celiac

Hi Ewan, as far as I know it's 6 weeks for eating gluten before the test can be done.
Some people do test negative even though they are gluten intolerant. So have the test done and if still negative and you are fine gluten free then go gluten free as you feel better.

Depends.. I paid privately to see a gastroenterologist who admitted he initially thought IBS... He requested normal endoscopies etc.. But also a"shapes" test. The shapes test proved that food was very slow moving through my stomach and I have slow colonic transit.... My stomach does not tolerate any foods that are ready meals. Bread, pasta, rice.
Yesterday I was informed that in 2003 a note from a consultant was not placed on my GP Files and I certainly wasn't told about it either... "Patient may be allergic to aspartame"... This may also be true.. There are no tests to prove this to be conclusive though.

Fortunately nowadays my food is pretty much meat, veg, salad, fruit... But I do go through periods of drinking diet drinks or baking blueberry muffins with sweeteners etc...

It really depends whether you are getting blocked up or loose bowel movements etc...

To me real food is best.. We are the only animal on the planet that is clever enough to grow grain.... But we are the only animals stupid enough to eat it.

It is not natural for even dogs to eat food with grain in it, cows would naturally go to a field of grass rather than being force fed by humans with substitute grain, antibiotics etc... No other animal can make the machines like combine harvesters etc..

Since totally eating grain free, unprocessed foods and having 2 tablespoons of flaxseed and 1 tablespoon of chia seeds my stomach is superb again. I have odd random days very very rarely and say Friday last week I went out with friends. Had 1/2 a wrap. By Monday that 1/2 a wrap had completely horribly done things to my stomach. I thought I was going to have to get an ambulance and morphine and get to hospital. That was just a rare day trying to be like my friends. I've now learnt my lesson.

I had ambulance and morphine justto get me off loo on one occasion. Was given movicol and enemas. I will not use drugs when I can eat good foods to cure my problems.

I would speak to your health team and ask if you could have a simple shapes test if coeliac comes back negative.... You swallow a capsule which contains shapes on 3 successive days and then go for an xray or two. My food waa digesting so slowly it was solidifying in my stomach... After 5 days all shapes should be out of your body... I think I still had about 58 left in mine!!!

Simple test but not generally thought of by consultants..

There are a couple of other medications that can mimic coeliac symptoms as well - proton pump inhibitors and metformin. Are you on any medications?

You can also have a FODMAPS sensitivity to wheat (not just the gluten component). There is also a condition called non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. So quite a number of possibilities.

Some opoid based analgesia like the cocodomals etc can give bad stomachs.

Worth reading side effects on any meds you are taking..