Friday, October 5, 2007

Celiac Testing Kit?

My dietary misdemeanor on Wednesday is still causing me gastric distress. Only this time it is so painful I have had to take pain relievers. I read about a Bio Card Celiac Testing Kit on the ETL Forum, so I have ordered one from a supplier in NZ. I have had a negative blood test before, but later I was told that for this to show any useful results, one has to have eaten some foods containing gluten prior to the test for the protein to show up in the blood. Of course this makes sense to me when I stop to think about this. As I had abstained from grains for a good two weeks before the bloodwork was done. It seems a good idea to retest. The best course of action would be a to have a biopsy done as this would show CD even while avoiding gluten and is 100% accurate. However I would rather not have this procedure if it's not needed, as it is expensive even with private health insurance. So I think this cheaper option will be useful in my case.
My doctor suggested that I might actually have a gluten intolerance instead. Her advise was to immediately go on a gluten free diet and to carefully monitor my results from gluten avoidance. She also suggested that because so many additives are added to grains, flours and breads today, maybe it is a reaction to any one of these, that is causing me the bloating and other problems.
I shall just have to wait and see. On a brighter note it is good that just by avoiding certain foods I can be and remain symptom free. In reality it is just so hard to buy food outside the home that is completely gluten free.
Once foods was good, clean and pure. Now there is so much tinkering and 'improving' done to the food supply, that simply eating any product can indeed be life threatening.
Most health conscious people spend a great deal of time trying to decipher food labels. These are often misleading and in the some cases, deceptive.
If I am having trouble with compliance at sixty six. Then my heart goes out to all the small children with severe food allergies, that have to face even greater difficulties every day of their lives. For them, the world is truly a hostile environment.

No comments: