Recovery Time - Intolerance Vs. Celiac Disease

[peachesmel]

Hi there!

I am just over a month into my new gluten-free life and I'm feeling better than ever. I wasn't able to get a blood test until last week, so I will likely have no positive result from the test since I haven't been eating gluten for so long. I'm wondering if I can glean some insight into the severity of my condition based on the recovery time or symptoms. From reading through this site and others I know that the recovery time and range of symptoms is quite broad and varies from person to person, but I wasn't able to find anything that might suggest the difference in recovery between someone who is intolerant and someone who has celiac disease.

Does anyone know if there is a definitive say on the effects of removing gluten from the diet of someone who is intolerant versus someone who has celiac disease?

For example, here is what happened for me:

I've suffered from headaches and stomach troubles (nausea, indigestion, heartburn, diarrhea/constipation) for almost all of my life. In my mid-twenties I was taking Ibuprofen daily to treat the headaches, and when I stopped the severe migraines and chronic sinusitis began. Since then (about 5 years) my health has really degraded, including the following symptoms in addition to the original: Acne, oily/scaly skin, water retention, gas/bloating, abdominal distention, amenorrhea/ extremely irregular periods, mood swings, depression/hypomania (I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder last year), fatigue, trouble sleeping, night sweats, over-sweating, brittle nails with horizontal striations (sign of vitamin deficiency), halitosis, dry mouth, extreme hunger and thirst, near-constant cravings for sweets, fainting, chills, holy crap this list is long and I know I'm missing things but I'm going to stop...

The first week after I cut out gluten I was very nauseous with severe diarrhea, drowsiness, and an almost drugged feeling. The next week I had many tension headaches and a few migraines, with excessive sweating and mood swings. The next week the headaches died down and my digestion felt better, but still not completely right. By the fourth week my fatigue had nearly vanished and I was feeling more energetic than any point in my life, and my sinus symptoms were nearly gone.

I think it's fairly obvious that gluten was causing problems for me, blood test or no, but I would love to know if there's a non-invasive way to find out whether I have celiac disease or an intolerance without having to eat glutenous things again. There are a bevy of auto-immune diseases in my family (MS and Chrohn's being the most serious), so it's entirely likely that I have celiac, but I'm curious!

Thanks in advance for any help.

[tuxedocat]

I have nearly all of those symptoms. I get manic when my thyroid is too high, but am not dx'd bipolar. A lot of those sound like my Graves disease symptoms.

I am not on the record as having celiac (doctor really bungled my testing when I had the chance to be diagnosed years ago), but being gluten free has cut out the symptoms you describe that aren't better accounted for by the Graves, and is even helping my Graves disease.

My thyroid is under better control on a gluten-free diet than it was on meds.