Guest guest Posted March 23, 2004 Report Share Posted March 23, 2004 Heidi, I printed that webpage, and I'm taking it to my doctor to ask her what gluten she used. She'll be very receptive if this is something she's not familiar with. Or even if she is. She would not call herself an allergist - I do that for convenience. She is a Total Body Modification practitioner, a treatment with roots in acupunture, chiropractic, applied kinesiology (SP?) and muscle testing. I would not take my son for skin tests at 28 mo., when I know there are alternatives. I've thought about the blood test, as I've heard it's more accurate, but I'm having success with the TBM and hoping as I take my son more and watch his diet, he will, too. The interesting thing to me, as I read that article, was the mention of aphthous ulcers. I've had them my whole life, and they've been worse when my health was worse, but no physician has ever been able to make a connection for me. I can't use any toothpaste on the market (I use baking soda) and still they come up occassionally. (Always much less while I'm pregnant though.) Thank you for mentioning this - maybe this is the connection. Kathy --- In , Heidi Schuppenhauer <heidis@t...> wrote: > > >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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 23, 2004 Report Share Posted March 23, 2004 >Heidi, > >I printed that webpage, and I'm taking it to my doctor to ask her what gluten she >used. She'll be very receptive if this is something she's not familiar with. Or >even if she is. It's nice she is open. The IgA allergies don't really care what kind of gluten it is ... it's a reaction to one tiny PART of the protein, and that " piece " is found in barley and rye too (and spelt and those " early wheat " forms). >She would not call herself an allergist - I do that for convenience. She is a Total >Body Modification practitioner, a treatment with roots in acupunture, >chiropractic, applied kinesiology (SP?) and muscle testing. I would not take my >son for skin tests at 28 mo., when I know there are alternatives. I've thought >about the blood test, as I've heard it's more accurate, but I'm having success >with the TBM and hoping as I take my son more and watch his diet, he will, too. The blood test isn't " more accurate " necessarily ... it's just that the other tests are for a *different kind* of allergy. IgA allergies are a new thing, until recently no one knew they existed. IgA is produced in the gut, and normally stays there. If it leaks out into the blood enough to give a positive result, then the person is probably really having problems. For milder cases, the IgA stays in the gut and you have to do a stool test. But an IgA reaction to wheat is amazingly common, somewhere between 10% and 20% of the population. Full-blown celiac (where the gut is damaged) occurs in 1 out of 100 people, and when it is at that stage it is really life-threatening, to the point that a diagnoses of celiac can make it hard to get medical insurance. >The interesting thing to me, as I read that article, was the mention of aphthous >ulcers. I've had them my whole life, and they've been worse when my health >was worse, but no physician has ever been able to make a connection for me. I >can't use any toothpaste on the market (I use baking soda) and still they come >up occassionally. (Always much less while I'm pregnant though.) Thank you for >mentioning this - maybe this is the connection. Yeah, I suffered with them forever and the party line is " no one knows " what causes them. Yet they are generally listed as a symptom of gluten intolerance. My daughter gets them now whenever she eats gluten, which is enough to keep her from eating it at school (I told her she COULD eat it, if she wanted, since she doesn't seem to have as many problems with it as I do, but she refuses, she hates canker sores). -- Heidi Jean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 23, 2004 Report Share Posted March 23, 2004 Well shoot, someone just posted a good article on the subject: http://www.celiac.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=946 Early Diagnosis of Gluten Sensitivity: Before the Villi are Gone by By Fine, M.D. This is important because the commonly used diagnostic tests of clinically important gluten sensitivity (blood tests for certain antibodies and intestinal biopsies) are only positive when villous atrophy of the small intestine is present. But if only a small minority of gluten sensitive individuals actually develop celiac disease, the majority, who have not yet or may never develop villous atrophy, with or without symptoms, can remain undiagnosed and untreated for years. This can result in significant immune and nutritional consequences, many of which are irreversible even after treatment with a gluten-free diet. Some of these disorders include loss of hormone secretion by glands (hypothyroidism, diabetes, pancreatic insufficiency, etc), osteoporosis, short stature, cognitive impairment, and other inflammatory bowel, liver, and skin diseases, among others. Only with early diagnosis, can these problems be prevented or reversed -- The Glutenator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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