I'm a coeliac - spent two years trying to persuade my doc something was wrong, and he absolutely denied it was coeliac... At one point I got him to agree to test me, but the tests came back negative because I had gone off gluten for a while myself just for sanity and because I felt so much better, and he wouldn't listen to me when I said I had to be back on gluten for a while before they could reliably test. I was only back on it for a week or so when he tested, he said if it was really coeliac there would be enough inflammatory markers to detect it. Well that's rubbish. You have to be eating gluten everyday for 6 weeks before they can test properly. When the problems kept going he eventually sent me to a gastro doc who said it sounded like coeliac, put me back on a full diet for 6 weeks, tested me, and hey presto. Then had the biopsy done (barrel of laughs) which was very positive, and I've been off gluten ever since. Huge difference to my life. My doc didn't even apologise when I next saw him either!!!

Gluten is a funny thing for a human diet, the sort of grains early humans ate were very basic things similar to spelt now, which have a very simple gluten structure, easier for our system to break down. Modern grains like wheat are much more complex, and quite a big percentage of the population actually struggle to digest them, but with all the other modern garbage we eat, and complex sugars and fats as well, sorting out what causes some issues is a nightmare. Plus, some people's digestive systems can cope much better than others, and have few if any symptoms, even if they actually have a gluten intolerance.

From what I've learnt, I gather that if you are a coeliac you have been so all your life, which is why they check your bone density to make sure they have developed properly. If you're a coeliac, your system will have always been struggling, but copes ok for a certain time and then suddenly just can't deal with any more. That's why it's common to be diagnosed around age 40. It means your system will have struggled to absorb nutrients, and may have affected your growth, teeth, birth weight of children etc. Both my children were small at birth, probably because I just wasn't passing through enough nutrients to them through my blood. Some folk really can't cope, and are diagnosed in childhood, others are never diagnosed, having only had mild symptoms even in old age. Others are diagnosed with something else which presents in a similar way, and may never realise they have it.

If someone has any gastric issues, I would personally suggest going on to a basic healthy diet for 2 weeks (ie no processed foods, wheat, complex sugars, dairy etc) and then reintroducing foods one at a time (every 3 days) to see if a food is causing the problem. Obviously you'd have to be careful to get a balanced diet and eat enough calories, but it's not as bad as you might think - I remember when going properly GF, and having to check every single foodstuff for gluten, I thought I'd never have nice things to eat again!! I was so scared for a while, and ate just meat and veg, fruit, beans and rice, with olive oil and nuts. I still have some issues with dairy at times, and can't drink raw milk at all, althogh yoghurt and cheese are ok lol. It's all very complicated!

You should always check with your doctor before changing anything drastically, but in my personal experience doctors can miss a lot of things, or just be plain wrong, and often it is up to us to keep digging until we work out what is wrong. Putting my blind faith in what doctors say or suggest hasn't served me particularly well at times, and I prefer to learn as much as I can myself and apply it to what they are suggesting before I do it now.

Bram.