<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

 Susan Wagener <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I have been seeing a Chinese doctor who has "fixed"
>a diarrhea problem I had and 5 weeks after I started seeing him, he also
>"fixed" the celiac disease. I can eat gluten grains without any problem
>whatsoever now.
>
>I considered myself a classic celiac. I started having digestive problems 17
>years before the problem was identified including diarrhea on and off.  At
age
>47, I became extremely ill with constant diarrhea for 3 months. A
>colonoscopy and stool sample showed nothing but I was extremely ill
>and losing weight rapidly. The day I eliminated all gluten from my
>diet I started getting better. This was 5 years ago. I considered
>myself a very sensitive celiac.
>
>Many times I became ill only to discover afterwards that there was, in
>fact, hidden gluten in what I had eaten.

While it is wonderful that Susan has achieved the results she reports, as
one of the Listowners I feel compelled to add a cautionary note.

Celiac is considered properly diagnosed via endomysial/transglutaminase
blood tests followed by an intestinal biopsy, and sometimes followed with
additional biopsies to prove healing on a GF diet and new damage after a
period of gluten challenge.

Susan did not report whether she was a biopsy-confirmed Celiac.  If she
was, and if she is re-biopsied after several months on a gluten-containing
diet, and perhaps re-biopsied again a year later, and her blood tests and
biopsies showed no damage from the gluten, then her experience would
undoubtedly be of extreme interest to the scientific community.

On the other hand, if Susan is a self diagnosed Celiac; and/or if she has
not confirmed the absence of lesions via biopsy, one must also consider
the possibility that she never was a Celiac, or that her Celiac symptoms
may not have returned yet, but that intestinal damage is still being done,
and the external symptoms will eventually reappear.

I've heard gastrointestinal physicians with many Celiac patients tell
stories of biopsy confirmed Celiacs having to be re-biopsied several times
over several months on a gluten challenge before finding evidence of
damage.  These physicians say that it is inappropriate to assume that
"once sensitive, always sensitive" -- our bodies short term symptoms are
not accurate as gluten meters or as diagnostic tools.

Personally, I will always be open minded about possible cures for Celiac,
and I appreciate that Susan has shared her experiences with the
listmembers.  However we must all be aware of the limitations of basing
medical conclusions upon individual personal experiences.

Bill Elkus