Gluten free, Darn It.

Yesterday I realised that I had to stop playing around with a gluten free diet and get serious about it. This was something I did not want to do. Although I have had a sneaking suspicion that I had a wheat/gluten sensitivity, it was only last week that I remembered that I had already had a positive blood test taken in 2001. The doctor at the time tiold me this wasn't important and dismissed it. Now I read that a positive IgA test menas that I have gluten sensitivity and that if I want to be healthy I should do something about it immediately.

Here is an extract from an email that I sent to a testing centre in the United States;

The IgA blood test that came out positive confirmed that you are sensitive to the gluten protein therefore, you should permanently remove gluten from your diet. The IgG test that was negative was to confirm an allergy not a sensitivity. There is a big difference between the two. If you are allergic to a food your body will produce the IgG or the IgE antibody and the symptoms are usually short lived. It is also possible to build up a tolerance to these foods over time and eventually reintroduce them into your diet. This is not possible with a food sensitivity. If you are sensitive to a food protein, your body does not have nor will it ever have the capability of breaking down and digesting the protein. This causes your immune system to begin producing the IgA antibody at above normal levels, thereby giving you a positive blood test. Once this process begins, the only way to stop it is to permanently remove the food from your diet. If you do not this can begin a "domino effect" of other health issues you could develope as a direct result of gluten sensitivity

So there it is! Now I have to take it seriously and I am not happy Jan. Not happy at all.