As A Celiac, Do You Notice Shorter Or Longer Recovery From Stomach Flu?

[laurielikesthis]

Hi All-

I am currently recovering from my first stomach flu post diagnosis and eliminating gluten (~7 mo post dx); having all this free time has me wondering:

Have you noticed a difference in your stomach flu recovery times pre and post gluten-free?


Anecdotally, I seem to be having a harder time recovering from this virus than anything I experienced when I was eating gluten.  It could very well just be the viciousness of this particular bug, but I am 10 days out from the onset of symptoms and am still feeling crummy (occasional nauseousness, little to no appetite  flare in constipation).  

Does anyone else have an experience they would like to share?  Do celiacs have longer recovery times as a rule of thumb?

Thanks and best to you all
-Laurie

[GottaSki]

Welcome Laurie!

The answer is we are all different and recovering from illness or accidental glutenings vary greatly.

Are you sure you had the flu and did not accidentally ingest gluten?

I ask because I had many flu bugs over the years - most never had a fever with them - turns out it was celiac, not the flu.

Hope you are feeling much better soon. Drink lots of water and double check for sources of possible contamination.

[pricklypear1971]

I had one in the fall and it took forever to recover. I got to feeling "normal" after a month but it took 3 months to be able to start taking my vitamins/supplaments again. My gi tract just couldn't take it.

I wasnt the only one. My son had the bug and our recoveries were about the same. He doesn't take big supplament doses, though.

Sometimes it takes forever, other times I feel like I don't get stomach bugs others get. I notice the problem taking supplaments more than anything (I'm still mega dosing d and iron).

[nvsmom]

I've always been slow to recover from a virus prior to diagnosis but I always attributed that to not having a spleem. Since I've gone gluten-free, I *think* I've had one flu for about a month and a half (not totally unusual) but it was much milder than the norm.

[Chiana]

The one thing I've learned about the flu is that it is not predictable in any way.  It doesn't seem to correlate with anything I can think of.  I know 'healthy' people that get the flu and feel like junk for a month, and I've taken care of / lived with them and not gotten the flu, even pre-diagnosis.  I've also had flus that knocked me out for a month when everyone else has long since recovered.  I think it's a really complicated issue, with a lot of factors. 

I seem to get sicker if I get the flu while on my period or under stress from work.  The quality of my diet and the amount of sleep I get matters as well.  Also, the first year after diagnosis, any little thing would knock me down because my body was focused on healing.  If I *were* to try to generalize, I would say I have a better immune system, on average, than a non-celiac, both before and after the diet.  The only time that was not the case was the year before and the year after diagnosis.  (Obviously, the year before I was really hurting from the celiac, and the year after I was healing like mad.)

[laurielikesthis]

Thank you all for your replies!

Lisa- The bug made it's way through our family, so it wasn't gluten in this instance (unless it was a double whammy), though I felt surprisingly similar to being "glutened" (except I didn't have a headache and the vomiting was far more extreme).


I think I have been feeling so much better in general since eliminating gluten that I was unprepared for the severity of being sick again, if that makes any sense.

Chiana- interesting that you mentioned about being hit harder if you have something else going on like your period.  I had that as a factor as well... talk about cruel and unusual! 

[GottaSki]

Thank you all for your replies!

I think I have been feeling so much better in general since eliminating gluten that I was unprepared for the severity of being sick again, if that makes any sense.

 

 

yep...completely "get" that

 

Feel better soon!

[adelajoy]

I've only been gluten-free for almost a month now, and the Celiac probably only kicked in 6-12 months before that, so I don't have a lot of experience but...

 

As a child, if my siblings got a fever, I got a fever, chills, vomitting, and it lasted longer. If my boyfriend in highschool got a sore throat, I had a sore throat, runny nose, sneezes, and coughing for twice as long. I missed a lot of school with fevers and vomitting, and I promise it wasn't gluten-related! I had the worst immune system, and everybody knew it.

 

Over Christmas, before I was dx'ed, my husband got the flu, and it took him down for three days (He's usually a high-immune person), so I was terrified. I knew I stood no chance. I was sick for a day.

 

The last two weeks, while I've been gluten-free, every person in my office has gone around taking turns being sick for 3+ days. Like, fever, vomitting, chills, coughing, the whole works of a flu. After the third person called in sick, I spent an afternoon on my couch coughing and unable to breath well. By dinner, I felt better.

 

So, in my very short-lived experience, I've noticed that since the Celiacs kicked in, my immune system has been way way stronger and things everyone else gets don't touch me. However, I've been three times as sick as them for non-contagious reasons...

[anti-soprano]

 Also, the first year after diagnosis, any little thing would knock me down because my body was focused on healing.  If I *were* to try to generalize, I would say I have a better immune system, on average, than a non-celiac, both before and after the diet.  The only time that was not the case was the year before and the year after diagnosis.  (Obviously, the year before I was really hurting from the celiac, and the year after I was healing like mad.)

 

I was just trolling the forum because I have been down and out for 4 days with a UTI (something I have experienced before many times, but never with extreme fatigue).  I have been gluten free for 9 months and have been sick more often and more severely since going off gluten than I ever have been in my life.  My bout with the stomach bug in January (again- haven't experience this in years) lasted a week when others who caught it around me were better in a day or two- even the kids.  I have been on antibiotics three times in the past two months.  The year before going off gluten, I too was a miserable mess.  So many things were going wrong at the same time!  But in the years before that I escaped even the common cold for many winters at a time. I am beyond frustrated at this point with my body.  It is so good to know that I just need to give it a little more time for my body to heal.  I can be more patient with myself if there really is an end in sight!

 

I hate feeling weak and I was hoping that my life wouldn't continue on this route indefinitely.  Thank you for your post and the ray of hope you've given me today!