When someone ingests gluten either accidentally or on purpose with celiac disease, it is not good. Most people say their reactions begin anywhere from 5 minutes to 3 days after gluten ingestion and can last up to six months. I’m not doubting people feel bad for that long but I am doubting the root cause of feeling bad for that long.

Studies that say the autoimmune cascade starts at between 2 hours and 8 hours after ingestion. I also know it takes between 6 hours and 48 hours for your body to digest food.

Today I found an article that talks about the half life of serum antibodies to gliadin – which is really the protien causing us the issues. The half life of the serum antibodies they are testing for in detecting celiac is 30-60 days. This would explain why people need to be on a gluten containing diet for at least a month before undergoing testing.

However, what this doesn’t explain is why it can take up to 2 years for celiac blood tests to normalize on a gluten free diet. I don’t have an answer for that one.

They also talk about the “gluten challenge”. They say that recent studies indicate that consumption of gluten greater than 3g (approximately two slices of bread) ingested daily for two weeks is typically enough to cause blood tests and biopsy to become positive for celiac disease. Also, they suggest that celiac can be excluded if the blood tests and biopsy are negative after a 6-8 week gluten challenge.

Many people that cut out gluten prior to celiac testing are very wary of reintroducing gluten to their diet. Some say the diagnosis is irrelevant and others need to know. The problem with the two week gluten challenge is if the tests come back negative will that be enough for someone to confirm they don’t have celiac or will they want to continue to the 6-8 week challenge.

There needs to be a new test that an detect celiac disease without a gluten challenge. I think ImmusanT is working on a test that will more specifically detect the body’s reaction to gluten. They are working on a test similar to detecting tuberculosis – not sure if it would be a skin test or blood test.

Honestly, there needs to be a new test for monitoring celiac that can tell how much damage their is in one’s intestines rather than an endoscopic biopsy. I know there is some research going on in this area. It involves a statin and an one day gluten challenge in a doctors office. Then blood is drawn or urine is evaluated, I can’t tell from the study. They look at how much of the statin is excreted to determine how damaged the intestines are. This study was completed in June 2019 and I’m hoping to see results on this one soon!

Lots of good stuff today. Hope you are enjoying the posts. Let me know if you want to see something specific…..

Let me know if you’ve got ideas – I’m all ears!!