Am I Being Tested Right

[Mrslmc]

Hiya everyone, I'm new to the site and I'm not diagnosed yet. I'm from Ireland.

For a long time I believed I had IBS so never visited a doctor. One day while out shopping I was in a health food shop and the lady in there queried if I'd be interested in a intolerence test. She did it free saying I appeared unwell to her. She told me after doing some resistance testing that she believed me to have a severe intolerence to wheat and wheat products - not celiac - I know. But I took her concern to heart and cut out all wheat and gluten containing foods from my diet for a month and instantly felt like a new person. I was in seeing my gp on an unrelated subject and mentioned it to her. She did a blood test there and then concerned that I may be celiac. But she said it didn't matter that I had cut it out from my diet for a month. Is she wrong? How can she test for something that isn't present in my diet???

Should I restart gluten products and insist on getting re-tested??

[sa1937]

Hiya everyone, I'm new to the site and I'm not diagnosed yet. I'm from Ireland.

For a long time I believed I had IBS so never visited a doctor. One day while out shopping I was in a health food shop and the lady in there queried if I'd be interested in a intolerence test. She did it free saying I appeared unwell to her. She told me after doing some resistance testing that she believed me to have a severe intolerence to wheat and wheat products - not celiac - I know. But I took her concern to heart and cut out all wheat and gluten containing foods from my diet for a month and instantly felt like a new person. I was in seeing my gp on an unrelated subject and mentioned it to her. She did a blood test there and then concerned that I may be celiac. But she said it didn't matter that I had cut it out from my diet for a month. Is she wrong? How can she test for something that isn't present in my diet???

Should I restart gluten products and insist on getting re-tested??

Welcome! Yes, she is wrong. To have half a chance of getting a positive result, you need to be eating the equivalent of 3 to 4 pieces of bread a day for 3 months. Even then the blood tests may be negative as false negatives are quite common. To be gluten-free for a month may entirely throw off the results. When will you find out what those results are?

That said, I think your body is telling you something.

[Mrslmc]

Welcome! Yes, she is wrong. To have half a chance of getting a positive result, you need to be eating the equivalent of 3 to 4 pieces of bread a day for 3 months. Even then the blood tests may be negative as false negatives are quite common. To be gluten-free for a month may entirely throw off the results. When will you find out what those results are?

That said, I think your body is telling you something.

Thank you so much for replying, just to know that someone else agrees it was done wrong is a great help. I have to wait till after christmas for the results. I will ring her today and query about getting retested, and I have started eating gluten and wheat products again, I didn't realise I'd have to eat so much of it to get a proper test. I'm currently following weight watchers as well, I've lost over 2stone and really don't want to put it back on. However my symptoms seem to have worsened since reintroducing the wheat that I have so I'll up that consumption again. Not feeling good at all now.

Thanks again for your thoughts x

[auzzi]

Who is this lady, and what qualifications has she got that she can run coeliac-testing out of a health food shop ?? Is she qualified to do blood tests, in so far as she can order blood tests results from a pathology laboratory ?

Scrap all that guff and get into touch with The Coeliac Society Of Ireland. Open Original Shared Link provides lots of information as well as a very active forum.

Open Original Shared Link is the first step to you being able to take advantage of all the services that are available to Irish Coeliacs including Open Original Shared Link

[Booghead]

I don't know if I am misunderstanding but I don't think you have been of gluten long enough for it to affect a blood test.

And I'm pretty sure you said it was a doctor who tested you not the lady at the health food store. So I would say you are probably Celiac.

[mushroom]

I don't know if I am misunderstanding but I don't think you have been of gluten long enough for it to affect a blood test.

And I'm pretty sure you said it was a doctor who tested you not the lady at the health food store. So I would say you are probably Celiac.

It is pretty generally accepted that after two weeks of not eating gluten the blood testing is likely to be invalid. The antibodies recede pretty quickly once gluten is withdrawn.