Glad To Have Found This Site

[cindasana]

Hello,

I'm really happy to have found this forum! A few days ago, my Mom posted a link to an article on the Huffington Post, written by Mark Hyman. It was about why modern wheat is not the panacea it was made out to be, but what caught my attention was a line in which he mentioned the type of gluten in modern wheat is more likely to cause Celiac, as well as a lot of systemic inflammation. Having someone in my family who's got celiac, this tweaked my interest enough to instigate a Google search, which became another, which became another. The decision I came to after finding all the information about celiac/gluten intolerance that I did, was that I will be going to the doctor to get tested, and recommended to several other family members that they do the same thing.

We're Irish by descent (with my Grandparents being of Irish birth), have one person in our family who's been diagnosed with celiac, and a number of us have symptoms that sound too much like either celiac or gluten intolerance to reasonably be dismissed. Gastro issues abound, and I find myself wondering if family members have been misdiagnosed...ulcerative colitis, crohn's disease, IBS, skin rashes/scaliness/eczema, asthma (adult onset), allergies (adult onset), hair loss (in females), depression, the list goes on.

It seems from what I've read that misdiagnosis tends, unfortunately, to be somewhat common. Is this so? Is it common for things such as UC and Crohn's disease to be diagnosed when it's really celiac? Can celiac actually *cause* these other conditions?

From what I've seen here, folks have been getting bloodwork done for anti-endomysium antibody (lgA EMA) and anti-gliadin antibody (lgA & IgG), and tissue transglutaminase (tTG IgA) or anti-reticulin.. Would it be recommendable to go for testing for the genetic markers H.L.A. DQ2 and H.L.A. DQ8 first? I'm not sure whether the genetic testing is even covered here (I'm in Ontario, Canada) as I haven't had much exposure to civilian healthcare yet, so it could be that the bloodwork will be the only option available to me.

In the meantime, I'll keep on reading up on things here.

Thanks again!

Cindi

[faithforlife]

We decided to test our whole family of seven (my husband me and kids) for the antibodies and the genetic markers. Our son was diagnosed celiac based on those two plus a very positive response to the diet. His endo just showed early signs- severe inflammation. We knew the whole house would be gluten-free so we wanted to test first and based on the outcome we could make a decision about who could eat gluten outside of the home. turns out only two out of 7 will eat any gluten. And turns out I ( mom) am very celiac and never knew it. Positive every test even my endo. I felt more energetic on diet. As far as my relatives all I can do is inform them. I recommend that they be tested but so far over a year later no one has shown much interest besides experimenting with a few gluten-free recipes usually for my sake. My mother however with the most symptoms tried the diet at length and felt better. But still won't proceed further.

[Bubba's Mom]

If you think this may be an issue for you, please do ask to be tested. Tell the Dr. you want the full Celiac panel, because some don't know what tests to order. You must continue to eat gluten until your tests are done.

The gene test can help tell if you carry the genes, but many who carry the genes don't have Celiac until it is triggered by something stressful in their life, either emotional or physical.

If you test negative for Celiac, you can still try the gluten-free diet and see if you feel better? Going without wheat won't hurt you.

The way they have messed around with the wheat genetics is scary. It's not even close to the original grain. Many people are sensitive to gluten in some way, even if it's not full blown Celiac disease without knowing it.

Gluten containing foods are a bit addictive? Most people don't realize it, BUT..if you tell someone they can never have that pizza, beer, or doughnut they're used to, they don't think they can live without it? Sounds like addiction to me!

Some people don't get tested even if they're suspicious because they don't want to know. I have family members that fall into this group and it makes no sense to me at all!

If they told me tomorrow that I could now eat any wheat product I wanted..I would limit my consumption anyway. It's not a healthy food with ani-fungal and a naturally occuring pesticide built right in.

[cindasana]

Thanks so much for your replies. Wow...how scary to think that a person could have such a serious illness and have it not show any symptoms at all.

2008-2010 was ridiculously stressful, with some illnesses thrown in there and exposure to who-knows-what while on deployment thrown in for good measure, so I suppose were there to be a trigger that would be it!