Can you imagine living in fear of a bread crumb?

It sounds crazy, but it is a sad reality for millions of Americans. One in every 133 people suffers from celiac disease, and most of them haven’t even been properly diagnosed. That can lead to long-term health complications.

Researchers are working on vaccine therapy to help those with celiac disease, but the first step is spreading awareness and getting a proper diagnosis. Any Lab Test Now can help with that. The Celiac, IBS, Crohn’s Test can help you determine if you have celiac disease or some other gastrointestinal disorder so that you can treat your symptoms properly.

What is celiac disease?

Celiac disease is NOT an allergy — it’s an autoimmune disorder that’s triggered when a sufferer eats gluten. That culprit is a protein that you’ll find in a lot of foods and in some other very unexpected places. It’s found in wheat, barley, rye, and other grains, so people most often think of breads, dough, cakes, pasta, and cereals. But celiac sufferers have to be real detectives! That’s because gluten can be found in a wide range of ingestible stuff, like medications and toothpaste — even lipsticks and envelope glue! 

When someone with celiac ingests something with gluten, their body overreacts and their intestines are ground zero. They’ll often experience stomach pain and nausea, but the reaction can also include: 

  • Diarrhea or constipation
  • Headaches and fatigue
  • Bone and joint pain
  • Heartburn
  • Itchy rashes
  • Anemia
  • Mouth ulcers

What’s happening inside your small intestine is slow to develop, but devastating over time. The villi that line your small intestine are damaged with every reaction. Eventually, they won’t be able to absorb nutrients from your food.

The damage to the undiagnosed.

For the millions of people walking around with undiagnosed celiac disease, the damage is growing. The Celiac, IBS, Crohn’s Test (sometimes referred to as the CICA Test) measures your gut health on the genetic, antibody, and cellular levels, taking these often hard-to-diagnose diseases down to the most in-depth levels so you can get to the bottom of your symptoms. The CICA includes the following tests:

  • Genetic – HLA Typing for Celiac Disease (HLA-DQ2.5 AND HLA-DQ8; ATB16L1 + N0D20) – The genetic testing portion of the profile determines the likelihood that what you are suffering is celiac disease, as opposed to gluten intolerance. 95 percent of people who have either the HLA-DQ2.5 OR HLA-DQ8 genes will have celiac disease.
  • Antibody/Serological – This test will indicate whether specific antibodies are missing and others have developed. This could cause damage to the small intestine and can indicate the presence of celiac disease as well as differentiate between ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, both of which have similar symptoms to celiac disease.
  • Total Serum IgA
  • Tissue Transgluatminase Antibody (tTG) – IgA and IgG
  • Deamidated Gliadin Peptide  (DGP) Antibody – IgA and IgG
  • Anti-Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Antibody (ASCA)

You don’t need a doctor’s order to take the test, but if your CICA Test comes back indicating celiac disease, it’s a good idea to share those results with your doctor so you can get professional guidance on how to best move forward.

What you don’t know can hurt you.

Celiac disease can develop at any age. If you leave it undiagnosed and untreated, you could leave yourself open to some additional serious health problems down the road. These include:

  • Type 1 diabetes
  • Multiple sclerosis
  • Osteoporosis
  • Infertility
  • Miscarriage
  • Epilepsy
  • Migraines
  • Intestinal cancers

If you’re suffering from abdominal discomfort or have a family history of celiac disease, it may well be worth considering the Celiac, IBS, Crohn’s Test at your nearby Any Lab Test Now. There may not be a cure, but with a proper diagnosis, there can be relief.