What is the best way to be tested for Celiac Disease?

Shana,

Thanks for your question and welcome to EmpowHer!

Your doctor should be able to test you for celiac disease with a simple blood test, and you'd find out the results sooner than by keeping a food diary (although that's an excellent suggestion). Here's a page that talks about celiac disease testing. Be sure to note that there are more buttons across the top of this page with links to things like FAQs and more details about the test:

http://www.labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/celiac_disease/glance.html

Here's our EmpowHer encyclopedia page about celiac disease:

https://www.empowher.com/media/reference/celiac-disease#definition

And here's a very informative page on celiac disease and how it works:

http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/

Here are some of the other symptoms of celiac disease from the NIH page:

•unexplained iron-deficiency anemia
•fatigue
•bone or joint pain
•arthritis
•bone loss or osteoporosis
•depression or anxiety
•tingling numbness in the hands and feet
•seizures
•missed menstrual periods
•infertility or recurrent miscarriage
•canker sores inside the mouth
•an itchy skin rash called dermatitis herpetiformis

Do any of those symptoms sound familiar to you? Or are your symptoms pretty much digestive only?

You might find this U.S. News & World Report article helpful. It is titled "Seven Common Digestive Problems and How To End Them," and it deals with reflux, ulcers, gallstones, lactose intolerance, diverticulitis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and constipation:

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/digestive-disorders/2008/11/19/7-common-digestive-problems-and-how-to-end-them.html

It does not deal with celiac disease directly, but it also has a link to an article about gluten-free diets:

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/digestive-disorders/2008/10/31/gluten-free-diet-a-cure-for-some-a-fad-for-most.html?s_cid=related-links:TOP

Does some of this information help? Can you make a doctor's appointment for a blood test and find out if you have celiac's disease?

I went to a kinesiologist (an alternative medicine type) who tested me. I'm sure there are tests with traditional medicine.

However, my best advice is to gut out gluten and see how that works for you. You should keep a food diary to track what you eat and how your body feels during the day. If you react to gluten, it can affect how your body reacts to other foods as well.

Interestingly, you might react less to gluten based food grown in other parts of the world. I have found I react less in Europe (still some, but not nearly as much)