Pre Diagnosis Questions

[jaxonweb]

My gastroenologist recently said that he thinks I have celiac, however he will not be sure until he performs an endoscopy, which is one month from now. In the mean time I have been trying the gluten free diet to see if it helps. I have a couple questions regarding this.

I was planning to follow the diet, and then start eating gluten again about one week before the the procedure. Could this effect the results, and is there any other problems it could cause? One month is a long time to have these symptoms!

When eating out I have tried just simply ordering grilled meat with baked potato or steamed vegtables. Is this in line with the diet?

Also, when shopping can gluten be in products without a gluten containing ingredient being mentioned (wheat, malt, etc)?

[KaitiUSA]

First, you should not go gluten free until after all testing is complete. This can heal damage and cause the results to be false.

Did you have blood tests done? Some tests are very specific...I was diagnosed from blood tests alone.

Also, if you did have a negative biopsy that will not rule out celiac. That just says there is no damage that they can find yet. There could be no damage yet or sporadic damage.

Gluten can be hidden under many things like natural flavorings, modified food starch, etc.

Take a look at the safe and forbidden lists https://www.celiac.com/st_main.html?p_catid=12

You also have to be careful of products....I had to change all of my makeup/ shampoos/soaps/etc. It is important that you eliminate anything with gluten that has the least bit of chance to get into your mouth.

There are some brands that will not hide anything so unless they say wheat,rye,barley,oats on the label then they are fine. Those brands are listed below:

Aunt Nelly’s

Balance

Baskin Robbins

Ben&Jerry

Betty Crocker

Blue Bunny

Breyers

Campbells

Cascadian Farms

Celestial Seasonings

Country Crock

Dove

Edy’s

General Mills

Good Humor

Green Giant

Haagen Daz

Hellman’s

Hershey

Hormel

Hungry Jack

Jiffy

Knorr

Kozy Snack

Kraft

Libby’s

Lipton

Martha White

McCormick

Nabisco

Nestle

Old El Paso

Ortega

Pillsbury

Popsicle

Post

Progresso

Russell Stover

Seneca Foods

Smucker

Stokely’s

Sunny Delight

T Marzetti

Tyson

Unilever

Wishbone

Yoplait

Zatarain’s

For brands other then this, whenever you see a questionable ingredient you must check with the manufacturer.

[jaxonweb]

My doctor said the blood test was not 100% accurate, therefore the endoscopy was necessary. Is this true?

If I cannot go gluten free yet... any alternate ideas on how to decrease abdominal pain?

[KaitiUSA]

Some doctors prefer to do a blood test and endoscopy. My GI doctor did not want to do a biopsy since the #'s on my blood test clearly indicated celiac.

I know that the tTG blood test is very specific(and detects damage in the intestines) and will be taking the place of biopsies in kids in the near future as well. The complete panel is very accurate and many doctors use that to diagnose without a biopsy.

As I said in the previous post, a negative biopsy will NOT rule out celiac.

As for the pain, if the gluten is causing it there is not much you can do. Maybe drinking some teas would help a little bit....there are things to lessen the symptoms but nothing will really take care of the problem until you are off of gluten.