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

So far so good.  Only one person seemed genuinely hacked off at my
questions concerning Dr. Fine.  Here are some comments w/o names to
protect the innocent:

"The intestinal biopsy is the gold standard in the medical community
throughout the world for celiac so why would anyone listen to a quack who
is
not acknowledged in the medical community?"
***
"Thank you so much for your summary.  It's nice to know there are some
other skeptics out there.  Everyone I know that has heard of him thinks
he's a saint.  I had actually never heard that he had someone test
negative to his test.  It's nice to hear there is ONE.  I truly hope he
is on to something and not just misdiagnosing people, I think I just need
a little more convincing.
Thanks again."
***
"Excellent  summary and post."
***
" Excellent analysis and explanation!  When I looked at his web
site I didn't spend much time, but I got similar alarms bells going for
the same reasons.  Your conclusions are inline with what I feel: genius
or dangerous!  Or actually, more questions."
***
"I think your post set exactly the right tone. His whole operation just
doesn't
smell right, but just maybe........"
***
"I'm one of the people with DH that has sent you some
info.  Oh, poor you, I think the flames will hit.
hehe.  Well, it seems that Dr.Fine has quiet a
following and I hope people don't get mean.  I
actually am planning on getting some tests done
myself.  Haven't yet.  But will soon.  Along with
family members.  I took his credentials to my doctor
and he said the lab was under strict observation, and
his credintials were outstanding.  Said it wouldn't
hurt.  Oh, by the way, I was the first in my family
diagnosed with CD.  Later an uncle was diagnosed
(dad's side of family), and a few years later a cousin
was diagnosed (mom's side of family).  The tests of
Dr.Fine's didn't seem confusing to me, so you may
still be in the overwhelmed state (too much info too
fast, haha, gosh i remember that!!!).  Well, I just
wanted to give you a little support in case the "Fine
Supporters" get their panties in a wad.  Hopefully
they wont."
***
"Thank you so much for finally saying what I believe.
When I was diagnosed in Feb. I looked at his website
and felt the same way.  If he is such a good GI
specialist, why isn't he out there helping us who are
searching for a GI specialist that knows something?"
***
"Actually the rest of the medical community seems to be going in
the direction he has been saying all along. In the book Dangerous
Grains, two very conservative doctors surmise that about 20% of the
US population is gluten intolerant, and that gluten is the root
cause of a huge portion of the medical problems in this country, and
that in fact gluten can probably kill you even if you never get the
gut damage associated with "celiac". Which isn't far from Dr. Fine's
position. The researchers are a lot closer to Dr. Fine's position
than are the medical doctors, and a lot of research is currently
being done. Accepting that "wheat" might not be good for humans
is just kind of hard for people to accept -- but the problem is NOT
lack of research.

Dr. Fine has published about 30 papers that I could find. His testing
apparently funds his lab research. I'd guess his other choice would
be to look for funding from a drug company or university, and if
I were a researcher and had a choice, I'd choose to be independent.

He has found a fair number of people here (and elsewhere) to be
negative. His methods are really not those of a quack selling
snake oil (there are plenty of those around though). Giving lab
results directly to the public is VERY controversial, for many
of the same reasons you couldn't buy contact lenses from anyone
but your doctor for many years. However, there are many labs
now that will do tests directly for the patient without a doctor's
intervention. Most doctors say it is dangerous and don't like it:
however as much as I've had doctors screw up, I think it is really
good to be able to get tested directly if you can afford it.
***
"Your confusion was mine also.  I finally went ahead and had the
stool sample done for the antibodies and it came back with significant
antibodies present after a two month GF (sorta) diet.  I had a few
accidental ingestions.  Needless to say, I was frustrated by my GIdocs,
one
did an endoscopy on my and found nothing and the other wanted to put me
on a
two mont gluten challenge.  I was pretty satisfied that my self diagnosis
was right, but I wanted some type of medical confirmation.  I refused to
go
on the gluten challenge for two months, so I found out about Dr. Fine and
read up on him and decided to go with his testing.  I just now returned
to
his website and his CV is there for all to see.

As to not seeing the patient, there are increasing number of medical labs
that are doing non-MD directed testing besides him.  CAT scans are
available
on patient direct request, hair chemistry analysis, and I believe other
areas are opening up for patients to seek lab exams. He does provide a
one
hour consultation via phone.  The money for that goes back into his
Intestinal Health Organization (I note he is director of it, but that
does
not mean he is running a scam ENRON-wise!). Further, I am not sure that
Docs
really "see" their patients!  My endodoc storms into the room leafing
through my file for lab results asks a few questions and off he goes to
the
next exam room."
***
"Think about this... He gets paid no matter what diagnosis you get... why
would he be reporting false positives?

        I find it funny you would flame a researcher who is trying to
help us, but to each his own"
***
"NO flaming!!! It is a tough call, isn't it? I am in research myself, so
I want to
see Dr. Fine's results published, subjected to peer review, and
corroborated. On
the other hand, I have personal experience of having negative blood tests
for
celiac, but positive stool tests from Dr. Fine. Since I have biopsy
confirmed CD in
the family, and I was desperate to feel better, I tried going GF. It has
been a
wonderful experience- I feel great! It is so clear that I am gluten
intolerant- I
feel wonderful unless I mistakenly eat something wrong. I am 42 and for
the first
time in my life I can now donate blood as my anemia is gone. So... Dr.
Fine's work
looks promising to me, but we still need to see appropriate studies done,
and
reviewed and published."
***
"I've had some experience with Dr. Fine, although I didn't get any of his
tests done. I was already diagnosed via biopsy when I found out about
him. The reason I got in touch with him is because I was still having
problems even after being on the GF diet for a year and a half. At that
point I was trying the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and that wasn't helping
either. I wanted to talk to Dr. Fine to see if he had any advice, he
recommended a very strict diet that I tried for a while, but it too
didn't help.  I eventually went to see Dr. Fasano in Maryland and asked
him what he thought about Dr. Fine. Dr. Fasano didn't really say anything
too bad about him, but said that his tests have not been able to be
duplicated in other labs. In other words the whole basic concept of
scientific theory is to be able to perform the experiment in various
locations and get the same result, this has been tried but the results
are different therefore it really doesn't seem to be scientific. I have
the same concerns you do at the cost of the tests and discounts, the
phone consultation was expensive but my insurance company did give me
some reimbursement.  What he told me over the phone though was to pray,
get rid of the stress from my life and eat raw fruits and veggies and
nuts, no meat, dairy or grains. After trying this for awhile and getting
sicker I emailed him to ask for some advice and he recommended another
phone consultation.... I wasn't too impressed."
***
"Just want to say thanks for your informative summary!!"

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