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QUESTION: For years I suffered from water retention, bloating, gas, fatigue, double a immune problem (they never explained what that was), diarrhea, stomach pain, acid reflux. They could not find out what I had, so they just treated the acid reflux and shock their heads for the rest. While reading a magazine I saw an article about celiac and realized I had all the symptoms. I went to my doctor with the article and she told me to go on the diet. I did and felt better. After about 2 months of being on the diet she decided to take the blood test and it came back negative. She told me to stay on the diet because it made me feel better and she would send me for a biopsy later on. Did the test come back negative because I was on the diet? Would there be the same problem if I went for a biopsy now. I feel I have it, but I might need verification of it later on. What should I do?

DR. LEWIS: Trying to make the diagnosis of celiac after someone has been on the diet for a couple of months is very difficult. Its important for you to know if you have celiac disease or are intolerant of gluten. Perhaps you should get the HLA test to see if you are DQ2 or DQ8 positive. If you are negative, you don't have celiac disease. But a third of Americans have DQ2 or DQ8 while only 1 out of 130 have celiac. So if you are positive it means that you could have it but does not tell us if you did have celiac or ever will get celiac disease. Biopsy or antibody bloodwork 2 months into the diet will not ncessarily tell you either. If you really want to know, you may need to go back on gluten and then have the bloodwork and a biopsy.

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