Celiac Disease Testing And Health Insurance

[LynnC]

My ultimate questions: What are the benefits of being medically diagnosed with Celiac Disease or Crohns compared to if you just (on your own) carefully modify your diet, insuring symptoms disappear, along with taking supplements, eating more whole foods, and eating gluten free products, etc? Are there other factors I need to consider, like the likelihood of damage to organs that only tests can show? I feel good now and would like to believe this is a good measure of my inner health... Here's some background (below). I would love to hear your opinions and similar experiences as I try to decide if further action is really necessary at this point.

In the past, my own answer to health concerns would have been -Go to the doctor, PERIOD. But after several changes in health insurance coverage in the last two years I was shocked to learn that because I checked off being diagnosed with IBS before, I was bumped up to a high risk insurance rate. I was told it's because IBS is thought to be a precursor to Crohn's. Note that my diagnosis was over 20 years ago when so much less was known about IBS, Crohn's, Celiac, etc. I never had meds for it, just avoided certain foods and used probiotics which helped considerably, until this recent highly stressed year.

After learning some about gluten sensitivity, I switched gears and went gluten free (about 95% of the time)and my symptoms have nearly disappeared. Before knowing anything about celiac disease, I had been trying to eat healthier, and eating a lot more wheat products, which could help to explain the increase of problems with a swelling stomach and severe cramping pain. I have also come across 15 yr old allergy test that showed a positive result to a wheat allergy.

So is going to a doctor to run tests for a more current diagnoses even really necessary for me yet? Or can I skip the tests for now so I don't risk bumping up my health insurance rate? What do you think?

Thanks for your responses! -LynnC