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

   Dear Eleanor:
   I found this information today:

What is the difference between celiac disease and gluten intolerance?*
The following was posted by Kemp Randolph on the Celiac Listserv news group
[log in to unmask]:

The difference is that between two immune related reactions, allergy and
intolerance. I asked the question of the technical difference between the
two some time ago and got no response. It's not based on overt symptoms,
that's for sure. We're also not talking about the difference between latent
celiac disease and overt weight-loss, apple belly CD. You can be allergic
and intolerant of the same substance or food In the case of milk, it's
lactose(milk carbohydrate) intolerance and milk protein allergy.

My non-professional stab at the difference between intolerance and allergy
then. Both can lead to intestinal damage. There's a table in Marsh's book
showing that --page 155 , figure 6.13. Type 3 damage ("flat destuctive" )
can occur from milk, soya, egg.... as well as celiac disease.

The reaction to an intolerance seems to be that the substance is not
digested. The immune part of the response involves only the circulating
immunoglobins IgA, maybe IgG and related immune cells, receptors.

The immune reaction to an allergy involves IgE. The substance may still be
digested, but there may be allergic responses elsewhere outside the gut.

Apple belly CD is an intolerance. The problems elsewhere in the body, except
for cancer, are related to nutritional deficiencies. The link to other
autoimmune diseases is statistical genetics when two (or more) genes for
each of two conditions are close together.

For more information see the Allergy vs. Intolerance page.

www.gluten-free.com/frequent.html#diference

Best wishes.

Carolina Plaza.

Caracas,Venezuela.