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Well, the main consensus is that it's the same as being pregnant.  You CAN'T be a little bit pregnant.

I had a good deal of responses and I want to thank all of you who posted.  As usual, I received the support of a very caring group.  I will be sending this summary to my dad.  Now the ball is in his court.  I've offered to talk to his gastro if he wants, or if he decides to go gluten-free, I offered to give him a weeks training on eating gluten-free.  (We live very far apart)

Thank you again.  I will list this in 5 posts.  The first 4 are the summaries that say basically that there can't be a mild case, but mild symptoms.  The 5th post are just 2 replies that I had that seem to lean towards the fact that there could be mild cases.

Sidona/San Diego

Can you have "Mild Celiac???"

 

#1) Some people have mild symptoms, some people have severe symptoms. But CD is CD is CD- the only cure is to go off gluten permanently. If you have high cholesterol but no symptoms of heart disease, do you wait until you are permanently damaged or
dead from a heart attack? No, you take steps to get healthy. If you have CD, you must stop eating gluten- if you wait until you have really severe symptoms, you may permanently damage your gut, and not be able to recover- it is called refractory spur. You could also develop intestinal cancer.  I'm not afraid to die, but I am very afraid of being weak and sickly on the way to my deathbed. It gives me the shivers!-- I stay on the diet

 

#2) I think the Joseph Murray article is pretty clear. But really, tell him,  it's like being a little bit pregnant! He may not feel horrible or have 
clear symptoms, but welcome to our world-that's true for a lot of celiacs. Meanwhile, down in our guts, it's quietly destroying us. 

 

#3) I'm afraid I'm not much help, but I can understand where you're coming from. My dad's story sounds like yours!  My 8 year daughter has celiac, my husband and I don't, but my dad has intestinal lymphoma.  Her gastroenterologist (sorry about the spelling) said that's probably where the link was.  He talked to his oncologist about being tested; he told him there was no
connection.  I kept after him so he talked to his family dr., who had never heard of celiac. He agreed to test him, after I told him what blood test.  When the results came in, he handed them to him and said he had no idea what they meant, but here they were.  I asked on the list serve group for help, but mainly what I got was he needed to get a new dr., which of course I already knew.  I'm taking his results to my daughter's dr. in 2 weeks when she goes for her check up and see if he can help me.  It's nice to know someone else is having the same problems!

#4)  It is like a little bit pregnant.

 

#5)  Hi, I would suggest you to go to this other excellent site: 
http://forums.delphiforums.com/celiac/messages 
There are good and knowledgeable people there to answer your questions, and Abigail's gf food & products list.  Moreover, I have voluntarily posted thousands of GF recipes.  Good luck

 

#6)  If you are a celiac, you will always be a celiac. I am very interested in the "expert" answer(s) to your question.  My non-medical opinion agrees with what you think.  A gene is a gene.  I don't think that you can have a "mild gene".  I would agree with your assessment that you can have mild symptoms but not "mild celiac"; you can also have a "silent case" of this illness where you don't display any symptoms but you still have the gene and untreated it is still killing you......best wishes and please post your responses........Maybe your Dad doesn't have too much damage done to his small intestines yet, because he hasn't been a celiac too long.  This is called A-symptomatic.  As time goes by and he eats gluten, then he will have more damage done to his 
intestines. Go to the web site:               www.celiac.com
There you will find information.

 

#7)  I cannot cite any exact sources, but look over the www.enterolab.com site... they might have something. I do know that you can't have a "touch" of Celiac. That is as crazy as having a "touch" or aids, or being just a little bit pregnant. It just doesn't happen.

 

* Please remember some posters may be WHEAT-FREE, but not GLUTEN-FREE *