One week wheat free

[KnottedYet]

The scope and biopsy are notoriously inaccurate, if you start having second thoughts about it you might ask for the antibody and genetic testing. (that's some $$ if your insurance balks)

But really it doesn't matter *why* wheat bugs you, just that you find ways to get around it, eh?

Check out the links in the TE celiac thread, and the recipes and food reccs. Some of the celiac boards are great resources for finding wheat-free alternatives to things.

And wheat-free isn't always more expensive. My wheat-free store brand soy sauce is cheaper than the soy sauce with wheat right next to it on the shelf. Rice noodles from the asian foods section are cheaper than the wheat pasta two aisles over, etc.

For cold cereals check out "EnviroKids" or plain ol' puffed rice or Rice Krispies or Kix.

There are lots of options!

(watch out for oats, though. they are often contaminated with wheat. Oats, barley, and rye can be rough on wheat-sensitivies too.)

[yogabear]

I have avoided wheat and gluten for years. It helped my IBS tremendously

I had the testing and it was confirmed, but if you stop eating it and feel better, IMHO, don't need to do more testing after that

[Mr. Bloom]

Interesting Celiac Statistic:

In Europe, the average time from sympton onset to diagnosis of celiac disease is 10 days.

In America, it's 10 years!

My mom was diagnosed at age 74. After getting disgusted with local docs, we sent her to St. Louis and they had her diagnosed and on the road to recovery in one week. She had lost 1/3 of her body weight!

If you're of Italian or Irish ancestry, you have a greater chance of being celiac.

[KnottedYet]

The genetic link is pretty intense in European ancestry, and luckily I found out about my family's wheat issues when I was in my late 20's. In my family it gets worse as you get older and worse with stress, and I knew well in advance that there would come a day when I couldn't eat wheat anymore.

That day was about 5 years ago.

SKnot is already showing signs of celiac with stress, so we just adjust his diet accordingly. Of course, when he's at my house he hardly eats anything irritating anyway.

We also have the dairy issues, but they are relatively minor. Just gotta lay off the dairy during stressful times.

Mr. Silver, you should watch for celiac for yourself.

At least in the U.S. the IBS diagnosis is taking gut issues from the realm of "it's all in your head, here's an antidepressant/antianxiety, now go away" and putting patients into the hands of dieticians and nutritionists and GI specialists.

(assuming the primary care physician doesn't simply prescibe Zelnorm or Immodium and send the patient on their merry way)

Edit: oh, and dealing with the B12 malabsorption isn't a big deal. The B12 shots can be expensive if your insurance isn't good, but plain ol' daily sublingual B12 pills (1 mg of cyanocobalamine or methylcobalamine) got my blood levels up to low-normal and were about 1/10 the price.