Symtoms Of Celiac Disease?

[adambryant]

Hi, I'm a 17 year male and about 8 or 9 months ago, I started to feel very bloated after meals and have lost my appetite drastically, which has got worse over a period of time. My mum has also has celiac disease as of about 8 or 9 years. Other symtoms include bad flatuence, waking up in the morning with weird substance around lips(sticky), bad constipation(have had diarhea sometimes, I.e a week of diarhea once then back to being constipated) I have lost quite a lot of weight, around 10 pounds to a stone. I have never been a bad eater, and this is something I hate and am struggling to cope with. I had blood tests about 5 months ago and they came back negative. I have also been refered to a specialist and he checked me, with no tests, just a physical examination. Sometimes I feel more bloated than normally, for example if I ate pasta it would blow me up a lot. But if I eat rice or ryvitas(contains rye) I wouldn't feel as bad as some of the other meals. Does this sound like celiac? Or something else? I hope someone can help. Thanks.

[Persei V.]

Since your mother has celiac, the chances you have it too are kinda high... Re-do the blood test and do an endoscopy just to be sure. These tests are not always accurate, so even if the results are negative, you can remove gluten to see how it goes.

But hang in there and keep ingesting gluten -- otherwise the tests won't work.

Good luck.

[adambryant]

Thanks:) I was just trying a gluten free diet to see how I go as the doctor advised me to, then add wheat to my diet if the symtoms decrease a little to see if the gluten triggers is. As you say the tests aren't 100 percent accurate.

[SMDBill]

I'd go so far as to suggest a different gastroenterologist. If you have immediate family with celiac and, knowing that fact, they chose not to do a complete celiac panel with endoscopy after hearing your symptoms, something is amiss with the doctor. It's difficult enough for some people to get a physician to consider celiac as their diagnosis, but in your situation you should be tested simply for the fact that your mother has it. My doctor tested me and then told me I need to have each of my children tested for it as well because it is likely one or more of them have it without knowing it.

If you or your mom have the ability, push the doc to be more thorough and test for it or find a different physician who better understands the disease. I wish you the best of luck in finding the answer.

Worst case if you cannot get help from the physicians but want to know more, once you exhaust medical testing/diagnosis possibilities, go gluten free and monitor your body for signs of improvement. That's not ideal to do so before testing, but if you're unable to get the proper testing and have tried all you can to get it, that's an option that you control fully.

Edit: Do those meals include a lot of dairy? Wondering if it could also just be lactose intolerance. Easy to test that one if you suspect it. Buy powerful lactase enzymes (over the counter stuff) and take them with those meals. If you don't suffer the same symptoms it could just be dairy related and enzymes are all you need when ingesting dairy products. Just food for thought since I don't fully know your symptoms and food combinations that prompt those reactions.

[adambryant]

Thanks for feedback! And I did think it could be dairy but I've drank glasses of milk and cereals and my stomach didn't feel any different, I did avoid milk and dairy for a while too but didn't affect anything.