Gluten allrergy/celiac

[Anonymous]

I keep hearing people talk about their gluten allergy or celiac diagnosis by saying they just felt sick every time they ate it. Can someone describe for me what that really means? How did you feel sick? What specifically triggered it? I'm wondering if this is something worth looking into for myself. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Not everyone gets an immediate reaction from eating wheat even if they have celiac disease, which is autoimmune.

My mom has celiac disease. For her, bad food reactions looked like a dairy intolerance, e.g., blow out diarrhea b/c the cilia in her intestines weren't working properly in digesting food. Other people get symptoms like edema or depression that seem completely unrelated to the food they're eating.

If you suspect you have a gluten allergy or celiac, keep eating wheat and get your blood tested at your doctor's office or allergist. This is the only way to know for certain. (If it's negative you may have a gluten sensitivity and your doctor can recommend diet changes.)

[Anonymous]

University of MD has the mecca of celiac research and info on gluten sensitivity:
http://www.celiaccenter.org/

[Anonymous]

Mine was dx'd a couple of years ago when I was under enormous stress in my life. I lost 20 lbs, from 135 to 115 at 5'7 - - I finally got my butt in to rule out some form of cancer when I started looking gaunt, feeling sick every time I ate food, had ZERO energy, could not concentrate or learn new information, and had unexplained numbness in my arms.

I was eating tons of gluten, not knowing I had celiac of course. I'd eat mini wheats for breakfast, PBJ for lunch, and pasta or bread with dinner, plus cookies/chips/etc throughout the day. For me, the sick feeling is what did me in. I would literally have to talk to myself after eating, reminding myself "You do NOT have the flu, you are not getting sick, you do not have a fever, and this happens EVERY time you eat". I'd have to go lay down for 30 mins until the extreme nausea to the point of clamminess would pass, and then go back to work at my desk.

By ignoring that signal for 4-5 months, the rapid weight loss caused all the other symptoms by starving out my brain cells. I had diarrhea or close to it nearly all the time, but that had always been kind of normal for me. It just got more frequent as I got sicker.

I saw Dr. Charabouty at Georgetown (wonderful doctor!) who didn't look for Celiac right away, but I specifically asked her to test for it after coming to DCUM with a post like yours and so many here suggested to get tested for it. Turns out they had never seen a blood test react so positively on all three markers for the antigen, they pretty much knew I had it and an upper/lower endoscopy confirmed the damage was extensive.

It's been 2 years now gluten-free, and I feel so much better. The other thing you might try is to stop eating ALL gluten for 2-3 days and see how you feel. I had such a dramatic improvement within 72 hours, it was like that Claritin commercial where they pull away the filminess of the picture and everything becomes crystal clear... I wasn't utterly exhausted suddenly, the exhausted feeling just evaporated.

But then go back to eating wheat for at least two weeks if you think you might have it, otherwise your blood work will be screwed up (false negative) if you go GF too close to testing.

Good luck!