Gluten free and reactive symptoms?

[sidmand]

So, I went gluten free and while I can't say anything sudden and obvious, I do feel that my headaches lessened, a friend said my complexion was positively glowing (not pregnant!!), and my weight loss, although not going down, didn't go up (and I was eating this I had discovered were GF, like peanut butter M&Ms, but not calorie-free, so the fact that my weight did not go UP, was good).

But although my stomach was mostly fine before, now if I on purpose or accidentally get "wheated" (which happened by accident yesterday), I get SEVERE stomach pains as well as almost instant fatigue. At least I know gluten IS definitely an issue, but this never happened before. I'm assuming it's connected but has/does it happen to anyone else? When I purposefully ate something I knew I shouldn't it was justified to me that I suffered the consequences. Yesterday I thought everything I ate was GF, but obviously that was not the case.

[wendibird22]

Yep very common. The longer you are GF the more I media and severe the response is likely to be. I have my own condiments, toaster, colander, etc. A crumb in the butter is enough to bloat me up like a pregnant woman and give me the worst fatigue and a migraine two days later. I've carefully checked all my mess and vitamins, use gf lipstick, and changed shampoo and face wash to OTC brands that I know are gf.

Someone once described it to me like a warn out army losing the battle. Give that army a chance to regroup, rest, and reload, and they come back fighting even stronger.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

this happened to my DH and has happened to me. MY DH went gluten free for like 2 weeks and lost like 10 lbs bc he wasn't eating so much bread. then he ate a sandwich and said he had diarrhea...same thing a couple days later when he cheated and ate gluten. he was convinced that eating gluten free was making him more sensitive to wheat and his stomach was losing his ability to process it...he said he could never be strict with it so he stopped it.

for me, i am started to not even crave things with gluten in them and while i didn't have a sudden severe reaction to them i do now if i "cheat". the crazy thing is now i noticed an INCREASED sensitivity to lactose as well (argh). i have just gotten used to eating gluten-free, i think i may lose my ever-loving mind if i have to go dairy-free as well. :irked:

[sidmand]

Yeah, see, I'm about where your DH was...the reaction now is so severe and wasn't before I'm starting to wonder if I should just go back. I told a friend I didn't see that much obvious difference when I went GF but I see it when I make a mistake!

I was never super sensitive but always wondered if it was a problem. So far small amounts seem ok (the same toaster, utensils, etc) but more and I'm in the bathroom and exhausted for a couple of days. :( Like immediately exhausted to the point we joked they had put Tylenol PM in the pizza (before I couldn't joke anymore because I had to run to the bathroom!!).

[hellokitty]

I have had the same issues since I did whole 30 over the summer. The good thing is that it has forced me to be gluten free and I also pretty much avoid dairy too, since I had a bad reaction when I tried to introduce it.

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[wendibird22]

I have read, and had confirmed by my doc, that a person with a "normal" tolerance to gluten will not react negatively once gluten is reintroduced. So, if you do GF and do a gluten challenge and have a noticeable negative reaction that is confirmation of a gluten sensitivity of some sort (not necessarily celiac).

It's kind of like how I can go weeks/months without dairy and then have a glass of milk or ice cream with no ill effect. I'm not lactose intolerant and eliminating dairy doesn't suddenly make me become lactose intolerant. But for someone who truly is lactose intolerant reintroducing lactose will have noticeable effects.

I will say that when I first went GF it took several months (~4) for me to notice significant overall improvement in my health. I tracked, daily, my symptoms (migraine, fatigue, canker sores, heartburn, bloating, etc) and would tally these at the end of each month. By month 4 I could see that while they weren't 100% gone, I had fewer incidents of all of those symptoms. I needed to be 100% GF, with elimination of any cross contamination (toaster, colander, condiments) to see an almost complete elimination of my symptoms. Had I just stopped at eating GF, but not really paying attention to contamination, I would've continued to have reduced but still present symptoms. I had asked my doc why I was seeing some improvement but not complete improvement and the contamination issue was why. I was fooling myself. I wasn't GF, I was gluten light. I was still getting gluten. GF is less than 20 parts per million (PPM) of gluten exposure. One tiny crumb from bread is more than 20ppm.

It was a learning curve for sure. I'd wonder why I was bloated after having a GF meal but had to come to realize that if I dipped my knife in the same peanut butter that DH used to make the kids sandwiches than I wasn't truly eating a GF meal.

[wendibird22]

the crazy thing is now i noticed an INCREASED sensitivity to lactose as well (argh). i have just gotten used to eating gluten-free, i think i may lose my ever-loving mind if i have to go dairy-free as well. :irked:

It's not uncommon for gluten sensitive people to discover other intolerances once they are GF. It's like once the body is relieved from fighting the gluten battle it has time to fight another one. However, most people find these other intolerances are not long lasting. Gluten sensitivity often causes leaky gut which opens the body to other sensitivities. Eliminate gluten, heal the leaky gut, and all those intolerances go away. Reintro the gluten and well, you are back to all those intolerances again. Some people benefit from going lactose free for a few months and slowly reintroducing.

Other common intolerances as a result of gluten sensitivity are soy, nightshades (like tomato, potato, eggplant), corn.

[brittone2]

We aren't 100% gluten free 100% of the time, but we eat it very, very, very rarely. I am sure we are cross exposed a good bit too. We come at it from LC, so I don't do the GF grains like rice either. However, we are almost always gluten free as a result of doing LC.

DH and I both react with some stomach pain to certain gluten containing items. For years I was misdiagnosed by a derm as having a mild, non contagious fungal thing on my arms called tinea versicolor, which is pretty common in southern climates. I was living in NC at that time. I have little irregular spots that become hypopigmented off and on. It is not very noticeable most of the time, but does pick up here and there. Later I went to a different derm (had moved) and I was diagnosed with mild psoriasis. I also have very mild scalp psoriasis, and I've learned over the years that my big triggers are 1) sulfates anywhere near my scalp, as well as several other ingredients and 2) gluten makes my psoriasis flare.

[weech]

The first time I was accidentally "glutened" I was out with friends at a restaurant. I thought the tortilla chips were 100% corn, but it turns out they were 100% flour. I was SO close to telling DH to take me to the hospital because the stomach pain was THAT intense.

The second time was after a 4th of July party where I apparently ate something contaminated that one of my neighbors brought. I had to call out of work the next day due to severe GI issues.

If your body is having that kind of reaction when you eat gluten, I would take it seriously. Eating more gluten is just kind of "numbing" your body's natural response to a negative thing. When you take it away and your body is healing from it, when it's re-introduced, your system hits the panic button.

[sidmand]

Yeah, I know in my head that if I'm having that kind of reaction it's obviously a problem for me. It just really sucks at the moment since I haven't yet seen much by way of benefit so my ROI (return on investment thanks to DH) isn't so great right now. But I expect it will be in time.

[wendibird22]

Yeah, I know in my head that if I'm having that kind of reaction it's obviously a problem for me. It just really sucks at the moment since I haven't yet seen much by way of benefit so my ROI (return on investment thanks to DH) isn't so great right now. But I expect it will be in time.

Maybe try tracking symptoms for a few months. I was in the same boat as you two years ago. Without a celiac diagnosis I doubted if gf was really the right thing. Seeing my symptoms decline month after month was gratifying and kept me on track. I probably kept that up for a solid 6 mos, maybe longer.

ETA: it does get easier. I promise. Now I view gluten like rat poison. I have zero craving or desire for it and I don't feel denied anything. There's plenty of gf foods that are guilty pleasures...wine, ice cream, Reese's pb cups, Fritos. I try not to overcompensate with these things but it does help to know I'm not deprived.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

thank you wendibird for your posts, they are helpful to me too bc while iv'e been trying to do GF for over a year it's only in the past few months that i've been really serious about it.

[AnnieW625]

I have read, and had confirmed by my doc, that a person with a "normal" tolerance to gluten will not react negatively once gluten is reintroduced. So, if you do GF and do a gluten challenge and have a noticeable negative reaction that is confirmation of a gluten sensitivity of some sort (not necessarily celiac).
.......

:yeahthat: This is how I know I am not gluten intolerant or have Celiac, both of which I have tested negative for.

When I was 27 and I started having issues with IBS w/constipation and a study my doctor had given me said that IBS w/c. was better for patients who avoided wheat so I stopped eating wheat, espec. bread and pasta and was able to do it for 18 months, but I still had some slip ups and sometimes the slip ups wouldn't bother me at all. When I was pregnant with DD1 I added it back it and I had no issues. Every so often I know if I eat a sandwich every day for lunch then by the end of the week I get all nasty and bloated, but in most cases a frozen lunch entree with pasta or a small side of whole grain high fiber pasta with some chicken or steak or a flour tortilla isn't going to wreak havoc with my system like a bunch of white or double fiber wheat bread will multiple days in a row, but I do still do my best to avoid them because I know it is healthier not to eat so many wheat based grains. I still really try my best though to only have bread if it is sourdough and I do try to limit it to once weekly.

[wellyes]

Yeah, I know in my head that if I'm having that kind of reaction it's obviously a problem for me. It just really sucks at the moment since I haven't yet seen much by way of benefit so my ROI (return on investment thanks to DH) isn't so great right now. But I expect it will be in time.

Don't think of it as "you'll feel awesome without wheat", think of it as avoiding years of unsettling, muddled medical symptoms. My MIL was undiagnosed celiac for decades. The health issues she had during that time, and cumulatively now, are really not something I'd wish on anyone.

[sidmand]

Thanks everyone. It actually makes it easier to avoid because the stomach pains and exhaustion are not anything I want to do on purpose!!! And there are enough other choices that I don't feel deprived. The journal is a great idea. I do think I feel better in general. And I have had diabetes for 15 years so it's not surprising to me that I have an issue with gluten/wheat. I am a bit surprised at all it may be affecting though since I figured since I didn't have too many GI issues, it wasn't very severe.