<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>> Never mind age........my neighbour was diagnosed in her eighties. Many doctors don't know enough about celiac.......Victor, Timmins, ON (home of Shania twain and she is here to-day to celebrate the opening of the Shania twain Centre)_ ***************** Ha! I was recently diagnosed at 52 and I am overweight. So much for that theory ****************** We had a doctor down here in Ohio who told a 50 year old woman she was too old. According to the NIH, the middle aged person is the one being diagnosed the most!! I fired a letter off to that doctor informing her of the misconception, and also told her that to refuse a test to anyone just prolongs that patient's suffering. The ones who should be staying current on things (the M.D.'s)...just don't seem to be. Guess they figured whatever they learned in medical school still stands. ******************* I was overweight and so were 4 of my family members when we were dxd. ******************** YES! They should be eating a GLUTEN-RICH diet or testing will be inaccurate. Peter green and Alessio Fassano both recommend this. ********************** Now you know why people diagnose themselves. Doctors are so impossible (most of them) One has to eat heavily on gluten before tests even then there are so many false negatives So they are looking for the classic symptoms thin and etc...and too old that's pure crazy I live on tpn; too late a diagnosis. I do have a great doctor took a long time to find him. Even a person that weighs 400 lbs can have celiac disease. ******************** First of all, the biopsies are not 100% correct even if a person is eating only gluten for years, let alone not eating it at all or eating very little. My doctor took 12 biopsies of me and all 12 were celiac, (long story as to why so many biopsies were done), but I was told that when they select tissue to be biopsied, they need to take a number of samples, because not all are usually positive. Most docs do not do this--I have heard of docs who only do 1 to 3. In your friends' cases, besides this, most likely some of their gut damage was already healing due to being gf. SO, no positive dx. Secondly, I was overweight when I was dxed. I was shown research by my doc that showed that about 1/3 of all celiacs are overweight at dx, contrary to common medical opinion on the subject. Thirdly, NOBODY can be too old! That is just absurd! Tell your friends to ditch the quack and find a REAL doctor! lol I frankly don't even think many people should try to get a dx of celiac disease. I have one and, for all intents and purposes, it is useless. None of the docs I have seen since dx even consider my celiac disease. Heaven help me if I have to be hospitalized, as I will have to bring in my own team of medical experts just to get the hospital to comply with my gf diet! If I had known to go gf on my own, and I already was gf, there is no way I'd be searching for a dx. I'd just keep on keeping on with the gf diet. *********************** We had to be persistent, because no one had obvious or extreme symptoms except dad. My daughter had two false negatives at one lab before a more experienced lab recognized the more subtle changes of earlier celiac. I am a firm advocate for screening in all at-risk people, regardless of their symptoms. My niece went to a GI pediatric specialist and was told she had "abdominal migraines" and blew off the possibility of celiac despite the fact that he knew her grandfather & aunt (me) had celiac. Upon biopsy, her Villi were flat. I DO think the awareness is growing, but docs are still very ignorant in their own little worlds! :o) ***************** Never mind age........my neighbour was diagnosed in her eighties. Many doctors don't know enough about celiac.......Victor, Timmins, ON (home of Shania twain and she is here to-day to celebrate the opening of the Shania twain Centre)_ ***************** Ha! I was recently diagnosed at 52 and I am overweight. So much for that theory ****************** We had a doctor down here in Ohio who told a 50 year old woman she was too old. According to the NIH, the middle aged person is the one being diagnosed the most!! I fired a letter off to that doctor informing her of the misconception, and also told her that to refuse a test to anyone just prolongs that patient's suffering. The ones who should be staying current on things (the M.D.'s)...just don't seem to be. Guess they figured whatever they learned in medical school still stands. ******************* I was overweight and so were 4 of my family members when we were dxd. ******************** YES! They should be eating a GLUTEN-RICH diet or testing will be inaccurate. Peter green and Alessio Fassano both recommend this. ********************* More to come! *Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*