Is There A Symptomatic Difference Btwn Celiac & Gluten Sensitivity

[KathrynL]

Tons of questions from me. Thanks for your patience!

In terms of symptoms, is there a difference btween the symptoms a Celiac who's ingested gluten has versus the symptoms of someone with gluten sensitivity experiences?

[MsCurious]

  On 4/9/2011 at 6:36 PM, KathrynL said:

Tons of questions from me. Thanks for your patience!

In terms of symptoms, is there a difference btween the symptoms a Celiac who's ingested gluten has versus the symptoms of someone with gluten sensitivity experiences?

I don't think even the medical community can answer that one, but my "gut" response to that would be no. And the reason is that celiac disease is a systemic autoimmune disease, meaning it can and does affect different parts of the body in different people. From what I have read here on the forums, there are endless symptoms, many of which are the same among those with "official" diagnosis and those who have self diagnosed, and then those who's doctors have said, you test negative for celiac disease, but you clearly have symptoms and you respond positively to gluten-free diet so you can consider yourself gluten sensitive/intolerant.

There seem to be a couple of pretty serious issues with the lack of available information. There is no "big money" (ie: drug companies) behind the research, and when there are new findings from the limited research that is being done, this information is not making its way into the knowledge bases of the practicing physicians, so there is a huge lack of diagnosis. They have just found scientific evidence and announced in the last few weeks, that there is proof that celiac disease and gluten sensitivity/intolerance BOTH exists and are not the same thing. Both groups of people respond positively to gluten-free diet... but they dont' really know much beyond that about NCGS (non-celiac gluten sensitivity/intolerance), but research is ongoing... limited as it is.

[sb2178]

Yeah, the research is confusing. I think it was actually out of the same institution that another study came out the clearly indicated that celiac is progressive (surprise!) so neg biopsy positive bloodwork folk are almost definitely celiac disease. The flat intestines are the last stage of disease. Nobody has a clue how long the process takes, and if it's like other AI disease, it varies from person to person.

But, yes, it would be nice to know definitely whether they are different iterations of the same disease or a completely different process. Symptom-wise, I'd say this board shows that both groups have a wide range of experiences.