Should a celiac disease screening be part of your annual physical?
Researchers estimate that roughly half of people with celiac disease remain undiagnosed. Depending on the study, diagnosis can take years—and sometimes more than a decade.
That raises a difficult question:
Should we be screening more people for celiac disease?
Option 1: Screen everyone.
Add a celiac blood test to routine healthcare. Blood tests are relatively inexpensive, and earlier diagnosis could prevent years of symptoms and long-term complications.
Option 2: Screen only high-risk groups.
Focus on first-degree relatives, people with Type 1 diabetes, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, and other autoimmune diseases. This approach costs less and targets the people most likely to have celiac disease.
Option 3: Leave things as they are.
Continue testing only when symptoms or clinical suspicion point toward celiac disease.
None of these options are perfect.
Blood tests aren’t flawless. False positives exist. Some people develop positive blood tests before intestinal damage appears. Some doctors still struggle to interpret a complete celiac panel correctly.
On the other hand, we know many people with celiac disease spend years searching for answers before receiving a diagnosis.
So I’m curious:
If a simple blood test had been offered during your annual physical years ago, would you have wanted it?
And if you were designing the system, how would you do it?
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