If you think gluten is the culprit...

I don't often get into clinical nutrition in this blog; it's more of a consumer-friendly space for thoughts on eating, nutrition, and exercise that might apply to a diverse range of people. However, I went to a talk yesterday and thought it was worth sharing some advice that I learned.

If you are having stomach pains or other symptoms when you eat products that contain gluten like pasta, bread, soy sauce, muffins, pancakes, beer, wraps, couscous, etc. then you might think to yourself "I'll just try cutting out gluten and see if I feel better." So you cut it out of your diet, you feel better, and just go on living a life of not eating gluten. No problem, right? Wrong. Here are some reasons why you need to see a doctor immediately if you think that you have non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) or celiac disease:

A tart with a crust full of gluten

1. The way that doctors test for celiac is by seeing if your body produces certain autoantibodies via a blood test. You need to have been eating gluten (the equivalent of one slice of bread per day) for around 6 weeks prior to the test for this blood test to give a definitive diagnosis. If you self-diagnose yourself and just avoid gluten for the rest of your life, you'll never know if you have celiac (or will have to start eating gluten-containing foods in order to find out).

2. Why do you need a definitive diagnosis? When the GI doctor asked the group she was presenting to, I raised my hand and guessed "because you don't want someone cutting out entire food groups if they don't have to." It's a very nutrition-focused response and, while true, is not the most pressing reason. The reason someone who suspects celiac should get a definitive diagnosis is because while the treatment of celiac is not eating foods with gluten, the medical care is and follow-up is more complicated. When someone is diagnosed with celiac, their immediate family members also need to be tested because the disease is hereditary; the patient will also need to be followed closely to monitor for thyroid disease and other commonly co-occurring issues.

3. Celiac can have such devastating effects on the body that a gluten-free diet needs to be followed 100% of the time with no exceptions. If you haven't had a diagnosis but just know that avoiding foods with gluten makes you feel better, you might be less inclined to check food labels each and every time and might be OK with a little exception here and there.

Having NCGS or celiac disease is not fun for anyone. But do yourself a favor and get checked out by a doctor sooner rather than later if you suspect that you have either of these diseases - it could save you from needing to bring back symptoms for 6 weeks in order to get tested and it could help your family members to get diagnosed sooner as well. For more information on celiac disease, click here.