Gluten-free: celiac disease could be the cause of your gastrointestinal problems

Most women dread it, but when I got my period last October, I broke out the bubbly and did a little dance of joy. This, because it had been over a year since my last cycle, and I'd been pretty scared. My diet and weight were good, my gynecological and other standard medical exams checked out fine and my stress level seemed on par with my peers'. But even when the doctors gave me some hormones to stimulate my flow, nothing happened. At age 30, I feared for my health and worried that I would never be able to get pregnant.

The absent period wasn't the only unsettling piece of my health puzzle. Around the same time, I got some routine test results back indicating I had slightly elevated liver enzymes. This really perplexed my doctors. I wasn't a drinker, never took Tylenol, and further tests negated the possibility' of hepatitis and related conditions. The doctors shrugged their shoulders and told me that maybe it was a fluke and that I should just keep an eye on things. When I asked if the liver problem could be somehow connected to the amenorrhea (absence of menstrual periods), they told me that elevated liver enzymes and the lack of a period were completely unrelated, occurring in different systems of the body.

Complicated Problem

I wish I could say that this was the first time I was deemed an anomaly by the health care system, but un fortunately it was not. I have a 21-year history as a "problem patient." Beginning at age 8, I had terrible stomachaches, causing me to wake my parents in the night and go routinely to the nurse's office at school. When rudimentary tests revealed nothing, the doctors told my parents that it was a cry, for attention that I'd eventually outgrow.

Time proved that theory wrong. Ten years later, when stomachaches and diarrhea nearly knocked me out of college, my doctors performed a more rigorous gastrointestinal exam. Although I often couldn't make it through a single class without dashing to the bathroom, the tests were again inconclusive. I was told the root of my ills was irritable bowel syndrome--the ultimate diagnosis of exclusion. The treatment included muscle relaxants, biofeedback, lots of sleep, and a diet that limited dairy and fried foods and increased fiber intake.

Skip ahead 8 years to the months preceding my wedding. The diarrhea persisted, but this time it alternated with the more uncomfortable symptom of constipation. Desperate to be healthy on my wedding day and honeymoon, I turned to alternative health care practitioners for answers. A holistic nutritionist put me on a very restricted diet, excluding many common foods. The toughest one for me was wheat since it seemed to be in everything and had always served as my comfort food--the one I turned to when I felt the worst. Nothing seemed more right than noodle soup, plain toast and crackers for an upset stomach.

To my great surprise and delight, I felt better. I had an epiphany that what I was eating could actually have been making me sick. Sounds pretty darn obvious, but beyond junk food and milk, I'd never made this connection before.

Finding the Answer

Though my stomach problems improved greatly with this dietary change, other problems arose. Around that time, my periods ceased, and the liver problems revealed themselves. I thought I'd tried everything and felt, well, depressed.

Luckily, I found a great job that kept me going. I began working for a start-up company that was making foods tree of gluten and other common allergens. A big part of my job was to understand the health conditions that our customers faced. It was then that I learned for the first time about celiac disease (CD).

Suddenly, the endless trips to the ladies' room, the missing periods, the liver enzymes, the depression, the frequent colds and viruses and all the other random symptoms over the years (anemia, skin rashes and so on) all made sense.

It took a long time for me to convince my doctors, however. They told me that celiac disease is a rare disorder that predominantly occurs in children. And besides, if I really were suffering from CD, I would not make it out of the bathroom long enough to come to my doctor's appointment.

Alternative Treatments

Regardless, armed with the latest research and a lot of self-awareness, I decided I needed to trust my instincts on this one. I cut the remaining gluten out of my diet, and when the new eating plan proved successful, I asked my doctor to perform an IGA screening--the blood test used to diagnose celiac disease. Unfortunately, the test only works if you have gluten in your system, and since eating only one piece of bread would return me to my former misery, I opted out.

Fortunately, through work I met Stefano Guandalini, MD, at the University of Chicago Celiac Disease Program, who suggested I be tested for the HLA gene, which most people with celiac disease have. A positive result combined with my response to the gluten-free diet was conclusive enough for me. I wasn't a medical mystery or a chronic hypochondriac--I had celiac disease.