Flare Ups

[brizzo]

Hey all, just wanted to get a poll on all my DH'ers out there. How long, after an accidental gluten ingestion, does it take for your DH to start flaring up?

[Franceen]

Usually it takes about 3 days - sometimes more. If I've been seriously glutened, I now get some digestive symptoms pretty immediately - but not always.

I've been gluten-free for about 2.5 years and the longer I'm gluten-free the more sensitive I get. Once I ate a real gluteny food (scrambled eggs at IHOP have pancake batter mixed in them) and got bad diarhea within a few hours. But generally I get mild digestive symptoms and the DH shows up about 3 days later and takes forever to go away.

[ravenwoodglass]

When I was first diagnosed I would start to erupt within an hour. Now they usually show up, in a very much smaller degree about 3 days after. I may be wrong but I think after the majority of the antibodies leave the skin the time from injestion to breakout becomes longer.

[RoseTapper]

I've been gluten-free for 4-1/2 years, but even the slightest contamination results in lesions within 30-60 minutes or so on my face, and I'll continue to break out in new DH every day until I have about a dozen, and they take a couple of months to completely disappear. I then develop blisters on the sole of my right foot by the next morning. If I've been TOTALLY glutened, I'll also break out on my buttocks and legs after about 12 hours.

[Lisa16]

Fast!

I got glutened from a hotel breakfast on my last day of vacay and during the plane trip home, less than 3-4 hours afterwards, blisters had already formed and popped. They can take over a week to heal completely.

BTW-- I read what you wrote on the other post about ingesting hair and skin products. All I can tell you is that for some people using gluten free products is incredibly important. I for one sing in the shower and I ALWAYS get shampoo in my mouth. Then there is run off from washing your face (I breath that in sometimes), not to mention reisdue from lotions, conditioners and the like. I think if people really knew how much of these products we accidentally ingest, we would all be more careful with what we use. Then there are studies that say we absorb something like 60% of whatever we put onto our skin into our systems. Then you have to consider absorbtion from mucus membranes and cuts and nicks from even shaving.

I think the jury is still out.

Your call Rizzo. Me? I'd rather be safe. We are the canaries in the coal mine.