We don’t normally report on research that isn’t directly related to food (that’s what Dr. Gourmet is all about, after all). Today I’m going to make an exception because Celiac Disease is so challenging to diagnose. Stomach pain, diarrhea and bloating, some of the more common symptoms of Celiac, can also mean anything from gallbladder disease to Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
At this time the only way to definitively diagnose Celiac Disease is by doing a biopsy of the small intestine, which is where Celiac Disease does its damage to the body. That said, in this health care environment we doctors can’t just send everyone with abdominal pain to have a small bowel biopsy – the current estimate is that less than 1% of the population has true Celiac Disease. Better to do other, less invasive tests first. Fortunately, there are several blood tests available, but they are not as definitive as a biopsy. They do yield some false positives and sometimes false negatives. Testing for Celiac Disease
