Damaged Villi

[ILOVEOMC]

Is there anything else besides celiac disease that causes damage to the villi in the small intestines?

[skoki-mom]

I don't think so, that is why the antibody blood tests are so accurate. The antibodies are present because of villi damage, and I asked my GI if it could be anything else besides celiac disease and he said no.

[KaitiUSA]

I believe that milk can cause some villous atrophy in some pretty rare cases.

However, the antibodies would not show anything if it was milk because they only detect the gluten side of things.

[ILOVEOMC]

Thanks for the input. I didn't know that about milk, Katie. I will have to keep that in mind to ask the doc about at a follow-up appointment. There always seems to be something we are wondering about with this condition.

[Carriefaith]

I believe that milk can cause some villous atrophy in some pretty rare cases.

I didn't know that about milk, Katie. I will have to keep that in mind to ask the doc about at a follow-up appointment.

In this book I have called Breaking The Vicious Cycle, it says that "the flattened or blunted intestinal surface has been reported in innumerable disease states" this includes: infectious hepatitis, ulcerative colitis, parasitic infections, soy protein, cow's milk protein (casein), intractable diarrhea of infancy, chohn's disease, and bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine. I don't know how valid this list is, and the author only lists references for a few of them. Keep in mind that this is also the author that clearly states... "The Specific Carbohydrate Diet has been shown to completely cure most cases of celiac disease if followed for at least one year" (this is word for word from the book, BTW) so I don't know how valid her info is . And for those of you new to celiacc and the diet... that statement would be false.

[celiac3270]

Right. I had heard about villous atrophy also occuring in hepatitis and crohn's...