Is The Effort All Wasted?

[Nikki2777]

I'm trying to understand the science -- if I've been gluten-free for a month (diagnosed celiac) and I accidentally get glutened, am I back to Square One?  Was all that effort (and saying 'no') wasted?  Are my villi and gut back to where they used to be before I went gluten-free?

 

Or is it more a cumulative impact of repeated glutenings?

 

Thanks,

Nikki

[mushroom]

No, you are not back at Square One; you have suffered a minor setback, which happens to us all at some point.  While it doesn't help it will not matter that much in the overall scheme of things.  Repeated glutenings, however, will have a definite impact because they keep that antibody production active and increase the damage..

[tarnalberry]

Not back to square one at all - think of it as four steps forward and two steps back.

[nvsmom]

I think of it like digging in sandboxes. When a hole is dug, it's like our villi being flattened down. When we heal, it is the equivalent of slowly re-filling the hole with a small shovel - it takes time but it's getting fixed.  Everytime we gluten ourselves I think of it like a few shovel-fulls being taken out again. if you accidently eat gluten, it will hollow out your hole a bit and slow down the re-filling but it won't take you right back to a big hole in the sandbox that was dug out with many shovel scoops/glutenings.

 

I hope that made some sense.  LOL

[Nikki2777]

Thanks.  This is helpful.  I think I got glutened this last weekend, and I was miserable but at least don't feel like the end of the world.