Are you suffering with Coeliac disease?
Is eating gluten a problem for you?
Are you tired and always low on iron?
Have you also drawn the connection between gut symptoms like bloating and wind happening when you eat gluten containing foods?
You may have Coeliac disease or non-Coeliac gluten sensitivity.
Coeliac disease is an auto-immune disease where gluten is identified by the immune system and antibodies are formed against it. In Coeliac disease there is damage to the brush border of the small intestine occurring that is destroying digestive enzymes and this leads to the malabsorption of nutrients. Other non gut related signs and symptoms seen in Coeliac disease include: Irritability, depression, weight loss, bone pain, delayed growth in kids, failure to thrive in infants, muscle cramps, tingling numbness in limbs, mouth ulcers, dermatitis, tooth discolouration, missed periods in females Non-Coeliac gluten sensitivity occurs when you don’t carry the Coeliac gene mutation or have positive antibodies to gluten but you know you definitely do not tolerate gluten and they cause you to become symptomatic.
What to do:
If you are suspecting gluten is problematic for you then investigations will help you understand the role it is playing in your health. Do not stop eating gluten yet! In order to rule out Coeliac disease it is important that you have been consuming gluten for a number of weeks in the row to determine if the immune system is forming antibody reactions to the gluten. See your health practitioner to have the gliadin antibodies tested and it is also useful to be tested for the Coeliac genes. If you do not carry the Coeliac gene then you can never have Coeliac disease. Having an endoscopy procedure to look for tissue damage is the gold standard for diagnosis of Coeliac disease. Non-Coeliac gluten sensitivity is tricky to formerly diagnose. You may not be reacting to the alpha gliadin or transglutaminase-2 which are the antibodies used to screen for Coeliac disease. It will mean that gluten containing grains may still be a problem for you. You may be reacting instead to other components of wheat such as beta, gamma and omega gliadin, glutenin, wheat germ agglutinin, gluteomorphin and deamidated gliadin. Cyrex laboratories in the US can test for some of these wheat components but not all of them. Unfortunately this testing is not available in Australia at the moment. If you have had Coeliac disease ruled out with comprehensive investigation then a six week complete gluten elimination and supervised re-challenge can help you determine if gluten is contributing to your symptoms and whether it is best to avoid it entirely.
