn's type symptoms and I lost weight and do not catch colds and flu's as much as I used to. Maybe your doctor can tell you more. Strange they would diagnose you and not tell you anything about treatment.

[GFinDC]

There is a condition called casein mediated enteropathy that could cause villi blunting. But I think is supposed to be pretty rare. Celiac is associated with other auto-immune diseases though, including Hashimoto's thyroiditis. IF you read through some of the articles linked below they have some info on associated conditions.

It seems more likely that you have celiac to me since it is associatied with Hashimoto's T. If you do a search on Hashimoto's on this site you will find quite few threads about it as there are several people here with it.

Celiac Disease Research: Associated Diseases and Disorders

[Donnamay]

I have been gluten free since 5/10 and became allergic to casein 4 month later. I never had any issues with milk products before giving up the gluten. I do understand it happens and that both are very similar molecularly. It's affects my respiratory tract, had a bad croup like cough that wouldn't go away and if I have a tiny bit my voice goes hoarse. I had the Lupus rash ( my celiac mimicked Lupus) and that cleared up considerably when I got the gluten out of my system then came back when casein was giving me problems. Felt like a detective! Now that I'm gluten-free/CF it is 90% better. They are two separate things, in my case they manifest themselves with some of the same symptoms and some that differ.

It's hard to find information on the casein allergy, seems most of the informations out there is geared toward autism.