Do you have to change your diet if doing a celiac sprue blood test to get the ri!
Question: Two years ago I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy using a blood test. A few weeks ago I went to a GI who is now telling me that he doesn't think that I have a wheat allergy at all or celiac, but as a precaution he is doing a celiac blood test to confirm whether he is right or not. My father, and brother also have the same thing, so it runs in the family.
My question is since I have been on a gluten-free diet for the past 2 years will I have to eat wheat again for the test results to come back correctly?
Answers: Two years ago I was diagnosed with a wheat allergy using a blood test. A few weeks ago I went to a GI who is now telling me that he doesn't think that I have a wheat allergy at all or celiac, but as a precaution he is doing a celiac blood test to confirm whether he is right or not. My father, and brother also have the same thing, so it runs in the family.
My question is since I have been on a gluten-free diet for the past 2 years will I have to eat wheat again for the test results to come back correctly?
If you have been gluten free for 2 years and you have Celiac you will NOT test positive. Patients need to be consuming a LOT of gluten prior tot esting for quite awhile for the test to be right. The celiac panel tests for antibodies (IGG, IGA and TTG among others) that the body will react to if it cannot tolerate gluten. If u are not eating gluten, there will be no antibodies to test for. This is also true for the endoscopy (the gold standard of celiac testing.)
THe fact that your doc did not tell you to resume eating gluten before the blood work tells me he does NOT understand Celiac and you may want to consider a second opinion. I dont know where u live, but this mayh elp: go to www.csaceliacs.org. Click "Local Support" and look for the closest chapter in your area. Each chapter has one physician referral to give ppl (if not more) who know and understand Celiac Disease. This may help youf ind a doc knowledgable.
If u do not want to resume teh gluten filled diet due to the way it makes u feel (a huge indication that u prob have Celiac) u can do genetic testing without changing your diet. genetic testing is done at home and tells u whether u have the genes for Celiac,--not whether u have an active case. However, 97% of ppl with CD carry the genes, so if u carry teh genes, its safe to say at some point in your life you will have Celiac triggered. (youre not born with Celiac, u must carry the genes, have a trigger and eat gluten to have it started.) It does have a hereditary predisposition however, so if u did test pos, you'd need tos uggest all 1st degree relatives get tested.
Good luck and feel free to email me for more info.
It is hard to tell from your information. A wheat allergy is different from gluten intolerance. Allergies happen within seconds to up to a few hours after eating in this case wheat. Celiac disease and gluten intolerance are a delayed reaction where the physical foundation of the intestines change. You can probably be tested for the wheat allergy without exposing yourself to wheat again because you are testing for antibodies in the blood. However to get a test for celiac disease, you would have to start eating gluten contained in wheat, barley or rye for 1-3 months before you were tested.
This gets back to the reason for why you have been on a gluten free diet for 2 years. Did you have an endoscopy done and come up positive? If that is the case, and you have been gluten free you should stay gluten free and look for a new GI. Or did you go on gluten free diet with brother and are now questioning whether you need to be on it? Back to your testing 2 years ago.
Why are you seeing a doctor who wants to roll back the clock on your diagnosis? If you have a problem with wheat and don't eat it, you will have to eat a lot of it for at least a few weeks for the test to work - do you want to do that? The same applies to an endoscopy, as your bowel will probably have healed after 2 years (it looks for damage, which may well have virtually disappeared by now). There seems no need for this, unless - is it possible that he's doing it to generate extra dollars for unnecessary tests? I think you would be better to find another doctor.
Celiac and other diseases caused by gluten intolerance run in families, in any case, as I'm sure you know.