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Zara when are you going to have your endoscopy for celiacs?
Syl, the endoscopy is on 9/30 and I will have bloodwork done sometime during the previous week. The doctor really feels I have a celiac disease even prior to the tests, based on my lifelong symptoms - besides GI problems it's my history of tooth cavities (no matter what I do in terms of dental hygiene), always sick as a child (had been hospitalized with Scarlet fever three times! and numerous colds, flus, pneumonia....), later than average onset of menstruation (I was 15 which is still ok but later than most of my friends), dizziness, fatique, and more. Plus, I had the gene tests done last month and I turned out positive for two alleles HLA-DQA1*0501 and HLA-DQB1*0201 that predispose me for a celiac disease. The report said that 95% or celiac patients and 20% of healthy individuals have this gene combination. So my doctor feels that she should really go ahead with testing because there is a high chance that I have a CD. She also said that she would recommend a GF diet even if the endoscopy turns out negative, just because the square footage of the human GI tract would cover an entire soccer field and there's a chance the biopsies may be obtained from a healthy spot if the damage is not severe yet.
So, I can't wait to be over with it and see what the results are  !
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IBS-C, bloating, cramps
pregnant
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Reading your post struck a chord with me...your experiences with frequent childhood illnesses (pnemonia and strep throat for me, as well as the usual colds), late onset of menstruation, dizziness, fatigue, etc, this all sounds like me, in addition to chronic constipation that occasionally alternates with diarrhea, bloating, gas, pain...I thought celiac disease manifested itself as intense bouts of diarrhea after consuming gluten. Is it possible that it can show up with all these symptoms? How long would you need to go gluten free to feel a difference? My doctor never proposed this as a possibility to explain my symptoms. I am having an endoscopy and colonoscopy done in October. Should I bring this up to my doctor so she can test me for CD?
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I think this is too close to a religious argument and not appropriate for the boards.
As for why wheat intolerance is more common now... well I explained that already. It is both more recognized and diagnosed now and much more actual occurences I feel due to something in the wheat supply. I am not an organic whiz but it doesn't take hard science to realize the way food is produced now a days with all the genetic engineering etc could lead to many health problems. There is also a huge increase in autism as well which some feel has a common explanation.
And if mankind cannot digest wheat since it is a 5000 year old introduction, then why were they not more intolerant of it in the beginning of eating it? That would make sense and would have made humans stop consuming it had the manifested symptoms of GI. But by that theory (about wheat being a problem because it is new) all the grains would be hard for us to digest because as you say, humans did not farm those other grains before 5000+ years ago either. And tomatoes would be awful for us too since we have only eaten them for 300-400 years. You see what I mean. Wheat is indeed hard to digest and many are allergic or intolerant, but the theory of it being new to mankind being the reason for intolerance just doesn't make sense. It also is not the purpose of the boards to talk about human history.
In summary, if we are not 'used to' wheat yet and need more time why are people becoming less able to eat it than previously and not more adapted to it? It is true for both wheat and dairy that humans have become less able to handle them over time and not more so. Does it not seem more reasonable that there are deeper reasons why so many people have GI problems now a days?
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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Frygurl – Yes, I would definitely bring this up to your doctor's attention. Unfortunately, a lot of doctor's know so little about CD that it's amazing. My doctor told me that there's little information about CD in general and even those doctors who are more knowledgeable about it (such as herself) don't know nearly as much as about other GI diseases such as Crohn's or UC. So a lot of them support the idea that you mentioned – that in order to have CD you have to have bouts of diarrhea, and be underweight. However, since we'll all different, it can have a different affect on us. I, for example, was already diagnosed with a longer-than-average colon. So, I may would have diarrhea from consuming gluten, but because the stool takes longer to sit in my colon and hence longer to pass, I becomes harder and can result in C. Plus, not everyone with CD has GI problems, there are a lot of those "silent celiacs" who only get diagnosed when they come to the doctor with other problems and their enlightened doctor runs a CD panel, among other blood tests.
As for how long it takes to feel better, that really depends. I've read that generally it takes about 2-3 weeks to feel better, but it can be a couple months before you feel healthy again. But, you should feel progressively better so that's how you know you should stick to it.
There's a CD website that has a lot of information and a great discussion board , I was able to get a lot of answers from there.
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IBS-C, bloating, cramps
pregnant
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Quote:
In summary, if we are not 'used to' wheat yet and need more time why are people becoming less able to eat it than previously and not more adapted to it? It is true for both wheat and dairy that humans have become less able to handle them over time and not more so. Does it not seem more reasonable that there are deeper reasons why so many people have GI problems now a days?
We don't know how intolerant of wheat people were a couple hundreds/thousands years ago. Humans definitely pay more attention to their health nowadays when we have more sophisticated health care system and diagnosis means. I believe back then people were more used to being sick, they just took it as a natural part of their lives. They also had a much shorter life expectancy. Every little village used to have herbalists who devoted their lives to finding healing herbs for different illnesses, and a lot of them were targeted to the GI tract. So that proves that people were always having GI problems, they just didn't know whether it was IBS, or CD, or Crohn's or UC, or gallbladder problems, etc.
I think the problem with seeing whether wheat is the problem is the delayed reaction time. Even nowadays many people don't link their problems to wheat, just because it's not an immediate reaction such as with peanut allergy, plus "everybody eats wheat so it must be fine". It took me forever to figure out that wheat/gluten bothers me, with all the information available to me - how would someone know this a couple centuries ago?
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IBS-C, bloating, cramps
pregnant
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Sorry, you make no sense. Religious? What in the world are you talking about? How did we get from wheat to religion? Human history, not appropriate? How did food come about, then?
You have gone way off track of the original topic. I have nothing further to say. I prefer to converse with someone who does a little research first, and makes some kind of sense in their reply.
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In my original post on this thread I talked about a test the U of M did with old blood samples from 50 years ago. The percentage of the blood that tested positive for wheat problems was much less than a similar group of blood samples from today.
True, people do make more of their health concerns now a days but I believe (and this thread was about what we think about gluten) that there really were way less gastro problems over the last few hundred years than in the last 50. When people ate more naturally and worked with their hands they were so much healthier.
I'm just glad we have the nice indoor plumbing and soft toilet paper for our increased gastro issues now! 
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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I'm sorry I baffled you with that comment. The thing is that you obviously believe in evolution and I do not. I believe people ate fruits, then added veggies and grains they grew and only ate meat after the flood. That is why I could not argue that humans did not start out as hunter/gatherers. So this topic cannot continue.
As for my feelings of GI:
1. this thread was about our ideas on GI and why it is so prevalent and will it work and does the idea of it being a new food causing issues make sense
2. I don't think it is fair to think I cannot make comprehensible arguments about IBS issues. I am not scientifically minded like Syl but I do have a decent background of IBS info to share.
3. I think you may have been offended because of my statement that GF is a fad in some ways. That is entirely true. In a Gastro newsletter I get it pointed that out that many think going GF will help just anyone and that gluten is bad for the body and going off of it will be healthier and increase weight loss. As the article and studies show, it is only GI people who have to avoid gluten. There has been no scientific proven benefits to avoiding it for other reasons and no studies showing it leads to weight loss. I didn't mean to insinuate that GI is all in people's heads and I never said anything that could possibly sound that way. We all have to acknowledge that GF is the food fad du jour by people who like to get on food fads. I hear it all the time. The woman next to me at the farmers' market sells GF products and tons of people talk about eating GF from time to time and how that is a healthy thing to do. Eating GF from time to time is ridiculous! It is an all or nothing thing. So that is part of the reason I can say that for many GF is a fad. That is great for GI people since so much more food is available to them.
I hope this clears things up and also explains why I think going into the history of humans is not appropriate due to religious views.
PS my best friend's name is Geri
and I am a moderator on this forum
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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Nope, still makes no sense at all to me, moderator or not.
I believe as moderator you should lock the thread, my dear, if you feel this is about religion? 
It's about food, plain and simple!
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Yes the thread is about food but if we get into what the first human diet consisted of it would lead to arguments about religious beliefs. Can you see that? As for discussing wheat, there is no problem there. When you tell a person to get their facts straight because they feel humans ate fruits and veggies first and were not hunters and gatherers- that is getting into personal beliefs and not food or IBS issues.
You will have to reread the thread to see what I am talking about if you are having trouble, my dear.
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IBS-A for 20 years with terrible bloating and gas. On the diet since April 2004. Remember this from Heather's information pages:
"You absolutely must eat insoluble fiber foods, and as much as safely possible, but within the IBS dietary guidelines. Treat insoluble fiber foods with suitable caution, and you'll be able to enjoy a wide variety of them, in very healthy quantities, without problem." Please eat IF foods!
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