Re: Re: Delurking & Allergies - Bee & Heidi

[Guest guest]

>Dear Bee and Heidi,

>

>Heidi, she did test him for gluten and he had no allergic reaction, nor did I,

so

>I'm hoping that's ruled out. Thanks for mentioning it.

The question is, was it an IgA test? The skin tests are IgE, which is a whole

different

thing. To test for IgA, you need a blood sample and a series of 3-5 lab tests.

About 1 out of 5 people are high in IgA antigliadin antibodies, but most of them

have no allergic reaction at all to wheat (I test negative for ALL allergies,

believe

it or not, I'm not " allergic " to anything!),.

When a person has an IgA gluten intolerance, it makes the gut permeable,

and basically causes extreme malabsorption, which leads to candida,

bacterial overgrowth, and all kinds of other problems. Once the gut is

permeable, proteins leak out and the person typically becomes sensitive

to a large variety of foods.

If the doctor didn't test for it, then she likely doesn't know about

the IgA issue ... my allergist is the same, he only does IgE tests.

Celiac (a subset of gluten intolerance) got ranked by Reader's Digest

as one of the top 10 undiagnosed diseases ... your kid is at the age

where it usually shows up (when they stop breastfeeding) and has

all the symptoms -- 1 in 100 people is a full fledged celiac (it used

to be considered 1 in 250 and before that 1 in 2000! so the docs

think it is " rare " ). But almost no one ever gets diagnosed, so they

suffer for, say, 20 years or so until there is major and often

irreversable damage. So it's worth testing for! The test you do want

is:

Current screening tests include IgA, IgG

antigliadin antibodies and IgA antiendomysial antibody.

The newer tests are for tissue transglutamase. All of the tests

have a high rate of false negatives though, so a lot of people

lately have just given up gluten and see if they feel better. Mostly

people get misdiagnosed:

A national survey35 of 1,937 members of the Canadian

Celiac Association addressed the issue of previous

missed diagnosis of celiac disease. Of 686 patients with

biopsy-proven celiac disease, 299 (43 percent) had

previously been given the following incomplete or missed

diagnoses: anemia, 47; stress, 45; nervous condition, 41;

irritable bowel syndrome, 34; gastric ulcer, 23; food allergy, 19; colitis, 13;

menstrual problems, 13;

edema, 9; gallstones, 9; diverticulitis, 6; dermatitis herpetiformis, 4 and

other, 36.

Statistically, most people suffer for an average of 13 years before

getting diagnosed.

Anyway, if she hasn't done the above tests, print out the

article in the link below and hand it to her. Read the list of

symptoms. If the antigliadin tests are negative, then that

doesn't hurt anything, but for the sake of your child she

*should* rule this out, it's the most common cause of

the symptoms you describe, and " allergy " testing won't

catch it.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/980301ap/pruessn.html

-- Heidi Jean