Gluten Challenge

[VeggieGirl]

To start from the beginning, I was born intolerant to milk (casein, not lactose). The milk intolerance has 'improved' but I still can't tolerate more than some cheese per day (not complaining)...

A bit over a year ago I started having severe bloating, and pain every time I eat, (being a vegetarian I always have some form of wheat containing carbs in my meals). I eventually did a food intolerance test and as I had suspected, wheat was one of my many intolerances. I was told I should cut out wheat completely by my doctor and I did (as completely as I could, since sometimes traces are inevitable) and then started noticing the same effects with barley and rye... So I cut all gluten out of my diet. 

During this past year I've noticed that my symptoms have gotten much worse. I never purposely 'cheat', it's just not worth it. The slightest traces have been effecting me so badly lately, I could go days having the usual symptoms, and not tolerating any food (not even gluten free). So last month I went to a specialist who recommended the Celiac Screen (as well as Milk IgG since its basically the same test). His recommendation was to eat the amount of 1 - 3 slices of bread per day, for a minimum of 3-4 weeks, prior to the blood test and endoscopy. 

I've started my gluten challenge last Friday by eating nachos and cheese from a movie theatre which I knew would definitely contain traces. I spent Friday night till Saturday bloated and in pain, going to the bathroom every 10m. Not surprising. 

What did surprise me was that my symptoms changed completely when I started eating bigger potions, like a piece of bread. The pain I usually feel in my belly, I felt in my stomach and my stomach was bloated too (not just my belly). I was also having difficulty breathing, like someone was pushing on my chest or throat. I m still feeling this difficulty to breathe, although it worsens about 30m after I eat gluten, and gets better about 4 hrs later (although does not completely disappear). But what I found so strange is that my belly doesn't hurt 1/2 as much as it does when I ingest traces! and I'm not going to the bathroom that often either.

I feel tried and dizzy all the time which is usual for me when I eat gluten but the lack of the other symptoms and the addition of new symptoms are simply confusing me. It's been 4 days and my belly pain may be getting a bit worse but still not nearly as bad as it usually is with just traces... Any thoughts? 

[emma6]

when you say food intolerance test do you mean a food allergy test?

food allergy testing is a skin scratch test or IgE / RAST allergy blood test

where as food intolerance testing isn't very accurate, its popular with natropaths and alternative medicine but most doctors consider it to be questionable at best

i mean you could try doing the blood test hoping that your celiac your levels are still up but if it comes back negative it wouldn't be accurate so you should still try again after a gluten challenge.

you can also get a HLA gene test without doing a gluten challenge, this would not diagnose celiac disease it just indicates that you have a higher possibility of having celiac disease. but if it comes back negative that can be more helpful as i think only about 2% of people with celiac disease do not have the DQ2 or DQ8 gene.

this is from a book i just read, might be helpful.

 

 

[Jmg]

9 hours ago, VeggieGirl said:

I feel tried and dizzy all the time which is usual for me when I eat gluten but the lack of the other symptoms and the addition of new symptoms are simply confusing me. It's been 4 days and my belly pain may be getting a bit worse but still not nearly as bad as it usually is with just traces... Any thoughts? 

Hi VG and welcome

It's not unusual for people to react differently to gluten if they reintroduce it for a challenge. It also seems to often settle down after a few days as the body reacclimatises to gluten exposure. 

Keep a food diary and note what you eat, when and how you feel is my suggestion. It helped during my challenge and reading it after helped me with the diet changes I needed to make.  

Maybe eat the bread late on, may make it easier to function during the day?

[VeggieGirl]

Hey and thanks for your replies  

 

The test I had done was the food intolerance test not allergy - although I know it's known not to be accurate. I'm doing the gluten challenge so I can test for celiac through both blood test and biopsy, and although I have heard of the gene test I don't believe it's done in my country (Malta). - I will confirm this with my doctor though. But when I had asked about what tests are available he only mentioned the blood test + biopsy. 

As for my reactions to eating gluten, I'm also having crazy cravings ever since I started eating gluten! Yes I'm also trying to keep note of everything I eat but the problem is that I never know which reaction is connected to which food since i'm trying to eat as 'mixed' as possible - that is all forms of gluten, and not just sticking to ex. bread. 

 

Also, I'm not eating at all apart form the gluten. Not because I'm eating big gluten meals, but I don't feel like eating anything else. Yesterday all I ate was half a plate of barley soup in the morning and a few of those little croissants in the evening. I feel really weak and my emotions are starting running really high. I was crying yesterday evening for no real reason... These symptoms are a nightmare.  

[kareng]

21 hours ago, VeggieGirl said:

To start from the beginning, I was born intolerant to milk (casein, not lactose). The milk intolerance has 'improved' but I still can't tolerate more than some cheese per day (not complaining)...

A bit over a year ago I started having severe bloating, and pain every time I eat, (being a vegetarian I always have some form of wheat containing carbs in my meals). I eventually did a food intolerance test and as I had suspected, wheat was one of my many intolerances. I was told I should cut out wheat completely by my doctor and I did (as completely as I could, since sometimes traces are inevitable) and then started noticing the same effects with barley and rye... So I cut all gluten out of my diet. 

During this past year I've noticed that my symptoms have gotten much worse. I never purposely 'cheat', it's just not worth it. The slightest traces have been effecting me so badly lately, I could go days having the usual symptoms, and not tolerating any food (not even gluten free). So last month I went to a specialist who recommended the Celiac Screen (as well as Milk IgG since its basically the same test). His recommendation was to eat the amount of 1 - 3 slices of bread per day, for a minimum of 3-4 weeks, prior to the blood test and endoscopy. 

I've started my gluten challenge last Friday by eating nachos and cheese from a movie theatre which I knew would definitely contain traces. I spent Friday night till Saturday bloated and in pain, going to the bathroom every 10m. Not surprising. 

What did surprise me was that my symptoms changed completely when I started eating bigger potions, like a piece of bread. The pain I usually feel in my belly, I felt in my stomach and my stomach was bloated too (not just my belly). I was also having difficulty breathing, like someone was pushing on my chest or throat. I m still feeling this difficulty to breathe, although it worsens about 30m after I eat gluten, and gets better about 4 hrs later (although does not completely disappear). But what I found so strange is that my belly doesn't hurt 1/2 as much as it does when I ingest traces! and I'm not going to the bathroom that often either.

I feel tried and dizzy all the time which is usual for me when I eat gluten but the lack of the other symptoms and the addition of new symptoms are simply confusing me. It's been 4 days and my belly pain may be getting a bit worse but still not nearly as bad as it usually is with just traces... Any thoughts? 

The nachos should be gluten-free.  Obviously, there is a big chance of cross contamination, but it wouldn't be a big enough amount for a gluten challenge.   Eating cheese...which you say you have never been able to eat.... I wouldn't blame that reaction on the chance of a slight crumb of gluten.  

[VeggieGirl]

17 minutes ago, kareng said:

The nachos should be gluten-free.  Obviously, there is a big chance of cross contamination, but it wouldn't be a big enough amount for a gluten challenge.   Eating cheese...which you say you have never been able to eat.... I wouldn't blame that reaction on the chance of a slight crumb of gluten.  

Could be but I still think it was the gluten traces.. cheese never makes me so sick and the nachos were clearly not in a 'gluten-free friendly environment'. 

I've felt sick for 3 days, lots of bathroom intervals and other symptoms after eating 1 ferrero rocher a while ago when I first started my gluten free diet. I didn't think it would make me so sick, but after that experience i decided no more cheating! I've had other similar experiences with cross-contamination etc.