CRP and ANA blood test-reintroduce gluten?

[User987]

Hi all,

Wondering if anyone had any opinions/thoughts on my current dilemma.

Short context (I've posted once before): I haven't felt well since the last week of August this year. I think I have Hashimotos. My GP says my TSH is normal (2 tests at 3.28 and 3.3 range 0.27-4.20) my T4 and T3 are normal (14.4 on 2 tests range 13-22 and 4.6 and 5.4 range 3.1-6.8) and that my positive TgAb (300+ twice) is not clinically significant. I'm negative for TPO.

She does however agree that it sounds autoimmune so I'm having tests for general inflammation and antibodies (I'm 90 % sure she said CRP and ANA, but it could be something else) amongst other things in 5 days. She wanted to do coeliac but I've been trialling a GF diet for the last 2 months.

I want these tests to be as high/bad as possible so I can get some treatment/furher investigation/referral to a specialist because I feel so awful, my quality of life has plummeted.

So I was considering reintroducing gluten before these tests. I think gluten free has helped me (not 100% sure, was planning on reintroducing at 6 months to see) so I'm weighing up the potential of feeling worse by doing this and it not actually making any difference to my tests? Any thoughts/opinions?

(As an aside, my ferritin, vit D and B12 were all low in range, I've been supplementing with this forum's recommended items and retesting that too)

Thanks so much for any thoughts. I've learnt so much already from this forum has

[userotc]

If I understand correctly, my thought process and approach would be different. If you are sure that GF helps (by all means switch back just to check), I would consider that as the "treatment" although there may be other natural solutions to add.

Your different approach is inviting the GP to prescribe you medication - which is all that they do. Not for me.

[User987 in reply to userotc]

Thanks for your thoughts.

Unfortunately, just going gluten free hasn't been enough of a 'treatment' for me- although I feel on average better without it (I think), I'm still unable to function like a normal human being.

I'm going to reintroduce now and see what happens.

[userotc in reply to User987]

Whilst I'm no thyroid expert (personally not diagnosed), I think Isabella Wentz is and I believe it's worthwhile evaluating your risk of being hypo using THEA thyroidpharmacist.com/artic....

My belief is you may be able to recover naturally if your thyroid is not shot - and there has been some agreement on that on this forum. Hence I personally would try that first.

[Violetta25]

You'd definitely have to start eating gluten if she is testing you for coeliac disease. I believe an intolerance to gluten is often associated with one of the arthritis illnesses so it maybe she's checking you for a number of things to rule that out.

[User987 in reply to Violetta25]

Thanks for your thoughts.

I'm not doing the coeliac test at this point- the coeliac society says you need to have been eating gluten for 6 weeks before a test. I didn't get it before I stopped (probably mistakenly but who knows) because I was so desperate to feel better I couldn't wait. But I'm going to reintroduce now as an experiment and see what happens.

[Cooper27]

In theory, you should eat gluten for 6 weeks before being tested, but as you cut gluten out so recently, you could probably get away with 2 weeks.

It actually takes a really long time for coeliac antibodies to fall back within normal range. If you are coeliac, your antibodies could potentially still be over range (if they were high to begin with). If they weren't all that high to begin with, you'd potentially be within normal range again by now, which is why I think you'd need to reintroduce gluten for a spell.

2 months off gluten is plenty time to establish if you are intolerant.

Aside from that, you appear under-medicated. Your TSH should be 1 or below if you're optimally medicated. T4 and T3 should be in the upper third of the range.

If your TgAb are over range, you have Hashimotos, so your doctor is incorrect to say your thyroid is not autoimmune.

[phirestar]

My own thoughts/opinion: if you are going to reintroduce gluten, use only organic products. I happen to be a believer in the roundup/glysophate problem and ramifications. This is not generally addressed in any of the non gluten suggestions from most sources and I’m not aware of any study that have differentiated organ vs conventional grown particularly as it pertains to crops in the USA. You’ll sometimes read about eating ‘clean’ and references to organic but not a reason as to why. Most common glysophate/roundup crops in USA: wheat, corn, sugar, soy. There are more and you can google info.