Celiac Disease

[delilahking]

Celiac Disease (also known as Coeliac Disease) has many different symptoms. Many have the classic "IBS" symptoms which have lead to their diagnoses. For me it was malabsorption of nutrients during my lifetime and a doctor knowledgeable of Celiacs to actually test me for it. For starters there is no prescription that can be given for Celiac, only a gluten free diet can lead to recovery and even this can take time (up to a year depending on the damage done). This doesn't mean your cured, it just means you will be absorbing nutrients again and probably feeling better then you have in a long time, you must stay on a gluten free diet. It's been a challenge but by no means is this "disease" something to fear. I'm actually grateful to be diagnosed with celiac's as now I can look forward to other things in life, I only wish it could have been caught sooner. The anemia was making me tired all the time no matter how much I fought it. the years of malabsorption of calcium, Vit D, C make bones easily broken over time, lack of folic acid and Vit B's had given way to neuropathy and pain. It was actually a Neurologist who had a sister with Celiacs who originally diagnosed me (referral) and finally sent me on the right path to recovering from all this ( I was passing out/fainting 3-4 times a week).

I am posting this here because not only do I read about people going through some of the same aches and pains as I had (nerves, "phantom pains", stomach pains, fatigue, headaches, etc) but most IBS sufferers should be tested for this they say, from what I hear they have not. Some of the numbers I have seen for Celiac's disease are that 1 in 150 people may very well have Celiac's or a simple gluten intolerance (wheat, barley, rye and usually oats due to cross contamination).
ask for a test for Celiac's from your doctor and if they don't know what it is, find a doctor that does. I hate to see more people suffer longer then they have to here-I think we have enough on our plates as it is 

[AnxiousShaun]

After I started having panic attacks in October, I also started having digestive issues as well and I was told it was because of the anxiety. I ended up going to a GI who did an endoscopy and said that it was suggestive of Celiac Disease. I am hoping for a conclusive answer in the next couple of weeks. I was doing some research tonight on the subject tonight and added the word anxiety to my Google search as suggested by another member here. I found a site that claims that Celiacs can cause anxiety because of deficiency of amino acids and and vitamins that are essential to neurotransmitter production. Has anyone ever heard of this and can you confirm it? It would be great to be able to switch to a Gluten-free diet and see my anxiety disappear.

I will post the link to the article, but will sub hxxp for http since I do not know the policy on links here. Mods, if the link causes an issue, please feel free to delete it.

hxxp://blog.glutenfreeworks.com/2009/06/02/anxiety-and-celiac-disease/

[delilahking]

It's usually best to get information from a gastro about Celiacs but even a lot of them by pass Celiacs as a "rare" thing-it's actually pretty common. If your going to google just keep in mind that there is a lot of stray info out there on everything. I'll give you a link from the Celiac Awareness site (certified site) these are a few peoples stories that the site has trusted to display on there own site. You should be able to find straight information on there as well about Celiac's Disease.
http://www.celiaccentral.org/Celiac-Disease/Personal-Stories/36/

[wayoutyonder]

I was diagnosed with celiac about two years ago. The diagnosis changed my life -- I started feeling better within months of following the diet. It's not so hard to do, even as a college student who's required to be on meal plan. I spent my entire childhood sick without reason and began having severe abdominal pain in my adolescence. To this day I still become anxious whenever I feel nauseous...

[delilahking]

I'm glad you are doing well with with this diet wayoutwonder, and yes I think sometimes the nauseousness or pains almost set of a memory of "oh no, not again" and our anxiety kicks in. I still to this day make silly mistakes (my none celiac child occasionally want reg mac and cheese and i will "test" a few noodles out of habit !DUH! lol). My anxiety will kick in just waiting for the backlash 
I have also run into people who have been tested as negative for celiac but have found the gluten free diet helps them feel much better so they have stuck with it, they fall into the ranks of being "gluten intolerant". I still think we need more awareness on this as I think people just think it is just about digestive issues. The link for other peoples stories i posted on here has had a few updates and I'm taking a small passage from what "Lori" had wrote as I think it really sums up what alot don't realize of being celiac or even just gluten intolerant and how it can make our anxieties even worse. I can't help but encourage those who are looking for a possible relief from somethings who haven't the money to see a doc anytime soon to look into the diet and give it a try for a month or so.

~a paragraph from "Lori's story"found under the fatigue section~... http://www.celiaccentral.org/Celiac-Disease/Personal-Stories/Fatigue/Personal-Stories-Fatigue/149/vobId__3605/


:For the next 2 years, I was back and forth to the doctor’s office with one ailment after another, with a new diagnosis after each trip: hypoglycemia, IBS, anxiety, dehydration, hypochondria, pregnancy, Crohn’s disease, anorexia, bulimia, multiple sclerosis and more. I took all prescribed medications. Nothing helped. At this point, everyone thinks you’re crazy--and you begin to believe it's true.:

[Archildo]

Hey everyone as you may have seen my other thread regarding my recent stomach/digestive issues, I was wondering if I had celiac disease would I ONLY feel bad if I ate anything that has gluten in it? Because today I had only gluten free servings and I still had diarrhea and stomach gurgling and discomfort...so since I felt bad even after avoiding gluten food does that pretty much rule out celiac disease? thanks a lot

[EmmaLee]

Im so glad you posted this! So many of these posts have such similar symptoms to what i had before my Celiac diagnosis.

and for those trying a gluten free diet keep in mind that if you eat gluten, many people dont react right away, I dont fully react until 24-36 hours later. So dont just look at what you JUST ate, go over what you ate the day before.