When did you have the blood test? Being able to test for gluten-intolerance via blood test is a relatively new thing (in the last year or so) -- your test may have predated it and my understanding is that it's not widely used yet.
Basically the blood test can only tell you if you are intolerant to gluten. It can't tell you if you are celiac (basically, you can be allergic to wheat without the allergy causing an immune response that results in ulceration of the intestine, which is what happens in celiac and makes the allergy a long-term illness issue. Officially the diagnosis process for that is still ridiculous -- intestinal biopsy while eating wheat; six months wheat free, another biopsy; six months eating wheat, a third biopsy -- however, if the evidence seems clear many doctors will give you the diagnosis without it, because a) that's very intrusive and the condition is debilitating enough that it's absurd to ask a person to reintroduce gluten to their diet for six months (I literally couldn't do this and work or function on any level at all) if eating even a speck of it makes their intestines bleed (and pretty much a single bite of whole wheat bread is enough to do that to me noticeably and even contaminated food makes me ill with results that last for days)).
What a blood test can't tell you is if wheat is effecting your mood and energy levels (wow, I'm not clinically depressed or having episodes of rage for the first time since birth) which is also common both in people with and without actual celiac disease.
Wheat is scary -- it's a good food more and more people ae becoming allergic to because we are using additives derived from it in everything, causing people's bodies to develop some very scary immune responses to it.
The good news is, that an elimination diet will tell you what you need to know very quickly -- intestinal distress will start with subside within 48 hours -- mood, skin and the like changes are just as abrupt but take a few days more. The other good news is is that if you want to do a blood test (in which gluten must still be in your diet to see if the reaction is occuring), it can be ordered online and done at home for about $100 if redoing that panel of stuff at a doctor is too financially or logistically inconvenient.
Honestly, I would tell anyone who suspects thish might even remotely be a factor with them to just not eat the stuff for a few days. This was something that came u as a possible cause of my problems repeatedly while I was ill, but I, my friends and my doctor all dismissed it repeatedly _solely_ because we all felt it was too inconvenient to stop eating gluten (which it is, it's in everything). If there's even a chance this is effecting you, try it.
If you need info on gluten-free stuff to watch out for or places to lood for hidden wheat in foods, let me know.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-07-01 12:20 pm (UTC)Basically the blood test can only tell you if you are intolerant to gluten. It can't tell you if you are celiac (basically, you can be allergic to wheat without the allergy causing an immune response that results in ulceration of the intestine, which is what happens in celiac and makes the allergy a long-term illness issue. Officially the diagnosis process for that is still ridiculous -- intestinal biopsy while eating wheat; six months wheat free, another biopsy; six months eating wheat, a third biopsy -- however, if the evidence seems clear many doctors will give you the diagnosis without it, because a) that's very intrusive and the condition is debilitating enough that it's absurd to ask a person to reintroduce gluten to their diet for six months (I literally couldn't do this and work or function on any level at all) if eating even a speck of it makes their intestines bleed (and pretty much a single bite of whole wheat bread is enough to do that to me noticeably and even contaminated food makes me ill with results that last for days)).
What a blood test can't tell you is if wheat is effecting your mood and energy levels (wow, I'm not clinically depressed or having episodes of rage for the first time since birth) which is also common both in people with and without actual celiac disease.
Wheat is scary -- it's a good food more and more people ae becoming allergic to because we are using additives derived from it in everything, causing people's bodies to develop some very scary immune responses to it.
The good news is, that an elimination diet will tell you what you need to know very quickly -- intestinal distress will start with subside within 48 hours -- mood, skin and the like changes are just as abrupt but take a few days more. The other good news is is that if you want to do a blood test (in which gluten must still be in your diet to see if the reaction is occuring), it can be ordered online and done at home for about $100 if redoing that panel of stuff at a doctor is too financially or logistically inconvenient.
Honestly, I would tell anyone who suspects thish might even remotely be a factor with them to just not eat the stuff for a few days. This was something that came u as a possible cause of my problems repeatedly while I was ill, but I, my friends and my doctor all dismissed it repeatedly _solely_ because we all felt it was too inconvenient to stop eating gluten (which it is, it's in everything). If there's even a chance this is effecting you, try it.
If you need info on gluten-free stuff to watch out for or places to lood for hidden wheat in foods, let me know.