A bit of a rant and an eye-opening experience
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Dragonwolf
Posts: 5,600 Member
So, I decided to get tested for autoimmune issues to ensure I'm not missing something with regard to my health and weight. Unfortunately, it means working wheat back into my diet as a semi-regular thing for a while (due to time constraints, I need to ensure sufficient intake to get sufficient built up of any wheat-triggered antibodies I may have), which means more than just a cracker or two each day and more like a serving or so at each meal.
I'm on day 3 now, and someone please shoot me.
I'm being rather meticulous about it. I'm trying to avoid "working it in" to my meals in a similar way one might work in, say, kale or avocado (mixing it in to stuff, etc), to avoid creating those habits and breaking or overwriting the ones I now prefer. So the food is sort of "standalone" stuff that I don't normally get -- trade in some of the egg and sausage for a couple of slices of French toast, for example. I'm also writing down the gluten stuff I eat (in part to ensure enough intake per day and to document it), how I feel before and shortly after, as well as notes on longer-term feelings (to record the onset of things that take time to manifest, like my anemia and skin issues).
However, there are a few good things to come of it, so far:
1. I am totally going back to low carb, gluten-free when I'm done. A general feeling of "ick" has started to set in. Kind of like after a few days of camping where even if you didn't do a lot and it wasn't sweltering out, you still kind of feel grimy. That's about how I feel right now. I want my salad and bacon and meat-wrapped-cheese back. This was the most surprising thing. I'm an admitted recovering carb/sugar addict. I fully expected this to be more...enjoyable, for lack of a better term. Like getting a "fix." Yeah...no. Not after the first bite or so of the French toast (first thing I had). Most of it is, at best....meh. It's very evident that what makes most good-tasting bread foods good is largely the sugar. Now, a good homemade bread is kind of a different story, but the store-bought stuff? Screw that. It definitely took over due to convenience, because it sucks with regard to taste compared to artisan stuff.
2. None of the "old foods" taste particularly great. Okay, not quite "none." I picked up a pack of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies (arguably my all-time favorite, at least of store-bought) to have a quick and easy thing to eat to ensure I get at least some in each day (though that hasn't really been a problem so far, though that may quickly change). Those are still pretty good. Stuff like pancakes, French toast, and tortilla wraps? Not so much. They're okay, but no longer "OMG I want them and I want more!" and they don't taste like I remember, which is its own form of disappointment.
3. Nighttime heartburn is definitely tied to wheat consumption. OMG, I had horrible heartburn last night, and it's been getting worse since I started. Definitely going to need to do an apple cider vinegar drink before bed, because Tums aren't helping.
4. ...So are my daily headaches. It's like clockwork. Within an hour of eating, I get a mild headache. Thankfully, because I no longer constantly eat wheat, it doesn't escalate from there, and I don't seem to need medicine, at least not right now (knock on wood).
5. My hunger signals still seem pretty trustworthy. This one came as a bit of a surprise, but so far, I'm still able to do my usual more-or-less fast until lunch without much thought. Prior to going low carb, I couldn't have dreamed of doing that in a million years. I'd have to eat breakfast and would still be wanting to gnaw my arm off come lunch time. That seems to have stayed away, thankfully. Additionally, I haven't been getting stupid hunger pangs an hour or two after a meal. It helps that I've been trying to keep the protein up, but it's still a nice observation, since hunger is something I struggled horribly with when I first started trying to lose weight.
All this on day three. I can't help but think that the people who say they've tried low carb or gluten free and went back to their carbage and had this wash of relief over them didn't stick with it for any length of time, because now that it had all been out of my system and I had gotten fully used to not eating that stuff (I even did good and stayed gluten-free at my mom's house; granted, I was only there for about 48 hours, but it's a low-fat, gluten minefield, so that's a feat without bringing my own food), this is rather miserable. That's saying a lot for someone whose meals used to consist almost entirely of wheat products.
I'm on day 3 now, and someone please shoot me.
I'm being rather meticulous about it. I'm trying to avoid "working it in" to my meals in a similar way one might work in, say, kale or avocado (mixing it in to stuff, etc), to avoid creating those habits and breaking or overwriting the ones I now prefer. So the food is sort of "standalone" stuff that I don't normally get -- trade in some of the egg and sausage for a couple of slices of French toast, for example. I'm also writing down the gluten stuff I eat (in part to ensure enough intake per day and to document it), how I feel before and shortly after, as well as notes on longer-term feelings (to record the onset of things that take time to manifest, like my anemia and skin issues).
However, there are a few good things to come of it, so far:
1. I am totally going back to low carb, gluten-free when I'm done. A general feeling of "ick" has started to set in. Kind of like after a few days of camping where even if you didn't do a lot and it wasn't sweltering out, you still kind of feel grimy. That's about how I feel right now. I want my salad and bacon and meat-wrapped-cheese back. This was the most surprising thing. I'm an admitted recovering carb/sugar addict. I fully expected this to be more...enjoyable, for lack of a better term. Like getting a "fix." Yeah...no. Not after the first bite or so of the French toast (first thing I had). Most of it is, at best....meh. It's very evident that what makes most good-tasting bread foods good is largely the sugar. Now, a good homemade bread is kind of a different story, but the store-bought stuff? Screw that. It definitely took over due to convenience, because it sucks with regard to taste compared to artisan stuff.
2. None of the "old foods" taste particularly great. Okay, not quite "none." I picked up a pack of Pepperidge Farm Milano cookies (arguably my all-time favorite, at least of store-bought) to have a quick and easy thing to eat to ensure I get at least some in each day (though that hasn't really been a problem so far, though that may quickly change). Those are still pretty good. Stuff like pancakes, French toast, and tortilla wraps? Not so much. They're okay, but no longer "OMG I want them and I want more!" and they don't taste like I remember, which is its own form of disappointment.
3. Nighttime heartburn is definitely tied to wheat consumption. OMG, I had horrible heartburn last night, and it's been getting worse since I started. Definitely going to need to do an apple cider vinegar drink before bed, because Tums aren't helping.
4. ...So are my daily headaches. It's like clockwork. Within an hour of eating, I get a mild headache. Thankfully, because I no longer constantly eat wheat, it doesn't escalate from there, and I don't seem to need medicine, at least not right now (knock on wood).
5. My hunger signals still seem pretty trustworthy. This one came as a bit of a surprise, but so far, I'm still able to do my usual more-or-less fast until lunch without much thought. Prior to going low carb, I couldn't have dreamed of doing that in a million years. I'd have to eat breakfast and would still be wanting to gnaw my arm off come lunch time. That seems to have stayed away, thankfully. Additionally, I haven't been getting stupid hunger pangs an hour or two after a meal. It helps that I've been trying to keep the protein up, but it's still a nice observation, since hunger is something I struggled horribly with when I first started trying to lose weight.
All this on day three. I can't help but think that the people who say they've tried low carb or gluten free and went back to their carbage and had this wash of relief over them didn't stick with it for any length of time, because now that it had all been out of my system and I had gotten fully used to not eating that stuff (I even did good and stayed gluten-free at my mom's house; granted, I was only there for about 48 hours, but it's a low-fat, gluten minefield, so that's a feat without bringing my own food), this is rather miserable. That's saying a lot for someone whose meals used to consist almost entirely of wheat products.
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I just question why you are re-glutening with 'crap' food? Sorry for the straightforwardness of this question, but it is possibly confusing the issue since these other foods have so many unhealthy components. Perhaps your re-glutening test should be done with 'healthier' clean grains, Bulgur wheat salad, wheat berries hot as a breakfast cereal, organic wheat breads, real soy sauce, etc?
Since the answer to wheat induced sicknesses whether Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity is totally GF eating, the only reason I would think of to do this to your body (YES, you are harming it) is if you could get medical insurance for it by actually being diagnosed. Luckily we don't have to do that in our country, but we can also get tax writeoffs for GF groceries that are subs for regular products. Thing is, those GF products are generally things to stay away from on a LCHF diet anyhow. That's why I didn't bother re-glutening after 4 years off - my Celiac tests were 'inconclusive.'
Medscape Article July 2016:
Some Non-celiac Gluten Sensitivity Patients May Have 'Celiac Lite' Disease
July 29/16
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A subset of patients with non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) may actually have a form of celiac disease, researchers in Spain report.
"The differential diagnosis of 'minor' forms of celiac disease and NCGS is difficult," Dr. Fernando Fernandez Banares of the University Hospital Mútua de Terrassa told Reuters Health by email. A diagnosis of NCGS requires ruling out celiac disease on the basis of negative celiac serology and a duodenal biopsy of normal villi (no villous atrophy) in a person who is currently on a diet that contains gluten, he explained. But those diagnostic criteria may need to be revisited.
Dr. Banares and colleagues conducted a small proof-of-concept study that aimed to demonstrate that gluten can trigger clinical symptoms in a subgroup of patients who currently fulfill the diagnostic criteria NCGS. Recent trials suggest that only a minority of those patients will exhibit symptoms in response to a gluten challenge, the authors note in PloS One, online July 8.
At the time of NCGS diagnosis, the 18 participants had all been on a gluten-containing diet, with lymphocytic enteritis on distal duodenum biopsy and gastrointestinal symptoms that fell within the clinical spectrum of celiac disease - but they had negative celiac disease serology. In addition, they all had genes that predispose to celiac disease (HLA-DQ2.5 and/or HLA-DQ8 haplotypes).
Other causes of lymphocytic enteritis such as parasitic infection, NSAID intake or Helicobacter pylori infection had been ruled out.
All participants also had clinical and histological remission after at least a year on a gluten-free diet.
Eleven patients were randomly assigned to take a sachet of 10 grams of gluten twice daily for six months; the other seven patients took placebo sachets twice daily.
In the gluten-challenge group, 10 patients (91%) had a clinical relapse within the first two weeks; including seven who "were prematurely withdrawn because of intolerable symptoms." By comparison, only two patients (28.5%) relapsed in the placebo group (p=0.01).
Clinical scores and quality of life worsened after gluten, but not after placebo (p<0.01).
"Since these patients (the 91%) were characterized by gastrointestinal clinical symptoms within the clinical spectrum of celiac disease, presence of HLA-DQ2/8+, Marsh stage 1 lesion (increased intraepithelial lymphocytes but no villous atrophy), and a clinical and histological response to a gluten-free diet, the question remains as to whether this condition should be considered a 'minor' or 'low-grade' celiac disease (also called 'celiac lite' by some authors) or NCGS," Dr. Banares said.
"Previous studies have shown that the intraepithelial lymphocyte (IEL) count and/or the presence of anti-transglutaminase (TG2) deposits in the mucosa are biomarkers of celiac disease," he continued. "In the present study, these tissue celiac markers were present in around 55% of patients at inclusion, despite their being on a gluten-free diet, suggesting a 'celiac lite' disease."
He added, "Previous studies of celiac disease with (villous) atrophy have shown a permanent increase in IEL, even after a gluten-free diet, (suggesting) that this marker may provide a clue for celiac disease diagnosis and offering the possibility of identifying celiac disease patients when they are on a gluten-free diet, even when histological examination of the biopsy shows recovered mucosa."
"This 'proof of concept' study suggests that there is a 'minor' form of celiac disease with negative celiac serology that should be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of NCGS. The presence of increased IEL count and/or TG2 deposits in the mucosa could be of help in the diagnosis of these patients," Dr. Banares observed.
"We are routinely using this diagnostic strategy in our outpatient clinic, and we think that the intraepithelial lymphogram study adds important information to the diagnostic work-up of these patients. Our recommendation is to use it in clinical practice," he concluded.
Commenting by email, Dr. Gina Sam, director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Center at the Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City said, "This study suggests that patients who do not have celiac disease but still have symptoms like a celiac patient (NCGS patients) do respond to a gluten-free diet. This is a groundbreaking study and supports that there is some type of inflammatory response that occurs with gluten in some patients. This is an amazing finding and suggests this is why IBS patients do well gluten free."
No commercial funding or conflicts of interest were reported.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2az6WmJ3 -
@Dragonwolf you may find this MFP group thread helpful: community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10104290/medscape-medical-professionals-continuing-ed-site-celiac-disease-gluten-sensitivity-articles#latest1
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Great articles, @canadjineh!
So... not only does gluten contaminate foods it has no business in (even probiotics!), but other foods have sufficient commonalities that they can replicate gluten sensitivity. Could be a huge market for the gluten test kit mentioned in one of the articles....
(TG my GI nightmares are pretty much history since I switched to brand Glucophage, stopped eating grains, etc., and only have an occasional beer.... My nice GI doc promised to be close by if they return, though, notwithstanding the fact that I declined his invitation to go back on a wheat-laced diet to test for CD. He asked if I expect to go back to "normal" eating again; I said I'd sooner guzzle colonoscopy prep elixir every morning, and he let it slide....)
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Hahah, yeah sure, 'normal' eating....
and don't forget we need our 8 glasses of water and plenty of electrolytes; here's how I plan to get my daily requirements.
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I hate to admit it.... well.... but I do buy bottles of magnesium citrate laxative for just that purpose. The, uh, little bottles, that is.0
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Dragonwolf wrote: »3. Nighttime heartburn is definitely tied to wheat consumption. OMG, I had horrible heartburn last night, and it's been getting worse since I started. Definitely going to need to do an apple cider vinegar drink before bed, because Tums aren't helping.
I also used to have heartburn back in the dark ages. No one even suggested wheat as a possible culprit, but rather NSAIDs, coffee, stress, lack of sleep. An unexpected relief that I didn't have a single episode in all of 2016, even while drinking pickle juice, sucking espresso, and eating hot peppers....
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Celiac testing sucks. The whole premise is from the dark ages: Make yourself sick, and damage yourself enough, that they can finally detect antibodies and see the intestinal damage. Yuck.
How long is your gluten challenge? The norm is the equivalent of 1-2 slices of bread per day for 8-12 weeks prior to the blood tests, and 2-4 weeks for the endoscopic biopsy. If you go less than that you risk false negatives, and the false negative rate is already around 25% - high enough as it is. Eating more gluten will help, but ouch.
Because celiac tests only detect about 75% of all celiacs, make sure you get as many tests done as possible so you don't need to keep going. Try to get the IgA and IgG versions of all tests done too. Some celiacs are only positive in the IgG based tests, especially true for, but not limited to, those with an IgA deficiency.
These are the blood tests:- anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTG IgA, tTG IgG)
- endomysial antibodies (EMA IgA)
- deaminated gliadin peptides (DGP IgA, DGP IgG)
- anti-gliadin antibodies (AGA IgA, AGA IgG) - an older, less reliable test that was replaced by the DGP test
- total serum IgA - control test
... I'm a celiac that was active in support groups for a while. Sorry for the lecture.
Have you considered trying vital wheat gluten/seitan from the health food aisle? Vegetarians often use it You can just buy the protein and work it into your LCHF foods to avoid some of the carbage that comes with it. Gliadins are proteins so technically, you might be able to make that work.
I'm just not sure how much wheat gluten you would to use to get the equivalent amount of gluten in about 2 slices of bread. I believe an adult needs 2-6g of gluten per day prior to testing. Seitan is about 75% gluten so maybe 3-9g of seitan? I would google that though.
Good luck with it.2 -
Since the answer to wheat induced sicknesses whether Celiac Disease or Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity is totally GF eating, the only reason I would think of to do this to your body (YES, you are harming it) is if you could get medical insurance for it by actually being diagnosed. Luckily we don't have to do that in our country
Because I'm in the US, and we're still in the Dark Ages, and even moreso when it comes to Celiac and NCGS. In fact, NCGS is still largely denied here (and don't get me started on the matter of people who avoid gluten without an actual diagnosis...). I have a number of health issues I've been dealing with for the past several years that most doctors have just shrugged their shoulders at, both with regards to testing and to treatment. The more diagnostic backing I have, the better equipped I am to deal with the bull regarding it and continue to work to get the answers I need.
Trust me, I know I'm harming my body, but because of the other health issues that come along with Celiac, it's a move that I trust will be beneficial in the long run. I was dealing with new symptoms of stuff even with far less extreme exposure, so something is going on, and I'm to the point where I want to find out what. Also, if you've ever seen anyone with an active dermatitis herpetiformis flare-up, you'll know that this isn't really something one would willingly do unless the benefits outweighed that level of hell.I just question why you are re-glutening with 'crap' food? Sorry for the straightforwardness of this question, but it is possibly confusing the issue since these other foods have so many unhealthy components. Perhaps your re-glutening test should be done with 'healthier' clean grains, Bulgur wheat salad, wheat berries hot as a breakfast cereal, organic wheat breads, real soy sauce, etc?
I've learned through many years of experience that as far as my health/body is concerned, it doesn't much matter whether it's white bread or wheat berries. It's still going to react pretty much the same way. Even mixing the wheat with actual sugar just amplifies the effects.
That being said, I'm not actually eating as much crap food as my original post may have sounded. We're talking two slices of French toast, two pancakes, and two small tortilla wraps, over the course of three days, and that was largely because that span of time was over the holidays, where things like eating out were happening more often. In this country, the only way to get even organic anything at a restaurant is to go to restaurants that specialize in that. Otherwise, you're pretty much stuck with white and/or pretty heavily processed "whole" wheat/rye (and in those cases, you're stuck with toast), and it's either that, or actual crap foods -- cakes and pastries. I picked up the cookies, because if it came down to needing something to ensure I got gluten in for the day, it needed to be small and quick, I needed to be able to keep it from my son (he's a cracker fanatic, in part because he tends toward sodium deficiency, so he's attracted to the salt), and...well...it might as well taste good and be enjoyable at least going down, and for those ones, I'm satisfied with one cookie and have the control to not go back for more (something I don't trust myself to do with pretty much anything else that's a quick thing like that).
I don't eat breakfast anymore, so cereal's pretty much out of the question (though I do have some organic whole wheat cereal that I bought for my son to try that didn't really do it for him, so I have had a bowl of that one day), not that even something like oatmeal (or a wheat equivalent) fill me until lunch, anyway, as that historically lasted all of two hours, at best. Soy sauce doesn't provide enough without putting a ton on (and I'd never use all of even a small container during this time, so there's the matter of waste, too). Things like the Bulgur wheat salad I hadn't thought of, in part because, frankly, I'm not really interested in finding new ways to cook something that I very likely can't tolerate (and regardless of the test results, will be "giving up" again afterwards), making it potentially one more thing that I'd like that I'd have to forego. For me, it's better to not having something at all than to get a taste of it and have to leave it behind.How long is your gluten challenge? The norm is the equivalent of 1-2 slices of bread per day for 8-12 weeks prior to the blood tests, and 2-4 weeks for the endoscopic biopsy. If you go less than that you risk false negatives, and the false negative rate is already around 25% - high enough as it is. Eating more gluten will help, but ouch.
My doctor didn't actually give me any instructions for that, probably because she assumes/trusts that I already know what I need to do (no doubt because I basically sent her a message that said "hey, I'd like to get tested for celiac, because I have these symptoms following a certain amount of exposure, and I'm pretty sure the skin thing I get is dermatitis herpetiformis"). Unfortunately, since I want the tests done before my next appointment with her (she's my endo, and I only see her once every 3-6 months), I only have about six weeks to get bloodwork in and have enough time to get them back for review at the appointment. (I only got the confirmation last week, despite sending an initial request at the beginning of December. The disadvantage of having one of the top women's endocrinology researchers as my doctor.)
So yeah, to avoid a false negative, it means more than just a 1-2 slice or one cracker equivalent. I am "fortunate" in that I don't get some of the serious GI issues a lot of people get, so that makes condensing the time frame easier. Still not particularly fun, though.
We're only running the tTG IgA/IgG tests at the moment, but I'm fairly confident that that will be sufficient, assuming the dermatitis I've gotten the past couple of exposures is, in fact, DH, which, from what I understand, is primarily driven by IgA. If I can get in to the lab with an active flare, I might also be able to talk them into a skin biopsy (it's all part of Ohio State University's medical campus, so...).Seitan is about 75% gluten so maybe 3-9g of seitan? I would google that though.
I've never found the prepared seitan particularly appetizing, but I'll have to see if we still have any vital wheat gluten from my husband's pretzel kick. Not sure how to use it, though, since it's just a powder not unlike regular flour. A quick look suggests I could make seitan at home with the flour (or, even better, the vital wheat gluten if I can find it) that I already have and do...something...with it. That would be a pretty direct way of getting it, for the purposes of this.1 -
Dermatitis herpetiformis is nasty.
I hope you don't have it.
From what I remember, those with dh are more likely to get a false negative endoscopic biopsy but I can't remember if that is true of the blood tests... Perhaps try celiac.com forums. The people there know a LOT and could point you in the right direction.
I do know that the dh biopsy needs to be beside the actve rash and not actually on it. Many dermatologists don't know that, or didn't a few years back anyways. You may want to get info and make sure you have a celiac savy dermatologist.
If you only have 6 weeks before testing, you may want to go on the heavier side of gluten consumption: tw slices of bread (or equivalent) or more. It might make you more miserable but you'll be less likey to get a false negative.
Speaking of tests, doctor usually just order the tTG IgA and total serum IgA. It is good you are getting the ttG IgG. I know of a few celiacs who only had a positive tTG IgG and a negative tTG IgA. Unfortunately, I also know a few celiacs who were ony positive in the DGP tests too. If possible, I would aske your doctor if you can add the DGP IgA and DGP IgG tests to the lab requisition, along with the total serum IgA control test. 1 in 20 celiacs is too low in serum IgA to be accurately tested in the IgA based tests, so those people will have false negatives in those tests.
The EMA IgA test tends to detect advanced celiac but is similar to the tTG IgA. If the tTG IgA is negaive, the EMA IgA will be too. Doctors often add that test AFTER getting a positive tTG IgA test result.
Again, good luck. I hope things get easier as your body adjusts to the gluten1 -
I know when I did my tests that I came back negative. I hope you get some good answers from this experiment, as it sounds about like the 7th circle of hades... Sending gentle air hugs!0
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My Mom never got a positive test either, but ANY trace of gluten makes her very sick. She got plaques in her hair and at the corners of her mouth too from gluten. The insides of her ears even peeled so much it would clog her ears. She also can't tolerate casein or dairy. Good luck to you. I know first hand how miserable it can make you. Her experience also helped push me to try LC. It was an easier way to eliminate grains from my diet to see if certain symptoms I have could improve.1
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No real advice to offer I just wanted to say good luck on getting answers!
I live in a really bad area for medical care so I had a fiasco of time getting diagnosed. They did my blood work AFTER I stopped eating gluten so it was negative. They biopsied the DH rash itself and not the skin adjacent to the rash. They did my EGD and honestly never told me what it said other than I had horrible inflammation all throughout. I was miserable sick and my cousin worked as a nurse for a GI in Maryland at the time so he agreed to look at my test and told me he thought it was celiac and to eliminate gluten. I did and it helped a ton with my GI issues, my rash, my vitamin deficiencies, and the estrogen imbalance I had developed. My hormone levels were so out of whack they thought I was entering menopause and I wasn't even 30!!! So fast forward almost 10 years and I end up going to a new GI for a colonoscopy and follow up EGD because my dad had just died of colon and liver cancer. I asked him about doing a gluten challenge because of my iffy diagnosis. He said he wouldn't recommend making myself sick for it and he just did the new EGD and got the records from the first doctor. At my follow-up he stated he compared the two and felt 100% confident with the celiac diagnosis because they were like night and day and the only difference between the two tests was one was eating gluten and one was not. I was so relieved I didn't have to challenge it!3 -
Dermatitis herpetiformis is nasty. I hope you don't have it.
From what I remember, those with dh are more likely to get a false negative endoscopic biopsy but I can't remember if that is true of the blood tests... Perhaps try celiac.com forums. The people there know a LOT and could point you in the right direction.
I do know that the dh biopsy needs to be beside the actve rash and not actually on it. Many dermatologists don't know that, or didn't a few years back anyways. You may want to get info and make sure you have a celiac savy dermatologist.
If you only have 6 weeks before testing, you may want to go on the heavier side of gluten consumption: tw slices of bread (or equivalent) or more. It might make you more miserable but you'll be less likey to get a false negative.
Speaking of tests, doctor usually just order the tTG IgA and total serum IgA. It is good you are getting the ttG IgG. I know of a few celiacs who only had a positive tTG IgG and a negative tTG IgA. Unfortunately, I also know a few celiacs who were ony positive in the DGP tests too. If possible, I would aske your doctor if you can add the DGP IgA and DGP IgG tests to the lab requisition, along with the total serum IgA control test. 1 in 20 celiacs is too low in serum IgA to be accurately tested in the IgA based tests, so those people will have false negatives in those tests.
The EMA IgA test tends to detect advanced celiac but is similar to the tTG IgA. If the tTG IgA is negaive, the EMA IgA will be too. Doctors often add that test AFTER getting a positive tTG IgA test result.
Again, good luck. I hope things get easier as your body adjusts to the gluten
From what I've found, biopsy is sketchy at best, due to spottier intestinal damage. The blood test also has a higher false negative rate, but it's better than the GI biopsy. Ahhh, the hoops required for healthcare.... *Eyeroll*1 -
No joke. Talk to me about that after I finally get to have an appointment with a new doctor regarding figuring my issues out. I might have quite a lot to say on "hoops" in very salty language.Dragonwolf wrote: »Ahhh, the hoops required for healthcare.... *Eyeroll*
I am so very tempted to order the bloodwork/tests I want online myself to make sure the correct ones are actually done. Pffft! That is sad...
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Seitan is about 75% gluten so maybe 3-9g of seitan?
So I tried a bit of an experiment, much to my husband's dismay, and made some seitan.
Making it is actually straightforward, for those that don't know. Make a dough with flour and water, then rinse it with more water until it rinses clear. The texture change it undergoes is...interesting. So much more gummy...
Anyway, I tried a bit. I made a grand total of maybe a cup of flour's worth, which reduces down to 2-3 tablespoons, or about the size of a chicken strip. Immediate heartburn, some mild stomach discomfort, and a headache trying to start (with the discomfort gravitating toward the front, with pressure behind the eyes, pretty typical of inflammation headaches for me).
My husband seems to think I'm trying to game the system, though. That's going to be a bit interesting discussion.1 -
Sorry if I came across as rather harsh earlier, @Dragonwolf.... Wow.... I sure hope getting an actual dx will help you in your further quest for answers about auto-immune issues.0
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Dragonwolf, I hope you find your answers, that looks like a very unappealing experience.
This is a very informative thread, lots of interesting comments.
::flowerforyou::1 -
KetoGirl83 wrote: »Dragonwolf, I hope you find your answers, that looks like a very unappealing experience.
This is a very informative thread, lots of interesting comments.
::flowerforyou::
What's particularly interesting is that I want to go back to LCHF. Like, I fully plan on doing a sort of "meat fast" afterwards, where that's the only thing I eat. This wheat stuff isn't really appealing anymore.1
