# shortened villi?



## mrae (Apr 28, 2009)

When my biopsy for celiac was done it showed my villi was shortened or blunt. Does anyone know what this means? My doc hasn't really said anything to me about it since he called me and let me know my celiac came back negative. I was just wondering what other reasons could cause this.


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## Jenthehen (Jan 17, 2010)

Hi MraeSorry cannot tell you why you Villi is short, but know that my Father who has Celiac disease he had no Villi in his stomach. After following the wheat and gluten free diet for six months and then when he was next scoped the villi had started to grow back. He was very poorly before his diagnosis and lost a lot of weight.I am looking for advice for my Husband who has IBS (D). Just thought I would share my Father's experiences, with you.Kind regardsJenny


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## IBSD88 (Mar 23, 2009)

I don't know much about it but i think villi is the stuff in your intestines which helps you get good stuff out of food. so ill presume by having shorterned villi it would mean you get less benefit from food.


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## Reedster (Mar 13, 2010)

I have the exact same thing and im worried about it


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Here some info about Celiac & villi:http://digestive.niddk.nih.gov/ddiseases/pubs/celiac/Also Mrae and Reedster please ask your Dr what this means for each of you and what if anything can be done. Reedster if you have gone gluten fre (COMPLETELY now.. ) and you still have symptoms.. report this to your Dr. Ask what else you can do.


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## mrae (Apr 28, 2009)

I have asked questions about the sortened villi but he said there was nothing to worry about since my celiac came back negative. I don't know what to think about this. I wouldn't think that would just be normal.


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Well it may not be "normal" but if your Dr says he isn't concerned.. I wouldn't be concerned.You might just be gluten sensitive etc.. I don't know.


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## blondeoverblue24 (Oct 20, 2009)

If you have shortened/blunted villi that typically means that you have celiac. Did the doctor say your blood work was negative for celiac or did he say the biopsy was negative for celiac? It's possible (though rare) to have negative blood work and positive scope.


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

I would definitely follow up on that as shortened villi can be a sign of celiac. However I don't know if there is some normal level of shortening that you can see that is sub-clinical. Like is there some range that is normal, some range that is shorter than normal, but may just be anatomical variation and not from a disease and then even shorter than that that is where you call it disease.There are a lot of things that have a "normally abnormal" range if that makes any sense. Like if normal range (set by average +/- 2 standard deviations--so includes ~95% of all healthy controls) is lets make up numbers from 10-12. It may be if you check only diseased people you find they are 3-7. So a value of 8 or 9 is "not normal" but also isn't low enough to be a definite sign of disease and sometimes you find healthy people with that value. I had that with a blood sugar measurement not too long ago. The number was out of the "normal value" range, but wasn't into a range that is typical of disease and so they called it "sub clinical" meaning I'm just at least at that time an outlier of the 95% of people who would fall in the range, but the number wasn't in the range where you see disease.


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## mrae (Apr 28, 2009)

MY FIRST BLOOD WORK SHOWED A POSSIBLE WHEAT ALLERGY. SO WE DID ANOTHER BLOOD TEST ALONG WITH THE BIOPSY. THE BIOPSY SHOWED THE SHORTENED VILLI AND THE BLOOD WORK SHOWED I DON'T HAVE CELIAC. SO I REALLY DON'T KNOW. I HAVENT TRIED GOING GLUTEN FREE FOR VERY LONG BECAUSE I JUST REALLY DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START AND I DON'T EAT ALOT OF MEAT TO BEGIN WITH. SO EVERYTHING I DO IT HAS WHEAT OR GLUTEN IN IT SO I JUST REALLY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. MY DOC SAID I CAN CONTINUE EATING WHEAT BUT REALLY NOTHING HAS CHANGED AS FAR AS MY BATHROOM ISSUES GO ITS THE SAME EVERYDAY I DON'T HAVE STABLE DAYS LIKE OTHERS DO. HOWEVER I DO TAKE LOMOTIL EVERY MORNING AND THAT IS THE ONLY WAY I GET THROUGH MY DAY.


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## BQ (May 22, 2000)

Mrae read this page, it has a ton of good info on Gluten Free Diets: (Tells you specifically what foods are ok and what foods are not)http://www.gicare.com/diets/Gluten-Free.aspxMaybe if you try to at least lessen the amount of it you consume you may see an improvement in your symptoms. It might be worth the effort.All the best


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## Kathleen M. (Nov 16, 1999)

Wheat is NOT the only starch on the planet.Some people have problems with wheat starch so you could try two weeks of eating Rice (which is a cheap starch and a very well tolerated starch) instead of bread. You can get rice crackers and rice cakes if you have to have something starch for snacks.It isn't eat wheat or eat meat and there isn't anything else. Now some gluten free foods do tend to be more expensive, but there are plenty of cheap wheat alternatives (like eating rice instead of bread and using rice cakes) out there.I would ask the doctor about the shortened villi and if they are a meaningless variation or something that needs to be followed up on.


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