Hayfever And The Gluten Free Diet

[KCG91]

When I read up on celiac disease following my diagnosis I noticed a lot of anecdotes about people who do not have celiac disease adopting a gluten-free diet in support of a relative or partner (or just for other health reasons) and noticing an improvement with their hayfever.

 

My boyfriend suffers terrible hayfever, medicine doesn't touch it, and the gluten-free diet is something he's considering to try and tackle it (He doesn't have celiac disease). Does anyone have any experience of this or know where I could find more info about it? Many thanks!

[KCG91]

(Yes, it was when hayfever cropped up in one of our first conversations of the New Year that he decided to have another good go at beating it...) 

[answerseeker]

I have celiac, asthma , and very bad hay fever. It's chronic and year round. I have been gluten-free for almost 6 months but have not seen any improvement at all :-(

[june27]

Before I was diagnosed, I started seeing a naturopathic doctor (after 20+ years of allergies, including 5+ years of allergy shots).  Before making any changes, she did a blood test to see if I had any food sensitivities.  Gluten and wheat were off the charts, so we did a Celiac panel - came back positive.  In addition to giving up gluten, I also had to give up dairy, yeast, citrus, and oats.  I did this for 2 months, and then started to challenge the different foods.  Next month will be my 2 year mark.

 

I have been able to add back some dairy - goat cheese and hard cheese only.  No milk/butter/soft cheese - they all cause my allergies to be much worse.  I can go from feeling fine to having severe post nasal drip with just a few days of having a little bit of cheese on a salad.  In the past few months, I have cheated a little on the milk/butter front - mostly when I am out and don't want to deal with it.  I should try to get back on the wagon though

 

The other thing that sometimes causes problems if I have too much of it is yeast.  I was eating a lot of kombucha and kefir (coconut milk variety), and my sinuses started acting up. So I gave it up for another few months, and did another challenge and it was OK.  

 

I am still on all my allergy meds (though I am hoping to get off them someday), but now they are at least under control.  It used to be that I would be on all of the meds, and still have more symptoms that most people.

 

If you can't get the blood test, you could always try an elimination diet for a couple of months, and start adding foods back one at a time.  I think I usually did a challenge for 3-5 days - except for dairy.  Dairy i did for 5-7 days and did it incrementallly (hard cheese, then soft cheese, etc).  

 

Good luck!

[TessTess]

I don't know if gluten-free has helped also, but cutting out milk and refined foods and all cane sugar products worked for me. I did this last May and have only had trivial bits of hey fever since. I have some dairy now but will cut it out again if needed when the change of season hits.

[amandalesswheat]

 

When I read up on celiac disease following my diagnosis I noticed a lot of anecdotes about people who do not have celiac disease adopting a gluten-free diet in support of a relative or partner (or just for other health reasons) and noticing an improvement with their hayfever.

 

My boyfriend suffers terrible hayfever, medicine doesn't touch it, and the gluten-free diet is something he's considering to try and tackle it (He doesn't have celiac disease). Does anyone have any experience of this or know where I could find more info about it? Many thanks!

 

 

Maybe he has allergy to wheat instead of celiac. I do and it is a symptom of wheat allergy. I didn't know that food allergies can cause respiratory symptoms until I was diagnosed with wheat allergy at 28 years old. So maybe a food allergy test would tell?