How Much Gluten Should I Be Eating Before Testing?

[koolsharkz]

Hello! After years of stomach problems, I decided to try and solve them by changing my diet. I lessened my gluten intake for a while, avoiding those foods because I felt lousy after eating them. About three or four weeks ago, I decided to go gluten-free (more or less... I didn't use exclusively certified gluten-free products, so I must have gotten some). I felt a lot better, but the problems weren't completely solved. Another super neat thing that happened was I felt significantly less depressed than I have in a long time... years, even! Now I'm finally seeking testing for gluten intolerance (so that I can prove to my college that the food they provide is damaging). I started eating gluteny products about four days ago, and feel a little bit worse but it's not awful yet.

My question is, to have an increased chance of an accurate blood test result (which I understand is sort of unlikely anyway), how much gluten do I need to be eating? I've been eating about one serving a day of wheat crackers. Which is not much. How much gluten should I be eating, and is it likely that I need to continue eating it for 3 months? My diet has been low on gluten (but not devoid of it) for a few months.

Another question I suppose... If I were gluten intolerant in some way, should I expect to feel dramatically worse after reintroducing gluten? Because I don't, at least not most of the time. It's just a slightly lousier feeling. Less energy, more gas, more discomfort, you know... all the fun things!! Sometimes I think that going gluten-free was just a placebo for me... I expected to get better, and so I did. And now that it's back, I expected to feel a little worse, and I do. I know you all know how it is, sick of guessing and waiting and feeling lousy, and just wanting a solid answer... that's where I'm at.

Thank you all so much for your help, reading all of these posts from people who are just as confused as I am is incredibly helpful for keeping hope alive

-Emily

[ravenwoodglass]

To have the best chance of an accurate test you need to be eating at least 4 to 6 slices of bread a day for about 3 months. You may still have a false negative. Once testing is done then go strictly gluten free for a couple of months. Since gluten intolerance and celiac are autoimmune reactions you really need to totally eliminate it to stop the antibodies.

[MsCurious]

From Mayo Clinic: Open Original Shared Link

"Gluten-challenge testing requires adequate gluten intake for long enough to develop gut lesions. Four slices of whole wheat bread daily for 4 weeks usually suffices. However, it will make patients ill and they can become quite symptomatic. There are some patients who are delayed responders and if a patient has had no symptoms develop by 4 weeks, I will usually perform serology. If it becomes positive at that point, we

[koolsharkz]

Thank you both for your help!

[love2travel]

My question is, to have an increased chance of an accurate blood test result (which I understand is sort of unlikely anyway), how much gluten do I need to be eating? I've been eating about one serving a day of wheat crackers. Which is not much. How much gluten should I be eating, and is it likely that I need to continue eating it for 3 months? My diet has been low on gluten (but not devoid of it) for a few months.

Another question I suppose... If I were gluten intolerant in some way, should I expect to feel dramatically worse after reintroducing gluten? Because I don't, at least not most of the time. It's just a slightly lousier feeling. Less energy, more gas, more discomfort, you know... all the fun things!! Sometimes I think that going gluten-free was just a placebo for me... I expected to get better, and so I did. And now that it's back, I expected to feel a little worse, and I do. I know you all know how it is, sick of guessing and waiting and feeling lousy, and just wanting a solid answer... that's where I'm at.

Thank you all so much for your help, reading all of these posts from people who are just as confused as I am is incredibly helpful for keeping hope alive

-Emily