My stomach has been very weird since I was stationed in VA.
I saw a show about Celiac Disease and swore up and down that I was going through the same things.
I am always tired, I have constipation/diarrhea in alternation, sometimes I'm bloated, my allergies change (one minute I'm allergic to wheat and can eat dairy and then I am lactose intolerant and can eat wheat), my body really shuts down at times,...
It's not so bad now but I begged my doctor to test me for Celiac and he told me I was overexaggerating and it's just lactose intolerance. I wanted to smack him because I don't even eat a lot of dairy products and I knew it was the wheat doing those things to me. Ironically, some months later, dairy products tore me up but the symptoms weren't the same.
I had a colonoscopy, everything and all my test results came back negative. SO, how can you REALLY tell whether it's IBS or Celiac?
Answer:
Celiac runs in my family, and most (if not all) of my family members that have it were misdiagnosed. My sister finally realized she had celiac simply by abstaining from wheat for a while. Try it for a few months and see if it helps. If you still feel this way, then you probably don't have Celiac. Another possibility is that you have an allergy to both gluten and dairy. If this is the case, then sometimes you might react more to one or the other depending on your diet for that week. For instance, if you are allergic to gluten or dairy (or both), you might be able to eat one or the other for weeks before it builds up in your system and then seemingly randomly affects you. This is one reason why it so hard to diagnose. Hope this helps.
Have an endoscopy. They go in and take a biopsy of your stomach lining. That's the only way to know for sure if it is celiac disease.
If you are using DOD insurance see if your GP will give you a reference to a gastroenterologist (good luck last I recall DOD Dr.'s were a pain in the *** to deal with).
Hopefully you have a PPO and free choice. Go to the gastro tell them the symptoms and concerns and get their opinion. Ask about IBS, Celiac, Crohn's Disease, ileitis, ulcerative colitis as well.
Having Crohn's myself I can fully understand the concerns and annoyances that you are going through right now and the great frustrations.
Definitely check out a gastroenterologist though and get their opinion since this is the kind of thing they went to school for and not a generalized medical degree.
While many people with IBS are intolerant to wheat bran, and whole wheat, this is not at all the same thing as the total gluten intolerance caused by celiac. It is possible to have BOTH celiac and IBS, but it's also very common for celiac to be misdiagnosed as IBS.
An initial screen for celiac disease will check your blood for antibodies to gluten, and if the results are positive, a small bowel biopsy will follow.
So - what exactly is celiac disease? Celiac is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate a grain protein called gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, and barley. Gluten can also be found in stamp and envelope adhesive, medicines, and vitamins.
Celiacs is a gluten intolerence. Eat a sandwich made of white bread if you don't go to the bathroom it is probably celiacs and if you do it is probably IBS. Celiacs may cause someone to have bowel movements shortly after eating products that contain Gluten. Eat something without it and if you don't have to go after a couple hours then it is probably celiacs. Hope I could help.
Shorty
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