Where To Go From Here?

[fourtoone]

I gave birth 3 months ago and shortly after started symptoms of bad anxiety, high blood pressure, headaches, fatigue and insomnia. My sister is gluten intolerant, but only used the elimination diet and food allergy tests as her guide. We believe she is celiac as the symptoms she had nearly put her on her death bed until she went gluten free. Since I share a good majority of the symptoms she had, I started the testing process. I had the antibody test and genetics test (through Prometheus Labs), both came back negative. Food allergy test showed very mildly allergic to wheat and dairy products, nothing else. Thyroid is normal. I've been gluten/dairy free for 7 weeks and haven't noticed any huge improvement. What I have noticed is when I get busy doing something, the symptoms seem to subside. But if I sit down and do nothing or think about the symptoms or stress over them and what's causing them, they come right back.

So where do I go from here? Can I still be gluten intolerant with the test results I've had? Should I be looking more into post partum depression and treating that?

[mushroom]

Welcome to the board. There are two things you should know about the testing you have had done. The first is that there is an approximate 20% false negative rate on the blood tests. The second is that I believe Prometheus tests only for the DQ2 and DQ8 genes because these are the only two accepted celiac genes in the U.S. However, in Europe there are other recognized celiac genes than these.

It is true that you could be having some kind of post partum reaction; however, it is also true that childbirth is one of the triggers of celiac disease. If you do in fact possess a celiac gene, that does not automatically mean that you will have celiac disease. There seems to have to be a triggering event, some physical or emotional stress or trauma that sets the process in motion, and childbirth is known to be one of these.

For some, the current testing for gluten sensitivity just doesn't work, and celiac is a disease process measurable by testing caused by gluten sensitivity. However, it has been proven by Dr. Alessio Fassano and his colleagues there is gluten sensitivity outside of celiac disease (which the patients have known for a long time but not the doctors). There is, however, no testing procedure to identify this. Oftentimes, we are left only the option of trying the gluten free diet and seeing if it works.