Why is diagnosing gluten allergy so difficult?
The gold standard to test for celiac disease is an intestinal biopsy. This is a procedure where you are sedated and a camera attached to a long flexible tube is placed into your digestive tract. A small sample of the intestine is removed, also called a biopsy, and sent for testing. A pathologist will check for villous atrophy. Intestinal Villi are small projections that stick out from the intestinal wall. They increase the surface area of the intestine many times over in order to absorb the maximum number of nutrients possible. Villous atrophy is the term used when the intestinal villi have become so damaged that they appear flat. This phenomenon of The Immune System destroying the intestinal villi has been described as the same effect as someone taking a blow torch to a grass lawn! NOT good for nutrient absorption. However, the problem with using this method as the Gold Standard for diagnosing celiac disease is that you must have rather severe gastrointestinal symptoms to even HAVE th
