Celiac Testing: the results are in

Yesterday I got the results back from my biopsies and blood tests that were done at the beginning of February.  All of them are negative for Celiac Disease. And I am not sure how I feel about this.

It is good if I don't have celiac disease. It means that my accidental ingestion of gluten may have less severe long-term impacts for my body. It means that if I slip up now and then, it's not necessarily a big deal. It also means that others in my family are less likely to have it, and my future children as well. All this is good. But I am confused.

Wheat that Celiacs can eat? Yes, please!

An article in the WSJ Market Watch today caught my attention: Apparently there is a company in California, Arcadia Biosciences, that is working on developing wheat with less gluten in it, with the goal that it can be tolerated by people who have celiac disease and gluten intolerance. That sounds amazing! I'm a little bit skeptical since from what I understand, Celiacs can't tolerate even the tiniest amounts of gluten without sustaining damage. However, they are moving the project to Phase II, and have just received large amounts of grant money, so there must be some promise of success. I found this paragraph of the article very interesting:

"Arcadia and WSU received a Phase I grant in 2005 through which the organizations applied TILLING(R), a high-throughput genetic screening technology, to identify wheat plants with low levels of proteins that are most toxic to individuals with celiac disease. Significant progress in the Phase I program drove the Phase II application and grant funding. Phase II activities will take a broader approach and seek to remove a far greater number of toxic proteins while maintaining levels of proteins that are critical for bread-making qualities. The company also believes that removal of targeted toxic proteins could cause an increase in beneficial proteins and potentially lead to more nutritious bread."

 That sounds incredible. Maintaining the bread-making properties while removing the toxic gluten properties. Success of such a product would mean that people with gluten intolerance could eat wheat again, though I'm sure that the general food-making industry wouldn't switch over to this low-gluten wheat. Celiacs would still have to purchase specially marked "gluten-free" foods and flours, but if wheat were among them, that could make some things a whole lot easier.

View the entire article: Arcadia Biosciences Receives $855,500 Grant to Fund Next-Stage Development of Wheat with Reduced Celiac Disease Potential

In which the Damozel undergoes an endoscopy

So yesterday was my big celiac testing day! Hubs was a darling and took the day off of work to drive me back and forth from the procedure. There was anesthesia involved, so I wasn't allowed to drive myself home. Besides, it was just comforting to me to have him there.

We got there plenty early (9:30am for the 10:15 procedure) to fill out any remaining paperwork. Then I was taken back into one of the exam rooms, given a gown to change into, a bag to put my belongings in, and then I just sat and waited, perusing the sparse assortment of magazines to help keep my mind off my very hungry stomach (I'd had to fast - no food and no water - since the night before) and suppress my slight fear.

The Gluten Challenge: Now or Never

Perhaps it seems strange to begin a blog about living gluten free during a time when I'm doing a Gluten Challege, and thus not following the diet. However, in less than 2 weeks I will finally be back full time, hard core on the gluten free diet. And I find that I can't wait. Even Hubs can't wait. He doesn't have any gluten issues himself, but he is so used to my gluten free cooking that he told me it feels weird eating "all this other stuff" and "I can't wait to go back to eating normally." Normal for us, is gluten free. 

So why am I off the diet? Well, after self-diagnosing myself 1.5 years ago and eating gluten free ever since, I've decided to try to get an official diagnosis. It's a long story for another post how I finally learned I was gluten intolerant and embarked on the huge life change that is going gluten free. But suffice it to say for now that due to the medical care I had at the time I self diagnosed, it just didn't happen. No one told me I should get tested, and I was feeling so much better that I didn't look into it.

Since then, as I have read more about celiac disease and gluten intolerance, I've realized that I should have been tested right away when I suspected what the problem was. The wonderful healing that comes from a gluten free diet is also knell of doom for accurate diagnosis (and diagnosis is hard enough to get accurately anyway). And the longer you are away from gluten, the more you heal and the harder it is to tell.