Do you have symptoms of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease?
It happens more often than not: you eat a plate of pasta and suddenly you experience abdominal pain, bloating, or, worse, diarrhea. And as if that’s not bad enough, you find yourself feeling exhausted or dizzy after eating rice for lunch, or you might even see bumps appearing on the back of your arms.
If all these symptoms sound familiar to you whenever you eat carbs like bread, pizza, pasta, or anything with wheat, you might have gluten sensitivity. But before completely cutting gluten out of your diet, you need to get all possible information first to help you explain to your doctor what your body’s been going through.
Wait, what makes bread rise may cause my gut to swell?
“Gluten is needed in bread so it can rise during baking. It has the same effect in the body, but in this case, the intestine is the one that undergoes swelling as a result of inflammation,” according to Dr. Paulita “Pinky” Baclig, M.D., a Health Optimization Medicine Consultant at BioBalance. When the gut is inflamed, it cannot properly absorb the necessary nutrients from food, which leads to even bigger health problems due to nutrient deficiency. When this progresses, an inflamed gut will become much more porous than it should be, and as a result, certain unnecessary items get absorbed, such as bacteria, fungi, and toxic elements, leading to “leaky gut syndrome.”
Carb-rich foods may be able to provide the energy that your body needs, but the unfortunate truth is that not everybody can process gluten correctly.
How do I know if I’m gluten-sensitive?
To check if you are gluten-sensitive, what you can immediately do is observe how you feel after you eat a certain food known to contain gluten. The body’s reaction can be specific to the gut (bloating, gas, stomach pain, diarrhea, and vomiting) or even related to your mood or brain (poor concentration and fatigue).
However, the best way is to be tested to scientifically assess if you are sensitive to gluten or have celiac disease (an extreme auto-immune condition caused by the small intestine’s hypersensitivity to gluten).
Celiac and Gluten Sensitivity Profile Test
BioBalance offers a thorough assessment called “Celiac and Gluten Sensitivity Profile Test,” which profiles a patient in terms of gluten sensitivity and celiac disease probability.
The test measures a person’s gluten sensitivity by looking into the patient’s reaction to gliadin (peptides that form gluten). The test also checks the patient’s blood for total IgA and IgA specific antibodies for possible celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.
Below are the six markers of the test.
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- Total IgA. The test checks your blood to make sure you have the correct amount of immunoglobulin, an antibody with immune functions. If there is a deficiency, the test will look into whether or not you are genetically predisposed to celiac disease.
- Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase IgA (tTGA IgA) and Anti-Deamidated Gliadian IgA (DGP IgA). If you test positive for these markers, then you most likely have celiac disease.
- EMA IgA. This is the most sensitive of all tests. When the iTG and DGP are positive, the reflex test of the EMA IgA is performed to confirm whether or not the patient has celiac disease.
- Anti-Gliadin IgA and Anti-Gliadin IgG are used to check the wheat and gluten sensitivity of patients who don’t have celiac disease. They are also monitoring tools for patients who suffer from celiac disease.
Undergoing tests to check for celiac disease and gluten sensitivity tells you directly whether you are predisposed to these conditions or if you already have either one of these conditions. If all indicators say yes, then it’s time to consult your physician and nutritionist on how to reduce or cut out gluten from your diet.
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For inquiries on Celiac & Gluten Sensitivity Test, contact our BioBalance Wellness Concierge.
Email: concierge@biobalanceinstitute.com
Phone: +632-8650-4858
Mobile: +63917-521-4860
