Do you worry you may have Celiac?  

Unlock your 23andMe health report.

On average it takes anywhere from 6 to 10 years for someone with Celiac Disease to be diagnosed.  For some reason doctors don’t catch it.  The disease has many symptoms that mimic other issues like IBS.  A drug will fix IBS so that seems to be their go to but this misdiagnoses leads to long term damage of the patients small intestine making them unable to absorb any vitamins from their food and their condition slowly worsens.  

You will often see people have started to diagnose themselves with Celiac making it harder for the professionals to do so as once gluten has been taken out of the diet the doctor can’t test for it.  You have to start eating a lot of gluten to test your blood hence making true Celiac sufferers very sick and most give up.  This leaves them in a grey area, they have never been formally diagnosed.

Well good news if you have done 23andMe lately and opted for the health report you can find out if it is genetically possible for you to be a carrier of the Celiac gene and also if you have a chance of developing it as we are born with the gene but we are not all born with the disease. 

Most Celiac patients have the HLA DQ2.5 which is confirmed by SNP rs2187668, though this gene is fairly common among Europeans so again having this does not mean that you have Celiac but it is possible you could develop it in your lifetime; please seek medical advice. 

Here is how you unlock your data and find out if you could possible get Celiac Disease:

Step One: Log into your 23 and me account (You must be signed in for the link to work).

Step Two: Go to Tools.

Step Three: Click on raw data and activate it.

Now lets check your genes:

Check your 23andMe link rs2187668: (most Celiacs have this Gene in combination with the gene below)

CC: – no risk for Celiac unless HLA-DQ8- check below

CT: one allele for HLA-DQ2.5 – Celiac disease is possible

TT: two alleles for HLA-DQ2.5 – Celiac disease is possible

Check your 23andMe Link rs7454108:

CC: two alleles for HLA-DQ8 (Celiac disease is possible)

CT: one allele for HLA-DQ8 (Celiac disease is possible)

TT: wildtype

Increased risk of celiac disease.

Check your 23andMe results for rs601338:

AA: increased risk of celiac

AG: no increased risk

GG: no increased risk

I come from a family of six children, of the six, four of us have Celiac Disease.  When my sisters were diagnosed in the 1970’s in Ireland the doctor at the time informed my mother (lucky for us she is a nurse) that two or more of her children would likely develop Celiac, he was correct,  four of us have Celiac Disease.  Since our diagnoses our first cousins, nieces and nephews also have the been diagnosed with the disease.

They have found genes that will tell you if your siblings have a higher risk of also developing the disease.

 Link for 23 and me results for rs1464510:

AA: increased risk of celiac

AC: increased risk of celiac

CC: no increased risk

Link for 23 and me 23andMe results for rs842647:

AA: increased risk of celiac

AG: increased risk of celiac

GG: no increased risk

Link for 23andMe results for rs2816316:

AA: increased risk of celiac

AC: increased risk of celiac

CC: no increased risk