Celiac Disease-The Symptoms
October 1st, 2009 | 
Author: Celiac disease is a very common, yet very under diagnosed, incurable, hereditary, autoimmune disease. Recent studies show that one in 133 people , in the United States alone, are affected by celiac disease. The reason that it is so under diagnosed or misdiagnosed is because the symptoms can be so varied.
With most diseases there are a set of symptoms that are basically typical to that particular disease. However, celiac disease has a broad spectrum of symptoms, none of which are “typical.” Symptoms are triggered by the ingestion of gluten, the protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and sometimes oats.
Symptoms of CD can be any one of or several of the following: fatigue, anemia, unexplained weight loss or weight gain, skin blisters or other skin disorders, mood swings, depression, anxiety, miscarriages, osteoporosis, irritable bowel, headaches, a bloated feeling, flatulence (gas), profuse diarrhea, severe stomach aches, joint pain, and possibly others that just haven’t been linked to CD yet. As your body becomes more intollerant to the gluten in your diet, you may experience numbness or tingling in your face and hands.
With that wide of a variety of symptoms, you can see why self diagnosing is so difficult. If you experience or are experiencing any of these symptoms, check with your doctor to see if you may have CD. You will want to ask for the following blood tests: IgA antihuman tissue transglutaminase (IgA TTG) and IGA endomysial antibody immunofluoresence (IgA EMA). That is a mouthful, I know, however, these tests are currently recommended by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as being the most accurate.
Then if your blood tests positive for gluten antibodies, you will need to have a biopsy of your small intestine, to check your intestinal villi. This is done as an outpatient procedure.
After that you go on a Gluten Free diet and feel better.
Just keep in mind, if you suspect you might have Celiac Disease, and you want an actual medical diagnosis, DO NOT start a gluten free diet before your blood test and intestinal biopsy. You need to be eating gluten for the blood tests and biopsy to be accurate.
Tomarrow I’ll talk about different symptoms for children with celiac disease.
Mary Blackburn
Living Gluten Free
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My story is a little different. I wish I could say that I lost a lot of weight, but I didn’t. About 5 years ago, I first noticed something was wrong when I started getting little blisters on both elbows, both knees, and (embarrassing) both cheeks, if you know what I mean. And did they ever itch. I would stand in the show and use a scrub brush to scratch them, sometimes until they bled. After a few months, I went to a dermatologist to find out what was going on. He diagnosed me with dermatitis herpetiformis, which was a gluten intolerance (not near as painful as celiac, but no fun neither). He took a biopsy from my elbow and told me to come back in a week for confirmation and treatment options. In the meantime, I did my own research at home online. What I found out was that most doctors send you home with a prescription for dapsone, which is a drug they use to treat leprosy and which takes forever to read the side effects. Not good! What I also learned was that all you need to do is to quit eating wheat, barley, and rye. When I went back the following week, sure enough, I was sent home with my prescription of dapsone (which is still stuck to my bulletin board). I just watched what I ate, read labels, changed my diet and the blisters cleared up in a week or two. I was very careful what I ate for about 3 years, but since then, I have been able to eat a little bit of wheat occasionally without symptoms recurring.
Thanks Rosey for your story. It gives a different perspective of symptoms, and shows just how varied gluten intollerance symptoms really are.