Celiac Disease - One of the most incorrectly diagnosed conditions world-wide

You guessed it. I’m a Celiac. And like 100% (I dare to say 100%) of all Celiacs, I have been misdiagnosed half a dozen of times.
Today it’s the liver, tomorrow it’s the mind (yeah I was called hypochondriac indirectly once too, so has been almost every Celiac from what I hear everyday), then it’s the gut, then it can be IBS, then it might be Chron’s Disease… arg!

My advice to the doctors: STOP IT. Stop trying to prove you know something and start listening to people. Accept your mistakes and start looking at your patients CORRECTLY before daring to diagnose something you aren’t even sure the person has got! I am so tired of hearing these stories, really! It’s frustrating. How incompetent can a doctor be?

Today I met a new Celiac (a 25 year old girl), she has been diagnosed IBS by 3 doctors in a row. She didn’t even have half the symptoms of it.
Celiac disease screening was completely “out of question” because according to her doctor she didn’t present “enough symptoms” for it. He even said that it could be due to her hormones… Lovely! Let’s blame your gender for it!

She started a gluten-free diet just right after that answer - how many of us did?
Guess what, within not even 2 weeks she was almost symptom free. Now how cool is that?
Irritability gone, behavioral changes gone, indigestion symptoms <almost> gone, anxiety greatly reduced.

Let’s hope that one day we can actually do something about these doctors. As one portuguese politician said a few weeks ago on a TV show (unrelated to this but I loved this phrase and really gotta quote it):

• “I believe people have to learn.”

Doctors really should start to take more responsibility for their patients. I cannot emphasize this enough. Most of them have the real luxury of even prescribing you totally incorrect medication and still get away with it. This is totally unacceptable, especially in the EU and the US!

But who am I to say this? I am a recently-diagnosed Celiac, who has been treated for 3 different conditions for the past 3 or 4 years.
It all started when I was 14 or so - triggered by H. Pylori - which unfortunately for me was an excuse for all doctors to prescribe me antacids for too long.

Today I know that I could have got 2 or 3 diseases from antiacid abuse (glad to say I only took them when I really needed it). I was clever and feel blessed for it now.

Let’s start to do something about, urgently - please!
Help to spread the word!

Sites of particular interest on this disease:

• Celiac.com
• Celiac Disease Foundation
• Mayo Clinic
• Family Doctor
• MedLine Plus (US National Library of Medicine)
• WrongDiagnosis.com

Thanks!