well i'm 25 now and i have had these problems for a few years now. my doctor diagnosised me with ibs but i'm not too sure. all of this is really starting to depress me. well i have sharp lower abdominal pain, my stomach makes noises alot, gas alot and sometimes heartburn. the abdominal pain i get sometimes it hurts so bad that i just wanna cry:confused: . i go to the bathroom everyday like more 4 or 5 times a day and they are small and not alot comes out. if i don't have ibs i think i have divertilis or however you spell it or even colits. can any one help me out please and tell me what you think i have...david

How Irish are you? The Irish seem to have a fairly high rate of celiac disease, compared to most other ethnic groups. Your doc can run a celiac panel to screen.

US docs are just starting to get on board with the rest of the developed world, which has realized for decades that the incidence of CD is about 1/100 people, not 1/5,000 as most US MDs thought. So, you may find your doc is more open to testing now than in the past. If you are seeing just a GP you'd probably do better w/a gastroenterologist.

Best wishes.

I have CD, and from what it sounds like, you might have either UC or CD. I had the same problems, my dr. thought it was a internal hemoroid, but no, tnhen I had a colonoscopyamd founf I had chronic UC, later diagonsed as CD. Is there any blood when you go? if there is, I would suggest you DEMMAND a colonoscopy. I know it sounds bad, but it may safe your life, like me. Just make sure they dont play Barry White before you go in, God that was disturbing.

Also, ask for a gastroscopy, you might have Acid Reflux, becasue it goes hand in hand with CD.

Best wishes

Richard

hey thanks for responding to my story.well i'm irish but not 100%, i know i'am more then 50%. what is celiac disease? see stomach problems runs in my family. my twin brother has the same as me, my dad has ulceritis colits if thats what you call it and his mom had divertilitis. so i think i have one of those. my doctor told me that i do have acid reflux disease. it was pretty bad but i kind of got that under control right now.i have never had blood in my stool and i hope i never do. my doctor wants me to go see a GI doctor to see what exacly is going on with me. see with me i'm a big worrier and i worry about everything and i have alittle anxiety or i'm depressed cause of this stuff. so thats why i'm always affraid to go see a specialist cause i always this the worst. i'll tell ya these days seems like more and more people are starting to have all sorts of stomach problems.

Celiac is an autoimmune disease. Eating gluten (in wheat, barley, rye, & oats) in those genetically predisposed causes the body to turn against itself & start destroying the small intestine. As the gut is destroyed, it becomes more difficult to absorb nutrients. For this & other reasons, it's pretty common for celiacs to have a bit of depression & anxiety -- although of course there are many other possible causes for D & A.

The current treatment for celiac disease is a 100% gluten-free diet. In the vast majority of cases, this diet resolves symptoms over a period of time. (It can take months to yrs. for the gut to heal; generally longer in older folks & less time in younger folks.) The GF diet is unlike any other diet you've heard of, no days off and no cheating, ever. It must be followed to the letter; even microscopic amts of gluten, can perpetuate the autoimmune destruction. So, not a drop of beer (unless it's GF/sorghum beer), and not a crumb of regular food; even a new toaster is called for.

Celiac used to be thought rare in the USA, but the current incidence is 1/100 people. As doctors test & find more celiacs, the food industry has stepped up to the demand. For example, just five yrs. ago sales of GF food was a $20 million dollar industry, but it is soon projected to break a billion dollars. The diet is much easier to do than in the past because of the commercial GF foods now available.

The learning curve for the GF diet is steep, but doable. And once you learn it, adjust to it, GF diet becomes second nature like everything else.

The consequences of untreated celiac can be scary: increased risk of developing other autoimmune diseases; and increased risk of certain nasty gut cancers.

CD is diagnosed by blood tests and/or endoscopy with biopsy. All though the procedure sounds scary, most everybody sails through it without problem.

You don't have to be full-blood Irish to have celiac disease. There are many other ethnicities with predispostion, and many of us are just kind of ... Heinz 57 ethnicity. But Irish, Italian, and one E. European Jewish subset are among those more commonly afflicted.

Please take that referral to the GI doc that your PCP has offered. If your celiac test results come back negative, it's quite likely that the gastro will be able to help you one way or another, and KNOWING what's wrong is so empowering! There's so much less to worry about, and usually there are steps to be taken to improve the situation.

Best wishes, and I hope you let us know how things work out.

do you have this disease? so for this diet what kind of food can you eat and where do you get it at? i know the first time i went to my family doctor i gave blood and he checked for things but not sure what kind of things. the only thing he said that was my good cholestrol was low which is heritery in my family. i do go out once in awhile to go out drinking and i drink beer and beer doesn't bother me at all. doesn't give me gas or pain. most of the time beer helps it cause it calms me down. endoscopy with biopsy is that when they stick a tube down your throat to see whats going on down there? well when i do go i hope i don't have this disease. i hope i have something simple, i hope my doc is right and i have IBS or divertiltis.my dad has colitis and sometimes hes gets pretty bad but hes got it kind of under control because of this prescribed drug and this natural aloe pills that help too. for the past week i haven't had any pains thank god. i just have a good amount of gas mostly in the mornings when i get up and then sometimes i get gas later on fater eating something.

The gluten-free diet for celiac disease allows one to eat all whole, natural foods except wheat, barley, rye, & oats. So, if you go into a grocery store, usually the outer edges of the store are produce, meat & dairy. Most of that is OK unless the meat has been made into sausage or the plain dairy has been doctored with flavorings, etc.

For carbs, there's corn, rice & potatoes. There are also many delicious grains that Americans are generally unfamiliar with that are tasty & OK for celiacs: amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, teff, tapioca, sorghum, millet.

When it comes to breads, there are GF mixes available (specialty section of store or health food store) as well as GF breads made with non-gluten flours. There are GF pastas as well. And LOTS of GF goodie-junk like cookies & candies. Many people purchase GF food over the internet (esp if they live in a small town). Even amazon has gotten into the grocery biz recently, incl. GF food.

Most people who have to do the GF diet (and remember, you haven't been tested) find that they eat healthier in the past. You have to go out of your way to get GF processed food & junk, so it's easier to eat nutritious stuff.

I have a daughter w/celiac, a son with 'gluten allergy,' which is different from celiac but requires the same diet, and the rest of the family is gluten- intolerant -- we don't have the positive blood test results, but we do much better health-wise without the gluten. I got rid of 5 decades of severe IBS with GF diet. Not everyone w/IBS has gluten issues, but a subset does.

Endoscopy is yes, when they stick a tube down your throat, usually under anesthesia. It's not a big deal.

Best wishes.

hey, well is this type of diet gonna cost more then usual food that people buy? i hope i don't have this, just seems like a hassel and all. but if i do well then i have to deal with it. so you have ibs and nothing like colitis or anything? do you still get pains or anything on this diet? just glad i haven't have any bad pains for the past week and a half. i had little ones today. just right now i'm dealing with a good amount of gas and my stomach rumbles alot. mostly get the gas in the mornings and then i get some more at night alittle bit and when after i eat. i went to my doctors like a 2 weeks ago and he put me in zoloft cause of my axiety and to calm me down. that helped my stomach but game me more gas then i already have so i stopped that and seeing him again on monday for something else. awhile ago he gave me benytl for my ibs that helps somewhat but i still get the gas. then i also take protonix for my heartburn. man i'm too young for all of this stuff. well i'm scared of anything going down my throat or going up my rear. my dad had his colonoscpy not too long ago and he said it wasn't too bad. if i really wanna know what i have and want to get better then i have to deal with it and be a man and go get tested.

For me, the diet completely cured my pain & digestive problems. The only recurrences I've had are when I accidentally get some gluten (rare) and the one time I cheated -- confession. So, it works for me. Meds never did. I'm not on any IBS or gut meds at all.

My daughter was being tested for cancer when she got her celiac diagnosis. This one is a whole lot better than the alternative!

The regular whole foods, plain meat, dairy, and produce cost the same whether you're on the diet or not. Specialty GF foods seem more expensive at first. But then you realize there's a lot of junk you aren't buying any more, so it all balances out. I'm a stay-at-home Mom, with my DH the only wage-earner. I've raised 2 kids GF, and my son -- well, you know teenage boys can eat? Sometimes 5,000 calories a day? We fed him & managed to stay within budget. And the GF diet has gotten so much easier in the last few yrs. because there are more options available, more competition between manufacturers & that is helping prices moderate.

BTW, if you are celiac, you can save receipts for specialty foods & deduct the difference from regular food & claim as a medical expense on your taxes. It's been too much work for our family, BUT, I do know people who do this every yr.

But don't worry too much for now. First you want to see a gut specialist & get some testing done. Nobody really looks forward to the testing, but you'll likely be so out of it you won't feel any pain or remember a thing about it. Be sure to tell the doc you're anxious about the test. He hears that 20 times a day & can even help you with pre-medication if necessary.

Best wishes.

well thats good the diet cured your problems. i just want my problems to go away and i'll be one happy man. how old are your kids if you don't mind me asking? did you or one of your kids ever gone to the bathroom and have blood in your stools or anything and do any of you get alot of gas? where do you shop for these foods? i sure can eat alot but i haven't in awhile cause i'm affraid i'll get pain or alot of gas and plus i have a high metabolism so i don't really gain weight. i would like to gain more weight cause i think i'm alittle too skinny. is a gut specialist a GI doctor cause thats what my doctor wants me to see and get tests done. hopefully this week i'll be man enough and call and make an appointment to go see one. does it usually take awhile to see the doctor? are you asleep or awake during the procedure? i wish i wasn't such a big worrier about things...

I had occasional bloody stools in my early 30s, had a colonoscopy & they found & removed a pre-cancerous polyp. Whew! It was a close call. The procedure ended my bloody stools. Unfortunately, it did not cure my IBS. But, I am a very strong supporter of these tests because I believe they save lives. I've met a few people with incurable colon cancer in their mid-30s. Most of them delayed getting scoped for one silly reason or another, and expressed that if they had to do it over again, they'd get the tests done earlier rather than wait until things had gone too far.

I've got one kid in the 20s, one an older teen. One of them had bloody stools related to the gluten issues. This is not common, even in celiac, but it can occur.

Bloating & extreme gas are very common in gluten intolerance; we all suffered from that & left it behind with the diet. But that's what worked for us.

It's not uncommon to lose weight in celiac disease. Nutrient malabsorption occurs because the part of the gut that is supposed to absorb carbs, fats, protein, vitamins, etc., gets destroyed by the disease. But heals with diet. Once the gut is healed & starts absorbing again, people find they are able to gain the weight they need.

During the procedures (colonoscopy and/or endoscopy) you are asleep. That's why I say it's a breeze. I've had six colonoscopies over the years & the technology is getting better. So don't worry about that. You'll do great. I think the worrying is probably much more painful than the procedure, as you'll see in retrospect. As for how long it takes to get in to see a specialist, it depends on how popular the doctor is & if your referring doc makes it seem urgent or less urgent. The procedures usually have to be pre-approved by insurance & that can take a day or two.

Now, once you've made that appointment with the GI specialist (the gut doc) & found out what the source of YOUR trouble is, you can start working on getting better. Maybe it's celiac, maybe it's something else. But worrying isn't going to make you better: take action. One hint I'd give you is to ask the GI doc to do both scopes back-to-back, rather than 2 separate procedures. It saves time & worrying.

Best wishes.

well i hope i never get bloody stools, my dad is 56 and he had bloody stools a few years ago and they told him he has ulcerative colitis and hes taking this medicine the gi doc gave him and this all natural aloe pills that are pretty much working for him. so hes doing pretty good right now. i mean more and more people are getting bowel problems and i think its mostly from stress and sorry for my langauage the crap they put in foods. i don't think i lose weight but i just don't gain weight or even i do lose weight i don't know it. well that makes me feel alittle bit better that your asleep with both of the procedures. yeah my dad and everyone tells me worrying isn't going to help any so i try and not to worry and go out and do things to try and take my mind off of it. you mean when i go get the colon and the endoscopy procedure at the sametime?...david