jebby

The current “gold standard” tests for celiac disease include testing for celiac antibodies in patients’ blood and performing an endoscopy to obtain small bowel biopsies. In order for these tests to be accurate, one has to be eating gluten up until the time of testing. If a patient is already on the gluten-free diet when these tests are done, the diagnosis of ce...

I first came across the term “celiac disease autoimmunity” a few weeks ago as I read summaries of the article “Risk of Pediatric Celiac Disease According to HLA Haplotype and Country” that was published in the July 3, 2014 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine(NEJM). Based on my reading and interpretation of the article, it seems that celiac disease...

There is a well-established relationship between celiac disease (and non-celiac gluten sensitivity) and the development of neurologic problems in adults. According to Dr. Marios Hadjivassiliou, a neurologist in the UK who is one of the world’s experts in this area, up to 50% of adults with newly diagnosed celiac disease have signs or symptoms of neurological p...

Hi JMG, I am glad that this helped you. Sometimes I have no idea if anyone is reading…I have some family members who get very ill from gluten but have tested negative for celiac disease. They are all GF and I suspect that at least a few of them actually have celiac disease that was not picked up on testing. All the best to you. This is a great website f...

I think most of us have met people who have symptoms of celiac disease, but when tested, are told that their celiac antibody blood tests and biopsy results are negative (normal). Some of these people are labeled “gluten intolerant” or “gluten sensitive” by their doctors, others are told they may have “early” celiac disease, or “pre” celiac disease, and th...

Hi Kittyluvr, It sounds like it could be...we are really in a new world of medicine these days, especially with problems related to celiac disease. There are some really good resources online and also a few Facebook groups that have been invaluable to me on this journey. Good luck! Jess

Unexplained joint pains (arthralgias) were one of the main symptoms that I dealt with prior to my celiac diagnosis. Throughout my twenties I had pain and stiffness in my fingers, knees and ankles that would come and go with no apparent explanation. I ran track for part of high school and continued to run for fitness during college, but shortly after graduating...

You are welcome! I appreciate the feedback and am glad that you found it helpful! Happy weekend! J

Drs. Guandalini and Assiri have written a summary of pediatric celiac disease that was published in the online edition of the journal JAMA Pediatrics last week. In this post I will share some of the highlights of their review article. Although the overall prevalence of celiac disease is 1% in the pediatric population, only 10-15% of children with celiac...

In the pediatric population, the DGP-IgA can become positive when there is early bowel damage from celiac disease, long before villous atrophy and a positive TTG IgA occur. I can't help but assume that the same may happen in adults.

At this time last year I had never heard of mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) and the first time that I heard the name I thought that it was a “made up” disease. Since then I have come to realize that it is a real diagnosis and I have learned a ton about it, including the following: MCAS is a newly recognized disease of the innate immune system (ou...

Hi Newtoitall, Based on the available research this 5 to 6 months seems to be the optimal window, but keep in mind that every few years the recommendations seem to change! Good luck to you on your gluten-free journey! Jess

I was thrilled to come across a paper about non-celiac gluten sensitivity in children in the Journal of Pediatrics, one of the main pediatric journals. Many of my pediatrician colleagues read this journal on a regular basis. In this article, a group of Italian researchers has described the symptoms and lab test results in 15 children with gluten sensitivity...

**This is the first guest post on my page by Cristen, an incredibly talented scientist and mother of two children. Her youngest child was diagnosed with Celiac disease earlier this year. Many thanks to Cristen for tackling this challenging topic! Celiac is known to have a large genetic component and people with Celiac disease carry the HLA-DQ2 or HLA-DQ...

Hi Itchy Abby, 2 interesting things: 1. TTG 3 is only available for research purposes at the current time 2. During the opening lecture on Mon. September 23rd Dr. Peter Green point blank stated that if a patient has dermatitis herpetiformis that they have Celiac Disease (no biopsy needed). It is the only time that I have ever heard him claim that a biopsy...