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Medical student's apparent celiac disease responded to giardiasis treatment

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232 points BostonFern | 4 comments | 16 Oct 24 03:25 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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dcx ◴[16 Oct 24 06:29 UTC] No.41856169[source]▶
Oh wow, I have the first half of this situation. I went through a period where my digestion was so bad that it was affecting my ability to function from day to day. I didn't get anything useful from my gastro; I even had a negative celiac antibody test. Eventually I started rigorously tracking everything I ate against my symptoms, and after a few months I was able to draw a strong correlation with gluten intake. From memory it was in the 0.7 range. The day I cut out gluten, a set of awful digestive symptoms completely left my life. They return any time I am glutened.

I was fortunate that over time I managed to return myself to full capacity, through reading a ton of research and running dozens of experiments like the above. But it was so damn hard. The symptoms reduced my ability to use my brain to fix myself. And if you're not a careful eater, it's not at all intuitive which foods contain gluten. This was also almost a decade ago while living in a developing country, so it wasn't even apparent that gluten might be a suspect.

I'm currently based in the US - does anyone know how one might get properly tested for chronic giardiasis, as a person who isn't themselves in microbiology? I almost certainly encountered poorly treated water in that period of my life.

Also - I can't help but suspect that a nontrivial percentage of the developing world is living below their full capacity due to something like this. Neglected tropical diseases are a horrendous category.

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1. Buttons840 ◴[17 Oct 24 00:47 UTC] No.41865364[source]▶
I have a positive antigen test for celiac disease (I had 2 elevated antigens actually, both associated with celiac disease). The gastroenterologist told me I have celiac disease. Yet I've never experienced symptoms.

I stopped eating gluten and the associated antigens went down to normal levels. I don't feel any better or worse though.

The literature says there are false positives, and I've always wondered if might be one of them. I've searched celiac forums and I've never encountered anyone with a false positives diagnosis. Lots of false negatives or non-celiac gluten sensitivities though.

I do have the gene required for celiac disease, but most who have this gene do not have celiac disease.

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2. ilc ◴[17 Oct 24 01:04 UTC] No.41865450[source]▶
... Take it from someone with celiac. You don't always feel it. I didn't for decades.

But it caught up with me. Really badly. And when I say badly, it nearly killed me. I got hypocalcima, and fuck me if it wasn't the most painful thing I ever endured. I've broken bones, etc. All that shit is child's play to every muscle in your body locking up and your body feeling like it is getting stabbed with needles all over. Thankfully once they give you calcium, it goes down. But... I was probably an hour or two away from dead, from asphyxiation.

I played with fire again, and caught it quicker the next time. But I had no concrete diagnosis. Now, I do.

Oh, as a bonus, I got the bones of an 85 year old woman with osteopenia.

Don't fuck with this shit internet stranger. Please.

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3. xupybd ◴[17 Oct 24 02:58 UTC] No.41866030[source]▶
Wow, I'm the same. Celiac with very few symptoms.

Hearing this makes me want to keep on track. But I would like regular blood tests to find out if my nutrition absorption is improving. That would at least motivate me to keep eating this restricted diet.

Good to hear your story as a warning.

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4. ilc ◴[18 Oct 24 00:57 UTC] No.41875402{3}[source]▶
Then push for them.

For me the motivation is maybe not having to worry about breaking a hip if I fall.