bread sensitivity due to coeliac disease in family?

[Kate99]

My dad, along with many others in my family, has coeliac disease. I have been tested and the results came back negative. However I find that eating bread makes me feel bloated and gives me stomach aches.

So my questions are could i have a sensitivity to bread because of the coeliac disease in the family and could this mean I may get it later on in life?

Also should i restrict my gluten intake as a precaution or should i eat more to build up immunity? Would either prevent it?

Finally what are the rules on cheating? My dad has been told by his dietitian that any cheating will have a long term detrimental effect on the lining of his gut, my cousin on the other hand was told by her's that as long as she follows a 90% gluten free diet she will be fine.

He tries not to cheat but sometimes when he is abroad for example it's not easy.

I know coeliac isn't an allergy but an autoimmune disease but i hope you can help me.

Many thanks

Kate

[Dr Adam Fox]

As you mentioned, coeliac disease is not an allergy so this is really outside my expertise. Hoever, if you have had negative tests there is no reason why you shouldn't have wheat and should just be guided by your symptoms. Continuing ot have wheat when you do have coeliac disease however, is not good as it can have long term effects.

[Dr Helen Brough]

Dear Kate99,

There are a few caveats when testing for coeliac disease; you must have been eating good amount of gluten at the time of the test, your total IgA antibody levels need to be normal and they should include testing for IgA antibodies against tissue transglutaminase. I would check these factors to make sure you truly has a negative screen. The fact that other members of your family have coeliac disease means you could have the genotype (HLA-DQ2 and/or HLA-DQ8) for coeliac disease which would put you at increased risk of this condition.

However as Dr Fox said we are Allergists and so the other questions would be best posed to a gastrointestinal specialist who deals with this condition more regularly. There is an excellent NICE guideline on the recognition and assessment of coeliac disease. Follow this link for the quick quideline:

http://www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/live/1 ... /44355.pdf

In it is says that if there are 'negative blood tests result but continuing clinical suspicion you should be referred to a gastrointestinal specialist for intestinal biopsy to confirm or exclude coeliac disease'.

Kind regards,