In email exchanges with readers, I often make the careful suggestion to discuss the intimate and technical details of their possible celiac disease symptoms with their doctors.
Unfortunately, I’ve come to realize many people enduring problems with gluten don’t seem to trust conventional doctors.
This is unfortunate, but I understand why. Celiac disease is still one of the lesser understood diseases and many primary care physicians or internists still seem a little behind in their understanding of it, or at least in their willingness to proactively consider a celiac disease diagnosis. For example, take a look at how often celiac disease symptoms go undiagnosed.
But I hope this clean and simple celiac disease symptom checker will empower readers to visit their doctor with a clear document of their symptoms and how they might relate to gluten intolerance.
Navigate my explanations or skip down to the checklist:
- Why This Celiac Disease Checklist Is Needed
- What Makes A Useful Celiac Disease Symptoms Checklist
- Celiac Disease Symptoms Checklist
- How to Grade Your Celiac Disease Checklist Results
Why This Celiac Disease Checklist Is Needed
My hope for this celiac disease symptoms checklist is to arm you with information you can take to your doctor. If your profile fulfills several of the areas of the checklist, you will be armed with the “what and why” to take to your doctor so you can encourage him or her to at least actively pursue the possibility of a celiac disease diagnosis. In some cases, at least your doctor may refer you to a gastroenterologist for specialized care or diagnosis consideration.
Please note this checklist isn’t meant to be used as a tool to persuade anyone (yourself or your doctor) that you have celiac disease.
Some of you may be hoping to see a simple checklist of symptoms here. While my hope is that what you find below will be relatively concise and simple, I’m afraid diagnosing celiac disease symptoms isn’t as simple as comparing a list of symptoms against your own. Celiac disease manifests itself in widely varying ways in different people and it is often asymptomatic, which means it may not exhibit obvious symptoms at all.
So I cover three areas doctors and researchers experienced with this condition use to identify a potential celiac disease diagnosis.
What Makes A Useful Celiac Disease Symptoms Checklist?
This checklist will provide three distinct sections to help you determine your risk (or your child’s risk) for celiac disease:
- Family history of celiac disease or gastrointestinal problems, autoimmune problems or conditions like anemia or osteoporosis. This will include existing diagnoses in direct relatives (mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter) of specific autoimmune diseases or associated conditions related to an increased risk of celiac disease.
- Existing diagnoses you have (or your child has), which may indicate a greater possibility of a celiac disease diagnosis. For example, someone with either type 1 or type 2 Diabetes is at much greater risk for celiac disease. This will also include possible misdiagnoses masking a potential case of celiac disease, the most common and obvious one being Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).
- Celiac Disease Symptoms: And finally a relatively concise list of the most common celiac disease symptoms in children and celiac disease symptoms in adults.
If you subscribe to my free newsletter (it really is completely free), I provide the checklist in the form of a PDF booklet ebook. This isn’t necessary, but some people prefer an isolated ebook they can print and take to their doctor. To subscribe just add your email to the subscription form in the sidebar to the right and click on the “Sign Up Now” button.
Celiac Disease Symptoms Checklist
Section 1: Your Family History
Section 1A – Associated Autoimmune Disorders:
If any immediate family members (mother, father, sister, brother, daughter or son) have been diagnosed with the following, place a check for each family member next to the listed condition. So place one check if just one family member has been diagnosed with the condition, or two checks if two family members have been diagnosed with that condition, etc.
___ Addison’s Disease
___ Chronic Urticaria
___ Crohn’s Disease
___ Diabetes Mellitus (Type I Diabetes)
___ Eczema
___ Fibromyalgia
___ Irritable Bowel Syndrome
___ Inflammatory Bowel Disease
___ Lactose Intolerance
___ Multiple Sclerosis
___ Osteoporosis or Osteopenia
___ Psoriasis
___ Rheumatoid Arthritis
___ Sjögren’s Syndrome
___ Thyroid Disease (hypo or hyper)
___ Ulcerative Colitis
___ Unexplained Contact Dermatitis
Section 1B: Directly Related Conditions
Again, place a check for each immediate family member diagnosed with any of the following conditions in the space next to the condition.
___ Celiac Disease
___ Dermatitis Herpetiformis
___ Gluten Intolerance
___ Wheat Allergy
Section 2: Your Medical History
Place a check in the space next to any condition you currently have or have had at any point. For the most accurate results, please only place a check next to each condition formally diagnosed by a doctor.
Section 2A – Diagnoses That Increase Your Risk Factor:
___ Addison’s Disease
___ Cancer of the Small Intestine
___ Chronic Urticaria
___ Diabetes Mellitus (Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes)
___ Eczema
___ Fibromyalgia
___ Infertility
___ Lactose Intolerance
___ Multiple Sclerosis
___ Osteoporosis or Osteopenia
___ Peripheral Neuropathy
___ Psoriasis
___ Rheumatoid Arthritis
___ Sjögren’s Syndrome
___ Thyroid Disease (hypo or hyper)
___ Unexplained Contact Dermatitis
Section 2B – Diagnoses That May Be Masking Celiac Disease
___ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
___ Crohn’s Disease
___ Dermatitis Herpetiformis
___ GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease)
___ Irritable Bowel Syndrome
___ Inflammatory Bowel Disease
___ Nervous Stomach (Non-ulcer Dyspepsia)
___ Ulcerative Colitis
___ Wheat Allergy
Section 3: Celiac Disease Symptoms
Aside from failure-to-thrive, almost all these symptoms may occur in either adults or children. This is not meant to be a 100 percent complete list of symptoms. There are over 250 verified possible symptoms of celiac disease and the list just keeps growing. Instead, this is meant to be a high-risk or high-likelihood set of symptoms your doctor can evaluate alongside the other risk factors listed in this checklist.
Place a check next to each symptom you have experienced regularly (about once or more a week) for the last three months.
___ Abdominal Distention
___ Bloating
___ Bruising Easily
___ Constant Unexplained Fatigue
___ Constipation
___ Diarrhea or Runny Stools
___ Failure to Thrive (Children)
___ Foul-Smelling Stools or Fatty, Floating Stools
___ Frequent Headaches or Migraines
___ Frequent, Loud Stomach Rumbling or Growling
___ Gas or Stomach Cramping
___ Grayish Stools
___ Heartburn
___ Joint Pain
___ Pallor (unhealthy pale appearance)
___ Panic Attacks
___ Stomach or Intestinal Pain
___ Tingling or Numbness in Extremities
___ Unexplained or Unusual Muscle Weakness
___ Unexplained Skin Lesions
___ Weight Loss
How to Grade Your Celiac Disease Checklist Results
I keep trying to simplify the grading, but there are still some quirks to it, so read carefully.
You and your doctor should consider testing for celiac disease if:
- You have any checks in section 1B AND any checks in section 3.
- You have two or more checks in section 1A AND any checks in section 3.
- You have two or more checks in section 2B AND any checks in section 3.
- You have at least one check in sections 1A AND 2B.
- You have checks in each of the three main sections (Family History, Medical History and Symptoms Sections).
- You have 3 or more checks in any single section, including both subsections of a section (so 1 in 2a plus 2 in 2b would be 3 checks in section 2).
Remember, if you grade yourself as “at risk” based on this celiac disease symptoms checklist, it doesn’t diagnose you. It just means a diagnosis of celiac disease should be explored as a possibility for your condition.