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

- I am posting this to the list in the hopes of soliciting more insight. I
hope thats not a problem. Someone scold me know if it is! -

<< BTW, how were you diagnosed? Did a gastroenterologist do a biopsy of the
 small intestine? That is considered the only certain method to be certain
 you have the disease. Even then it's easy to get false negatives when you
 really do have it.>>

I was never diagnosed. Iv e had a history of IBS (Ive never known whats its
like to NOT have a gassy, painful, loud, irritated digestive system - it did
get a little better after I quit smoking, but its been with me my entire 29
years). My GI doc did an xray of small intestine and a colonoscope of large
intestine, to see if I had Crohns or inflammatory bowel disease. There was
some inflammation in the small intestine seen in the xray, but he didnt htink
this was significant at all (never mind the fact that Ive been chronically
fatigued and dealing with horrid, wierd symptoms for over two years now!).

When I asked him about Celiac Disease, he said #1: He would have "seen" villi
damage when he went in with the scope, and #2: I am not emaciated and no
blood work shows any malnutrition problems. In his mind, Celiac was not worth
looking into.

Only now am I discovering that its more complicated than that. What is it
with doctors, anyway? How can they "treat" people and not keep up on whats
going on???

<<Hell, your front name sounds Irish, and that's evidence enough right there
 :) (a small joke) My friends call celiac the Irish sickle-cell :) But the
 majority of celiacs are Irish. Especially from Western Ireland.  -vance >>

Wow! I am fully Irish on my mothers side (from Southwestern Ireland if I
recall discussions with my 100% Irish-American grandfather correctly).

In short, my health problems can be classified into three categories;

*Irritable Bowel stuff  my entire life (tons of gas, bloating, flipping back
and forth between semi-constipation and semi-diarrea, going ALOT, chronic
malodorous flatulence in the past 6 months;

*Chronic Fatigue stuff for the past few years (exhaustion, headaches,
dizziness, blurry vision, fluish feelings, malaise, sore throats,
depression); and

*Peripheral stuff my entire life (combination skin - dry and oily, acne,
HORRID dry scalp/dandruff)

Knowing the things I just wrote above, so you think a biopsy is prudent? I'm
just a little discouraged by the fact of false negatives. I guess I should
get the biopsy and go from there. If it's positive, woo-hoo! I've got an
answer, or at least a clue into my health problems. If its negative, then I
guess a trial of the GF diet is in order.

Whattya think?

Patrick