Week 16 Recap: Celiac or Gluten Intolerant?

Well, it’s here! Summer has unofficially arrived in Montana after our usual 7 months of winter followed by 8 hours of spring. We may get hail storms from time to time through the summer, but I don’t expect any more snow until this fall. Yet, you know what they say in Montana, never say never!

On to last week’s recap in my adventures of going gluten free…

I am actually still in the process of determining whether I even have celiac disease or not. We are in the final throes of testing—the genetic screen has been sent to California to determine whether I have the gene for celiac or not. The results should arrive later this week. All other tests and biopsies at this point in time are normal.

My follow-up with the GI specialist went very well. My blood pressure was 102/80 and my pulse was 76. I am not IgA deficient, so that is nice to know. There was no sign of cancer or any disease in my stomach and small intestine—only a small 3 mm hiatal hernia. She recommended that I stop taking Prilosec (omeprazole) in the evenings, and take it only in the mornings, half hour before breakfast. After a month or two, I am to reduce the Prilosec to every other day for a month or two, and then eventually stop taking it altogether. Additionally, the GI specialist also wants me to see a dermatologist for the DH (dermatitis herpetiformis) once the results of the genetic screen for celiac comes in.

ODD THINGS THIS WEEK:

• Some twitching and slight thumping in chest, followed by slight pain to left of sternum as well as left subclavian and achy left arm.
• Very slight fluttering in chest several different times this week
• One morning, while eating my morning yogurt, my tongue started tingling. Not long after, my hands were feeling numb and flushed.
• Late in the week I experienced a painful double heart palpitation which caused me to cough, while sitting on my bed working on my laptop.

My “physical therapy” went very well this past week even though I was not able to spend as much time with Pilates as I normally do. All my treadmill walks (two daily 30-minute walks, 6 days a week) went very well and I did not feel stressed or tired, or pain in any way… pretty much normal walks. Exercise totals for the week include 60 minutes of Pilates, 30 minutes of weight-bearing exercises, and 18.66 miles walked.

Though I can only speculate what my serology results and biopsies would have shown three or four months ago when I first suspected celiac disease, my current lab results are all completely within the normal range for everything.

The following quotes I found in the Winter 2009 edition of the online “Easy Eats” magazine (“Easy Eats: The magazine for gluten-free living”), and thought they were especially pertinent in my particular case:

“Celiac disease patients with lesser degrees of villous atrophy are less likely to have positive celiac serologies” (“Digestive Disturbances and Science,” 2004).

"Recent literature data showed that serology (not only EMA, but also anti-tTG) seems to be ineffective in detecting most patients affected by subclinical/silent disease" -- i.e., gluten sensitivity rather than celiac disease ("Digestive and Liver Disease," 2007).

"If eliminating gluten from your diet results in your body feeling better, that is a positive test" (Dr. Vikki Peterson, DC, CCN, Founder of HealthNOW Medical Center, 2009).

Whatever the case—celiac or gluten intolerant—the treatment remains the same. The next question will be: is gluten intolerance inherited (should my kids be worried)?