possibly becoming gluten sensitive

2baninja

For the past week, I've been having a mild belly ache, off and on, I've finally decided I'm feeling bloated. It only happens after some meals, so I've begun tracking what foods make me feel off, then I'll try an elimination diet. The only real symptom I've got is the bloating, though reading about gluten sensitivity online, I do have other symptoms they talk about, but I've had those for years...

My question, those of you out there that are sensitive to gluten, how did it start? Did it start with mild bloating/belly discomfort? Did it get worse? Did it just start out of the blue? How old were you when it started, I turn 50 in Feb.
I'm not talking full on Celtic Disease or Crohns, just a mild intolerance.

I asked my Dr and he said the only way to tell for sure is the elimination diet, so we'll see.

Thanks all.

shaumom

Ok, so first- ALL food intolerance can have basically similar symptoms. So if your symptoms are a sign of an intolerance, that could be to dairy, tonlactose, to gluten, to potatoes, etc...

In other words, the only reason you are seeing these symtpoms come up online as gluten intolerance is because THAT intolerance is popular, but in reality, the symptoms should be listed as ‘possible food intolerance.’ And elimination diets DO help figure those out.

That said- these symptoms are also exactly the same for celiac disease. In fact, sometimes a gluten intolerance can have worse symptoms than celiac disease (my family has had this disease for 3 generations now so we have seen a wide range of how it can present.)

The first test for celiac disease is a blood test. One which can ONLY detect the disease if you have accumulated biomarkers of a reaction TO gluten , and it takes at least a couple months of daily reactions to get to the correct level to be detected by the tests. So if you stop eating gluten, the test quickly becomes useless until you get back ON gluten for a couple months so you damage your body enough for the tests to work again.

Which is why, if you have intolerance-like symptoms and are thinking gluten might be involved, doctors should never, ever recommend going off of gluten and instead test you for celiac disease first and THEN have you eliminate gluten. Except sadly, many doctors don’t know how the tests work and screw this up, to the patient’s detriment( literally around 40% of GI doctors taking a survey quiz on celiac disease were unaware of this issue with the testing. And these are the experts on the disease. :-/ ).

As to speed and such. For both celiac disease and gluten intolerance. It can come on suddenly or slowly. It can trigger at any age, from infancy to 110. It can start with a huge variety of symptoms, from bloating and stomach discomfort to fatigue to pain and the lost goes on. There may have been signs before of problems or it is completely out of the blue. Sometimes it gets worse and sometimes it seems to just kind of stay at bleh level for years or decades.

As an example, my father was diagnosed in his fifties but his symtpoms were around since his later 20’s. I was diagnosed in my thirties but had symptoms since I was a teen. My kids were diagnosed as teens, but one had problems since she. Was a toddler. But my brother, who only got tested because I came back positive, was diagnosed in his thirties and didn’t even have symptoms of any kind yet.

laurabini

Mine started a few years ago but became really bad in the last 6 months. It wasn't really out of the blue, as I have ibs, but it seemed like my ibs symptoms became way worse. I was always bloated, tired, dizzy, gassy and my bowel movement were all over the place (tmi sorry! But it is a relevant factor).
I stopped eating wheat for a month, felt better, then reintroduced it one day and boom..all the nasty symptoms came back.

Definitely try the elimination diet!

2baninja

Thank you both,

I'm trying the gluten elimination first, we'll see how that goes, though as of this morning, I have the belly ache, and I've eaten no gluten, though it took longer to take effect then it has, it didn't hit me till 2 hours after eating, instead of immediately...

The only thing that has been the same every morning is Soy Milk....
So I may drop that for a couple days and see what happens, but I'm wondering if it could still be gluten, just not out of my system enough yet....

Oh well, we'll see.

MikePfirrman

I honestly didn't think I had an issue with gluten. I lost all my weight while eating bread. I had rashes, some aches and pains and occasionally would feel really bloated. My wife developed Fibromyalgia and I stopped eating gluten as a support for her. Now, if we ever get gluten accidentally, I get really sick (and a "celiac rash" -- bad rash on my rear end!). She doesn't. It has helped, we think, with her pain tremendously (along with many other things she has done). But many times once you go off something for a while and then reintroduce it is the best way to know.

I haven't gone through testing but believe it's not just gluten with me but wheat sensitivity. I was highly allergic to grass growing up -- if I played outside and touched grass it would literally look like someone had whipped me wherever the grass touched my skin. Wheat is a type of grass, so duh, maybe I should have figured that out a bit sooner. I went to my 35 year high school reunion this year and when I told a buddy that I can't drink beer any longer (but cider doesn't bother me), he reminded me of one time years ago I had a terrible rash after drinking beer one night, so there are times the signs have been there for years and in my case, I just kind of ignored it.

fitoverfortymom

2baninja wrote: »

Thank you both,

I'm trying the gluten elimination first, we'll see how that goes, though as of this morning, I have the belly ache, and I've eaten no gluten, though it took longer to take effect then it has, it didn't hit me till 2 hours after eating, instead of immediately...

The only thing that has been the same every morning is Soy Milk....
So I may drop that for a couple days and see what happens, but I'm wondering if it could still be gluten, just not out of my system enough yet....

Oh well, we'll see.

I would ask for a Celiac blood test before you are too far away from gluten. It can be hard to get a positive diagnosis after eliminating it.

ETA: While gluten intolerance and Celiac have similar treatments, the level of strictness regarding avoidance varies great between the conditions. It's important to know for sure.

2baninja

MikePfirrman wrote: »

I honestly didn't think I had an issue with gluten. I lost all my weight while eating bread. I had rashes, some aches and pains and occasionally would feel really bloated. My wife developed Fibromyalgia and I stopped eating gluten as a support for her. Now, if we ever get gluten accidentally, I get really sick (and a "celiac rash" -- bad rash on my rear end!). She doesn't. It has helped, we think, with her pain tremendously (along with many other things she has done). But many times once you go off something for a while and then reintroduce it is the best way to know.

I haven't gone through testing but believe it's not just gluten with me but wheat sensitivity. I was highly allergic to grass growing up -- if I played outside and touched grass it would literally look like someone had whipped me wherever the grass touched my skin. Wheat is a type of grass, so duh, maybe I should have figured that out a bit sooner. I went to my 35 year high school reunion this year and when I told a buddy that I can't drink beer any longer (but cider doesn't bother me), he reminded me of one time years ago I had a terrible rash after drinking beer one night, so there are times the signs have been there for years and in my case, I just kind of ignored it.

We all tend to ignore or "forget" about things we don't want to change. Reading about other symptoms of gluten sensitivity, I can see I have a few of them, but it's not till I'm in pain that I start thinking about searching for a cause...

missiontofitness

2baninja wrote: »

Thank you both,

I'm trying the gluten elimination first, we'll see how that goes, though as of this morning, I have the belly ache, and I've eaten no gluten, though it took longer to take effect then it has, it didn't hit me till 2 hours after eating, instead of immediately...

The only thing that has been the same every morning is Soy Milk....
So I may drop that for a couple days and see what happens, but I'm wondering if it could still be gluten, just not out of my system enough yet....

Oh well, we'll see.

I wouldn't try an elimination diet on your own. This is something you should have doctor supervision with, especially if you are trying to locate a problem item in your diet.

2baninja

fitoverfortymom wrote: »

2baninja wrote: »

Thank you both,

I'm trying the gluten elimination first, we'll see how that goes, though as of this morning, I have the belly ache, and I've eaten no gluten, though it took longer to take effect then it has, it didn't hit me till 2 hours after eating, instead of immediately...

The only thing that has been the same every morning is Soy Milk....
So I may drop that for a couple days and see what happens, but I'm wondering if it could still be gluten, just not out of my system enough yet....

Oh well, we'll see.

I would ask for a Celiac blood test before you are too far away from gluten. It can be hard to get a positive diagnosis after eliminating it.

ETA: While gluten intolerance and Celiac have similar treatments, the level of strictness regarding avoidance varies great between the conditions. It's important to know for sure.

well to late.... someone else made that comment, but I just had blood work done and my new insurance doesn't cover as much of it, so we'll do blood work later if this doesn't work...

2baninja

missiontofitness wrote: »

2baninja wrote: »

Thank you both,

I'm trying the gluten elimination first, we'll see how that goes, though as of this morning, I have the belly ache, and I've eaten no gluten, though it took longer to take effect then it has, it didn't hit me till 2 hours after eating, instead of immediately...

The only thing that has been the same every morning is Soy Milk....
So I may drop that for a couple days and see what happens, but I'm wondering if it could still be gluten, just not out of my system enough yet....

Oh well, we'll see.

I wouldn't try an elimination diet on your own. This is something you should have doctor supervision with, especially if you are trying to locate a problem item in your diet.

I did comment to him about trying it, he had no problems with me giving it a try.