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Hello everybody!!!!

I had a lot of responses to my questions about celiac. My questions
were:

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So he said I have to do a test.  I don't know the english word, but he looked
into my stomach with a tube.  After a week I heard that I had no celiac.  But
I had eaten a half year GF.  Hasn't that affect the test???  Is my doctor
right?  When I eat gluten, I become sick.  But other people with celiac
become sick after 1 "thing" with gluten.  I can eat a few things before I get
sick.
-----------

I have had so many responses that I can't reply them all, but I will try
to summarize. These are a few reactions to my questions:

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Your doctor is wrong, you are right.  You are so lucky that you found out
about feeling so good by eating gluten free food.  I was 42, and I felt that
good too.  My doctor at the time didn't suggest a biopsy either, and so I
remain an "unbiopsied" celiac.  There is no way to find out without doing
what they call a gluten challenge.

Nancy, my story is similar to yours in that the doctor said I was not Celiac
yet when I eat gluten I get sick and if I don't eat it I don't get sick.

So....I maintain....why would anyone eat something that makes them
sick...whether you are Celiac or not?  Also, after being GF for 1/2 a year
your gut could very well have healed and caused a negative finding for CD.

I think you are doing the right thing by staying GF.

Nancy, once you started eating gf, your villi (the hairs in the intestines)
started to heal.  Villi become short and unable to absorb nutrients when
gluten is in the diet and that is how an endoscopy (the test with the camera
that looks at your small intestine) diagnosis celiac, but only if you were
still eating gluten.  You see, once you go GF, the villi grow back and a test
will prove a normal intestine, lucky for you, as some people do not heal.As
far as reactions, not everyone reacts the same, some are more sensitive than
others.  In fact, some have a reaction just from being in a bakery, while
others are asymptotic and don't have a reactions.  In all cases from one end
of the spectrum to the other, the damage is still being done just the same.

You're doctor may be wrong, for 2 reasons in my opinion.  First, you didn't
have a good enough gluten challenge to test positive.  It may take up to 6
months to get the damage that is detectable through a biopsy.  Second, you
may not have celiac but are gluten intolerant anyway.  Many people cannot
tolerate gluten and some doctors feel we should take drugs to appease the
discomforts like irritable bowel and diarrhea, headaches and the myriad of
problems that result from ingestion.

My own opinion  - I am not a doctor! but have lived with the problem of
CD for some 25 years - is that it's important to once again thoroughly
discuss what has happened with your doctor. If he/she will not listen,
ask for a second opinion - from a specialist gastroenterologist

However, you know how gluten makes you feel so I would just not eat it.  I,
too, have had no diagnosis, but am quite happy eating no gluten.  My son had
a biopsy, but we had been GF for a while, and he only had the challenge for 6
weeks.  His biopsy was inconclusive.  But, he reacts to gluten pretty quickly
and had obvious improvements on the diet, so the doctor recommended avoiding
gluten.
-----

These were only a few of the responses, I've got over 150 responses!!!
The most of them were very nice (one invited me that if i ever was in
America I could stay at there house!!!). But one mailed me to say that I
am very stupid that I am eating GF if i am not diagnosed celiac.

A lot of people said that I can also be gluten intolerant. Another one
wrote me that celiac is also a question of genetics. That was a prove to
me that I am really celiac or intolerant for gluten, because my
grandmother (and I am an exact copy of her!) is also allergic for
gluten.

I also got lot of responses to my question about my reaction to gluten.
I thought that if I don't get sick when i am eating gluten that it
didn't damaged my body. But a lot of people mailed me to say that there
are a lot of risks of doing that. The most risks are:
   * cancer when you are older
   * miscarriages
   * other diseases
   * getting more allergics
They told me that if i was celiac that eating gluten is damaging my body
even if i am not getting sick. But they told me that if i am gluten
intolerant that it isn't damaging anything.

A lot of people told me that there is a gluten challenge. The period of
eating gluten was varied from 6 weeks to 6 months.

But I have still one question. If I eat gluten and I am celiac, it is
damaging my body. If I am gluten intolerant it isn't damaging my body.
Is it wise to do a gluten challenge to see if I am a celiac? How can I
test if I am gluten intolerant? Are there people who know doctors in
Holland who are good with celiac?

I hope I get as much answers then I had to my previous question!

Thanks!!!

Nancy