Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease characterized as an immune response to wheat, rye, barley (gluten and gliadin).

- leads to inflammation to the small intestine and damage and destruction to the villi

It isn’t taken seriously enough, it can be detrimental to one’s health and well being. I suffer in so many ways when I eat gluten, I feel it in my bones, I get numb, creeping pain in my feet and hands (diagnosed as carpal tunnel and neuropathy), I cannot digest it, abdominal pain and distension, intestinal pain, bone and joint pain, headaches and migraines, mucous throughout my body (stool, eyes, throat), sores in my mouth and anemia. It is nasty, I get thinner, paler and weaker. I think a lot of our older population is gluten intolerant but are being treated for neuropathy, arthritis or digestive issues instead of eliminating the wheat. What a shame, life is amazingly different without wheat for me, if you suspect it, give it a try, just eliminate it and see how you feel. Wheat takes months to get out of your system though and if you have been off of gluten for over 5 or 6 months, the test won’t show you are celiac. You have to have it in your system to show up on tests. I have been off of it for 21 years and a doctor just tested me for it and said I wasn’t celiac. Here is what I found:

If the person being tested has not consumed any gluten for several weeks prior to testing, then celiac disease tests may be negative (although this may require many months of gluten-free diet). If the doctor still suspects celiac disease, she may do a gluten challenge – have the patient introduce gluten into his diet for several weeks or months to see if the symptoms return. At that time, celiac tests may be repeated or a biopsy may be done to check for villous atrophy (damage to the villi in the intestine).

I am not putting myself through all that pain, anemia and joint and muscle pain again to see if I have what I know I have. It makes me sick so I don’t eat it. Perhaps a lot of arthritis people have isn’t really arthritis but rather an undiagnosed gluten reaction. I know when I took out the final hidden gluten out of my diet, the nerve pain disappeared. Honestly, I think we eat way too much white flour, what nutrition is in it? Empty calories.

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/celiac_disease/test.html

I will be writing a lot more on this topic……will continue……….

 

 

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