Re: CD Latent / Silent

[Guest guest]

Here's what medicinenet.com has to say:

The terms latent and silent celiac disease are used to refer to patients who have

inherited the genes that predispose them to celiac disease but have not yet

developed the symptoms or signs of celiac disease.

Latent celiac disease refers specifically to patients who have

abnormal

antibody blood tests for celiac disease (see discussion of specific tests for

celiac disease) but who have normal small intestines and no signs or symptoms of

celiac disease. For example:

Some patients may have had a childhood onset of celiac disease and the disease may have been successfully treated with

a gluten-free diet. The patients' intestines may have resumed a normal appearance and function, and they may have no signs or symptoms of celiac disease.

Some patients with celiac disease in childhood abandon the gluten

free diet

as adults, yet they remain free of the signs or symptoms of celiac disease.

In both of the above instances, the celiac disease is latent, and the patients

can develop signs and symptoms of celiac disease later in life.

Silent celiac disease refers to patients who have abnormal antibody blood tests

for celiac disease as well as loss of villi in the small intestine but have no

symptoms or signs of celiac disease, even on a normal diet that contains

gluten.

Like patients with latent celiac disease, these patients can develop signs or

symptoms of celiac disease later in life.

-----Original Message-----

From: Wallace <AWallace@...>

Sent: Wed, Jun 2, 2010 4:09 pm

Subject: RE: [ ] Gluten Question

Hi Caryn-

The way I understood it (so please take it with a grain of salt)

is that Latent is that the disease is there and waiting to get triggered…so

for instance, I was diagnosed 5 ½ years ago and only felt bad for about a year

and ½ before the diagnosis…all those years before that year and a half I was

latent…this is still no reason why it surfaces. So damage was not occurring.

Silent is when the damage is happening and you have no idea…for

instance, one consumes gluten and does not have an outward reaction, but one

day they fall and break many bones. This can be caused by the silent reaction

of malabsorption until one day you have full bone osteoporosis and had no idea.

The whole thing can be scary if you over think it, b/c everyone

has different reactions when ingesting gluten, so even though an 1/8 of a

teaspoon of gluten is damaging, I wonder if I don’t feel the reaction

until ½ teaspoon, so am I slightly damaging myself every now and again and not

even realizing it? The only way to be sure is to keep up with tests and listen

to your own body. And also keep up our hopes for all the clinical trials

taking place that might someday help us or our next generations!

Sorry I cant elaborate further, I don’t want to misquote any

of the speakers and in general there are a lot of theories in accordance to our

disease right now.

-

From:

[mailto: ] On Behalf Of Caryn Gottfried

Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 3:57 PM

Subject: Re: [ ] Gluten Question

, could you explain the difference between "Latent" and "Silent"

for those of us who weren't at the conference? (If it's not too

complicated....)

Thanks,

Caryn

On Jun 2, 2010, at 9:50 AM, Wallace wrote:

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