<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
 
Back on 17 Jan 1996 , Mitch Harman <[log in to unmask]> said:
 
>My 78 year old mother has adult onset celiac disease, lost weight
>down to 70 lb and has never regained it despite sticking to diet.
>We were told that older people often don't get very good healing
>once the intestinal lining is damaged.  <snip>
 
The term "adult onset celiac" intruiged me, since I have often
wondered how long my son's Celiac went undiagnosed.
Physicians experienced with celiac caution that one
cannot determine whether a person has Celiac Diease simply by
looking a visible symptoms.  Therefore it seemed to me that
unless one has had a negative biopsy and/or endomysial blood
test, and _thereafter_ developed Celiac , it should be impossible to
specify when the Celiac Disease began to develop.
 
If an adult began to have serious g/i symptoms at age 60 and
gets a positive biopsy at age 70, one might conclude that he/she
probably had already developed Celiac by age 60.  But if that
person had been tested at age 10, the biopsy may have been positive
way back then without significant g/i symptoms.
 
I ran this point of view pasts Joe Murray (Univ. of Iowa), who said:
 
>Bill, I agree it is impossible in an elderly patient to determine if their
>disease is late onset. joe murray
 
I don't mean this to be critical of Mitch's description of "adult onset", in
fact his description helped me to learn more (and as a parent, blame myself
less for not having discovered my son's problem earlier).
 
Bill Elkus
Los Angeles