<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
Thank you to everyone who sent a response to my question about whether
or not to eat gluten before biopsy. I saw my nutritionist last week
and will cancel the appt for the biopsy (with the gastro who only spent
8 min with me in an intitial appt!) in lieu of an appt in May with a
doctor (CD expert) who only deals with CD patients. His office states
that a gluten challenge would have to be for 4 weeks (4 slices a day)
but I am waiting to meet with him before I do anything like that.
I asked for info about how long gluten needs to be eaten in order for
the damage on villi to be noticed OR if there would still be damage on
the villi after 8 months GF. The responses varied greatly. One
person mentioned that they saw a renowned CD expert after 7 years GF
and he still found evidence of celiac in the biopsy. Another mentioned
that CD was evident in the villi after 4 years GF. Obviously, it
really depends on WHO is reading those biopsy tissue samples.
Several people mentioned that they had done a gluten challenge after
being GF for a while (which is my situation) and that it took 6-12
months to recover from that exposure. One said he is just now
recovering after a gluten challenge 19 months ago.
Kathleen
* Visit the Celiac Web Page at www.enabling.org/ia/celiac/index.html *