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Are Headaches And Slight Nausea Symptoms Of Celiac?


jenn42

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jenn42 Explorer

My daughter started a couple months ago with headaches and light nausea only in the mornings. I had her tested for Celiac and it came back positive. I put her on somewhat of a gluten-free diet for 12 days and she lost 4 pounds. We went to see a GI yesterday and she's having an endoscopy and biopsy done next week. GI put her back on gluten and she's had no headaches or nausea today. She said she feels really good, better than when she was on gluten-free. This is so confusing. Could the blood tests be wrong?


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mushroom Proficient

Tlhere are very few false positives on the blood testing. Her feeling better back on gluten could be entirely due to her having been going through a withdrawal from gluten, which acts like an opioid on the body; this withdrawal generally lasts for 2-3 weeks. Some people seem to react immediately to gluten reintroduction, for others it takes the antibodies a while to build up again and create havoc. I wouldn't find your daughter's reactions unusual. See how she feels at the end of the week. I just hope the 12 days gluten free has not affected the outcome of the biopsy. While full healing of the intestine takes a while, healing does start immediately upon withdrawal of gluten.

Headaches/migraine are definite neurological symptoms of celiac. Some people I believe get nausea along with headaches, but I am not a headache sufferer so not a good person to ask. Nausea is my principle symptom now when I am glutened, but this is a GI symptom for me.

Katrala Contributor

If she has celiac, the "healing" won't be overnight.

If the blood work was positive, it's likely she has celiac. Unfortunately, "somewhat" gluten-free isn't an option. It sucks, but "100% gluten-free" is the only solution.

heidi g. Contributor

I get migraines and bad headaches either early in the morning or late at night. Im always nauseous. It could also be from not absorbing nutrients properly from damaged villi. That is my main cause of my headaches.

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