Is There A Difference Between Celiac Disease And A Gluten Intolerance?

[charlotte-hall]

Is it the same thing but just a different name?

[psawyer]

There is some debate on the question, but you can be intolerant to gluten while testing negatively for celiac disease. Some argue that that just means the celiac disease has not yet advanced far enough to trigger a positive test result.

[Skylark]

As Peter says, some gluten intolerant people are celiacs with a negative test. However, there are a growing number of studies on non-celiac gluten intolerance, where the gluten causes a lot of inflammation in the intestines but the autoimmunity is not present. The inflammation can cause malabsorption and affect joints, nerves, and your thyroid as well as your gut. As with celiac, the malabsorption can cause vitamin deficiencies and associated damage. A person with gluten intolerance may not have to avoid gluten as strictly as someone with celiac, although most people find the symptoms of eating gluten are unpleasant enough that they avoid it anyway.

[Aly1]

I have done a lot of reading lately and from what I gather celiac and gluten intolerance fall under an umbrella condition (the name they are calling it escapes me). Celiac and GI are just different manifestations of the same thing. Celiacs very specifically have damage to the villi - people with GI do not but have very real gluten-induced symptoms.